Dubai

I arrived at my hotel at 5 am, collapsed fully clothed on my bed, bags unpacked and woke up in a panic at 8 am with 20 minutes to spare to make a meeting downstairs for brekkie. After sleep walking through a rather leisurely back and forth about various this and that, I spent the day going from place to place in gridlocked traffic. Its hot though not the blast furnace of last June. I went through 2 shirts and have finally arrived back at the hotel at 9 pm.
A shower then out for dinner for more back and forth circular discussions about stuff that may or may not happen.
Though everything feels like it takes a long time, business gets done here quicker than you'd think.
92% of the population in Dubai are expats.
Almost nobody I do business with here is Arabic, they're; Indian's ( number 1), Persians, Brits and the occasional yank.
The locals OWN everything.
We infidels are the hired help.
Some of these folks are chavs, but most are OK .
Going where the expats go for a drink and a bite can be depressing. They live like they're still at home and as a consequence Dubai has an odd unreal feel to it.
Tonight I'm supposed to go out to see a Congolese band in a labyrinth bar, tucked in the bowels of a dodgy hotel in Bur Dubai. I've been there before and it serves as an interesting counterpoint to the glitz "all icing, no cake" vibe here.

"Time Out Dubai" , describes it this way:

Housed deep within the intestinal confines of the Rush Inn Hotel, Club Africana is undoubtedly one of Dubai's best-kept secrets. The house band is a 12-strong Congolese collective who lay on free-form African rapping, harmonising and soliloquising to heart-stopping effect. Visit at 1am and the bar is invariably packed, a throbbing sinew of electrified energy; or pop along earlier in the evening, at around 11pm, for a couple of hours of laid-back ethnic tunes. It's like the Buena Vista Social Club, only African and in Dubai.

Well not really, but it's more interesting than watching expats dribbling beer as they fight off the Russian hookers while watching the rugby and football. If I can keep my eyes open, I'll give it a visit.

Till later, love to all

T