Dubai

It’s 11pm and I just got off an 8 hour flight from Paris, which was preceded by a four hour layover in Charles de Gaulle, which was preceded by a seven hour overnight flight which gave new meaning to the term red eye.

I’m checking into the Ramada for a 10 hour respite from the journey before the final leg. I’m tired but not too on-guard as this is just a lay over on my way to Afghanistan where I constantly need to be aware of my surroundings, and those in it, lest I commit some gender specific faux pas or create unnecessary risk for myself.

My male colleague is checking in next to me and I hear the desk clerk offer him something complimentary. My desk clerk offers me nothing. I ask and am begrudgingly given a card for a free drink in the bar – but he tells me not to go alone. Now I am confused (and tired) and I wonder if he thinks I have an alternate career, or if he thinks the hotel is not secure, or if I have completely mis-judged the modernity of Dubai. Any way, I am a little concerned.

In my room I flip through the hotel services booklet. Oooh, they offer massages. But then I read the description – ‘no inappropriate behavior will be tolerated and all such behavior must be reported’. Maybe I’m in the wrong Ramada?