Dubai!

So I made it to Dubai this morning at 5:30 am. It was quite a hassle to get a visa, the man at the desk thought I didn't look much like my photo and asked me if my passport was really my own!

Anyways, quite a culture shock here! The first people I saw at the Dubai airport are either tourists or other funny people sleeping on chairs and men wearing the traditional white gowns and head scarfs. I did detect a trend though, some men wear there scarf to the left as girls who wear their hair to the left, some to the right and some all the way to the back (hard to explain without the hand movements!). As you can see on the photo's it is a pretty rich country and my Pakistani taxi driver (who took me on a 2-hour tour for only 100 Durham, 15 Euro) told me everything is basically built on sand. One of the towers on my pics is the highest building in Dubai and called the 8th wonder of the earth. We also drove past the King's Palace (Sheikh Mohammed's home, king of Dubai and Prime Minister of UAE) where they feed the birds at 5 pm so I got to see the most beautiful peacocks!
I have never seen so many luxurious hotels, office buildings and residential towers in my life (maybe Manhattan). But I also got to see the creek. Some parts of the creek are set apart by UNESCO to create wildlife there. I wonder if the birds, that are supposed to come and live there are also man-made...
Apparently over 80% of the Dubai population is foreign (according to my taxi driver). People from all over the world, whether already rich or hoping to become rich and see their dreams come true, come to Dubai to make their fortune. This gives Dubai a culturally diverse image. Both the Western oil people in their HUGE SUVs and yellow hummers and my taxi driver who left his family three years ago in Pakistan in order to provide them with a better life are examples.

The place where I'm staying at is next to a mosque. After living next to one on the West Bank I never thought I would like hearing their chanting again, but the singing actually gives me a homey feeling!

Anyways, the long shirt, pants, coat and scarf lie ready for me. Tomorrow at 5 am local time I will leave for the Dubai airport where my flight for Kabul leaves at 7:30 am. As I already wrote before, I happen to arrive on possibly one of the worst days to arrive: Afghan Day of Revolution.

I will keep you updated!