12-19-09

I lost a day, I lost my bags I feel very sad.
Waiting in the lobby of this hotel, I just now noticed how many people are employed here. I must have seen at least a dozen people working at 3:30 in the morning. The labor must be super cheap.
Dubai is really interesting, my hotel is in a crumby part of town and all I seemed to see were Indian men. Very few women and they all seem to be Philippino. One guy I am with bought a cell phone, so that he can make calls when he in on base with sim cards that locals sell, when he turned the phone on it was in Arabic. He bought if from a pair of Pilipino girls selling them from purses. When we went back to the hotel no one working there spoke Arabic so he couldn’t get it switched over to English.
The other thing I don’t see is ice. I have been to two fast food places with the other guys and their sodas didn’t come with ice. Then we went to a starbucks so I could get an iced mocha and they only had hot drinks. I told the guy it was 85 I didn’t want a hot coffee and said “sorry sir” and that was that, he didn’t know who had cold coffee.
I went back to the hotel and headed to the bar, it was about 10 pm. I drank beers with the guys I am going to Bahgram with until about 1am. I had to leave for the airport at 4am so I went up to my room and got on the internet and sent some e-mails, took a shower and then a nap. I hadn’t meant to nap so I woke up scared that I had missed my plane.