Jet lag

The flight was long but uneventful. I traveled with the Project Manager and the Project Leader who both have enough airline miles to get access to the lounges, which makes the trip a little nicer. I have traveled enough to have been in a few lounges, but infrequently enough that it's still a treat. We arrived, we drove for an hour or so to the hotel and I went to bed. Oh, first, I tried to phone UberGeek, but it turns out the company calling card doesn't work in the UAE. I had to settle for a quick email.

Apparently there is a big conference in Abu Dhabi this week, so all the hotels are booked. So we are staying at a resort closer to Dubai. Palm Tree Court My room has a view of the sea, which I caught a glimpse of just after sunrise this morning as I was on my way to breakfast. This is where they are building one of the new palm tree shaped island resorts, it's kind of cool to see that. There's also a swim up bar, but so far the pool has not been open when I've been on the premisis.

We started the day by driving into Abu Dhabi to my company's local office to meet up with other people and take a van out to the warehouse where I'll be working for the next few weeks. I always hate that kind of thing because nobody is ever ready. Of course, we started to leave the hotel at 7:30, and it was noon before we actually got the warehouse. Then because of more waiting for people, we didn't get back to the hotel until after 8pm. And this was supposed to be a short day due to jet lag.

I don't seem to be suffering too much from jet lag. I slept 11pm right through to when the alarm went off at 6am. I am very tired after a 12+ hour work day, though (even sitting around waiting is tiring when you missed a day of sleep!)

My first impressions of the UAE is that it's not as glossy as I expected. There is construction everywhere which creates a certain amount of dirt. There are a lot of cool looking buildings going up, and a new rail line. I had a moment of trying to figure out what the big event is they are building up for (my last oversees trip was to China, 3 months before the Olympics). But a lot of the older stuff is also crumbling, which I expect in the industrial warehouse area, but not in the downtown core.

The taxi rides were kind of funny. They all have regulators so that an alarm sounds when you are going over the 120kmph speed limit. So we are cruising along, with the alarm going, while everyone else on the road is whipping past us! At one point, I wished the driver would speed up so we wouldn't have to listen to the alarm as long. That's probably not the intended effect :P

So I am back in my room, it's too dark to enjoy the resort, so I am going to bed. We get to do the same thing tomorrow (although we get to go straight to the warehouse rather than into downtown, which should save us a few hours.)