United States airlines are awful. This was the fifth Air Astana flight we’ve taken. As far as I know, Air Astana isn’t considered a particularly high-end, luxury end line. Nevertheless, the services we received wiped the floor with what we’ve come to expect in the USA. First, we were fed. And we were fed pretty well (breakfast choice of porridge, omelet, or fritatta). Yes, it was an international flight, but it was a four hour international flight. Ask the New York to LA passengers–or better yet, Honolul to New York passengers–if they get hungry on their 6 and 12 hour domestic flights. Second, our leg room was noticeably more spacious. Finally, we were given things. Cindy was quite giddy with her goody pouch of headphones, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a sleep mask. But that’s nothing compared to what the little kids on the flight received. When I looked up, I saw an Air Astana stewardess walking around with a big bag full of TEDDY BEARS. Each little kid got a teddy bear to fly with.

We landed in Dubai around noon. This is the first place where we will be staying in an Airbnb. Our host, Haroon, actually lives in Sharjah, the Emirate directly to the north to Dubai. He greeted us warmly in his flat and offered to show us around Sharjah. Unsurprisingly, everything in UAE is new and shiny. Haroon is a Pakistani migrant who works in construction. His company is responsible for some of the construction he showed us, such as mosques and a large university campus in Sharjah.

From Sharjah, Haroon took us to Dubai, specifically the Dubai mall. It’s basically the crown jewel of capitalism and commercialism. Inside the mall is, at least, an ice rink and an enormous aquarium. When I say aquarium, I don’t mean a place where you walk in and there are tanks of tropical fish and maybe some large ones for large fish. I mean ONE BIG TANK in the middle of the mall with manta rays twice the size of humans. It’s so large that the fish are fed by two divers who enter during feeding time.

Wow

The mall is also right next to the Burj Khalia, aka the tallest building in the world. Cindy and I took the required pictures, courtesy of Haroon.

Haroon had to leave to be with his cousin, which left Cindy and I alone to wander in the mall. We ate some overpriced conveyor belt sushi and took the bus back to Sharjah. It was evening, and Haroon lives right along the Sharjah corniche, basically a cove. It’s a lovely area in the twilight (above). For dinner, we headed to a neighboring Lebanese restaurant and stuffed our faces with hummus, baba ganooj, falfael, and chicken livers.