On May 10th, 2005 I left Victoria for Dubai, United Arab Emirates - exactly the other side of the world, a 12-hour time-zone difference from Victoria, and an approximately 30-hour trip from door-to-door.
I first took the Pacific Coach Lines bus onto the BC Ferry from Downtown Victoria to Vancouver International Airport. After the 1.5-hour ferry crossing, I caught an afternoon flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands - a city which I had particularly always wanted to see.
After a 9-hour flight with KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), I took the train into Downtown Amsterdam, approximately 20 minutes from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. I had 7 hours between flights, allowing me about 5 hours for a whirlwind tour of the city. Amsterdam is a very fascinating, densely populated, fashion-conscious, and historically and architecturally rich city, with a series of canals, tramlines, and bicycle lanes criss-crossing the city. These features, in addition to the city's relaxed policies on drugs and prostitution, made for a very interesting visit from a city planner's point of view.
I spent most of my time walking around the various neighbourhoods and parks taking photographs, which you can view by following the Photo Gallery link on the left. While Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands, I never met anyone who could not speak English, and easily found my way around. I finished off my whirlwind trip of the city by taking a one hour guided tour on one of Amsterdam's world famous canal boats.
The flight to Dubai was slightly shorter, at about 7 hours. A direct route between Amsterdam and Dubai would have taken us directly over Baghdad, Iraq - however the plane made an obvious detour around it - which we could see on the digital flight track map on the screen in front of us. Upon arrival, the first step was to wait in a very long line up at customs. Although Dubai is a city of only about 1.5 million, it boasts the largest and busiest airport in the Middle East � as it is strategically located, arguably, at the �centre of the world�. I got my "visit visa" easily enough, however when it came to scanning my suitcase in the x-ray machine, I was approached by security personnel asking me to open it, as guns were not allowed into the United Arab Emirates, they informed me. However, it just turned out to be my good ol� coffee mug with the �trigger� carabineer handle!
The company, Cansult, arranged for a car rental company to provide transportation to my hotel, which I was more than happy to get to and lay my head down on a pillow. The local time was just after midnight, making the 12 hour time change very easy to adjust to. For the next two weeks I would stay at the Golden Sands Hotel, a fully furnished hotel/apartment complex populated mainly by westerners, with 24-hour room service, a rooftop swimming pool, and of course, an all-you-can-eat buffet!
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