Rod has left the building...well Saudi Arabia for a few days at least. Yes at the 11th hour HR came through with my passport and multi entry visa. Then on Wednesday morning I made a dash to the Emirates office to see if I could get a flight to Dubai. All going well and I am off to Dubai to essentially see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Not everybody's first reason for going to Dubai. But not everybody lives in a country with no cinemas.

So the adventure begins. It would seem a simple thing to go to an airport with a ticket, passport, visa and money and catch a plane. However this was Saudi Arabia and nothing is ever simple.

Hamja, my driver, picked me up dutifully at 3pm for the 30 min drive to Dhahran airport. I arrived on time according to the instructions by Emirates. But the UAE is a little more organised than Saudi. First I put my bags through the scanner to be told by the security man after the scanner that cabin baggage does not need scanning. But he did not give my overnight back a security sticker so I joined the line at check-in to find out it needs a security sticker to be put under the plane. Probably because no-one would carry a bomb into the cabin with them in case it hurt them when it exploded. Time now 4pm. Flight time 6pm.

Assuming customs would be slow I decided to join the queue immediately. At the boarding pass check the official did not give me a customs card. I had to leave my queue and return to get one. 4:05pm in customs queue. Flight time 6pm. You can see where this is heading.

I was directed by officials to the 1st line. I was standing next to 2 Americans in line 2. They were slowly moving forward while my line appeared not to be moving, however I thought of the supermarket and if I changed lines I was sure to disadvantage myself. As the 2 Americans disappeared through the customs counter 2 Germans were next to me. 4:15 pm.

At this point people in my line became aware that our line was definitely NOT moving. What was happening was the security was going to the back of the line collecting Saudi nationals and escorting them to the front of our line. As much as this was offensive, the real problem was they were being escorted to the front of our line only. 5pm no movement 6pm flight time.

The natives are getting restless, well actually the natives are having a great time in duty free, and the foreign passport holders are getting restless. According to my ticket, and the tickets of the many people around me, we needed to be at the gate at 5:15pm and we were still in a line that was not moving.

After 20+ Saudi passport holders were allowed to effectively not line up complaints were being made to the airport police who actually laughed at us as they directed more Saudi national to the front. 5:45pm our customs officer goes for pray and coffee, our line continues to not move.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not get to my flight. The guards don't care, a 7' tall South African just pushed into the other line causing an argument with the people in that line. 6pm I assume somewhere in the departure area my name along with 50% of the other passengers is being asked to board. I think 'they can not have the plane leave with my bags as this is a security risk.....but this is also Saudi' so I don't hold my breath. At least my bag will spend the weekend in Dubai. 6:15pm

Every other queue is shorter than mine so I stroll over thinking that my plane has left but I may be able to get another flight. At least I will get my visa activated. 6:20pm I am through customs and join the second loooooong line for security check of my cabin bag. Apparently the Emirates flight has not left because too many passengers are not on the plane. I am rushed through the check and I made the detector gate buzz but as nobody stopped me I ran for the plane with my AK47 down my pants (trousers).6:30pm

I am on my flight Whoo hoo relaxing weekend..... And it is so far.

Great flight, I slept until the wheels hit the tarmac. Caught a taxi to the Dubai Intercontinental which I got a really good deal at because of Ramadan. My room on the tenth floor is bigger than my apartment in Saudi. I have a king size bed and a huge bath looking across the Dubai skyline. Just as I settle I noticed fireworks going off over Dubai Creek, Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Dubai, was opening the new railway. But the room was brilliant, the bath so relaxing while I watched the fireworks and the goose down pillow soft.

This morning I had breakfast in the Bistro Madeleine. It is the only restaurant open during daylight hours because of Ramadan. But it is a French cafe and breakfast was the nicest coffee, croissants, and a view across the marina. French music playing in the background added to the pleasure.

Next step, off to the Spa for a 'treatment'. The Spa has a 40% off Ramadan special so the 'Men's de-stress package' seemed appropriate. Arrive in the Spa through a tunnel of blue and silver threads of light reaching the floor. Relax with a fresh apple juice before being taken to a private therapy room. A full body mint and almond scrub followed by a full body massage and facial. It was soooo relaxing. I had never had a facial so that was a new experience.

I forgot to mention the pool this morning. It is an oasis type pool with palm trees growing out from the middle of the water. But the biggest surprise and this nearly made me panic and took some getting use to, I was cruising along towards the glass wall at the end of the pool overlooking Dubai Creek. What I did not realise was the entire end of the pool was built out over the court yard below and the bottom of the pool was also glass. Imagine my surprise as I swam off the end of the pool out into mid air looking down at the outside court yard 5 stories below.

Lunch was back in the French cafe with a perfect brie sandwich. The cheese was just on the verge of pouring out of the bread, but not quite. The only detractor from lunch was a very over weight Brit talking to and equally over weight American at the next table about the causes of the twin Towers attack. They concede that the western world should do more to understand the Muslim world, and the First world Greed was a contributor. They could not however see the irony in the size of their meal portions in relation to the size of their backsides hanging off all side of their chairs.

After lunch I caught a taxi to Shindagha Waterfront to the heritage Village. It is what little remains of the first buildings of Dubai before the discovery of oil and the tourist development. It has been recently preserved and apparently at night the eateries come alive. It was quite deserted during the day, but interesting to walk around. At the waterfront I caught a Dhow boat down the Creek to the commercial port and a taxi back to the hotel.

For dinner I went to the Itfar feast in the Ramadan tent. This is the breaking the fast. I felt like Shirley Valentine. It really bothered people that I was on my own. People stare a lot. But the food was fantastic, dates, nuts and fruit for entree, rice, samosa and dips for main and melon and coffee after. But I can see why the emergency department is flooded with abdo pains at 9pm every night. 14 hours fasting followed by a gorging of food is not the best.

Tomorrow I am going to see Harry Potter and will also maybe go to the indoor snow skiing place. It has to be seen to be believed. Perhaps the gold souk as my flight is 10pm, and I expect UAE customs to be efficient I shall not need to be at the airport before 7pm.

Sorry there are no photos yet, but I forgot to bring the cables or pen drive to down load the camera so the album will have to wait until I get back to Saudi.