A few items of interest…

We flew over the western end of the Himalayas. Since it was day time, nice weather, and the plane had a camera view on its belly, I was able to capture these interesting (to me) views:

Overall, the flight was pretty smooth, but we hit a couple of pockets of light to moderate turbulence. The last bit—about two hours out of Tokyo–made Emerson air sick (a first… though not unheard of for her on a plane or boat). I’ve been there, and I felt bad for her. But, she’s a trooper.

The food was exceptionally good for Economy class on this flight, especially the breakfast. Unfortunately, due to her illness, Emerson skipped the dinner (as did I out of solidarity, I suppose). So, she and I ended up eating (surprisingly good) Caesar salads from a 7-11 in the middle of night after checking into our hotel.

Immigration, baggage claim, customs, getting cash from the ATM, grabbing a taxi, and checking into the hotel were all pretty standard fare and done easily and efficiently. My sense was that we are off to a good start…

It’s like the Rolls-Royce of planes.

And Emirates is no slouch of an airline either — everyone was impressed by the quality of their cabin, inflight entertainment, food/beverage offerings, and level of service.

We departed from our hotel at 7:30am for our 11:30am flight. We arrived in Dubai on time around 8:30pm local time.

Immigration was a little bit of a zoo due to disorganized queues, but we still managed to get through before our baggage arrived. We also successfully picked up our car at Hertz and drove to our hotel, the Marriott Dubai Harbor Hotel and Suites, where we have a 3 bedroom / 3.5 bath suite with balconies overlooking the Palm Jumeirah and the Persian Gulf (all for an insanely cheap rate of <$250 per night):

As seems to be our custom here upon arrival in Dubai, we usually find ourselves eating out rather late at some fairly typical American chain. This trip’s winner: P.F. Chang’s (which I have to admit tasted “so good” to all of us).