Happy new year Earth ---- From Dubai

  So .. next year if I'm home for new years I think I'll celebrate hourly for each time zone that cheers on the new year before me.
It's 3pm est in Windsor and I'm hangin with 2 million people in Dubai waiting for the "world's biggest baddest rockin" new years fireworks.
Dubai paid out more than $15 million (us dollars/55mDirhams) for fireworks that lit up the city.....for 6 minutes.WOW...OMG...
I hopped on the Metro - arrived 2 hours early. Met some new pals from Pakistan,

Cozzie is the guy in the middle - I understood his attempts at English enough to have a rich conversation about work, pay, politics, unions, and how to change the world...he wants you to know ....just because he's Pakistani.... he is not a terrorist. He was a very delightfully pleasant person to talk with. I probably nodded a few too many times with the others as they picked up a nod wasn't the best response to what yhey were saying ...but we had a blast attempting get to share stories

A few seconds before midnight the tallest building in da world glowed with lights ....then fireworks - the building Birj Khalifa - lit up with elaborate timed displays running up.and down its quarter mile high reach to the stars.

then fireworks lit up and boomed all around us - from a multitude if other launch points around the city...and the sky show was timed with the Birj

Show .to cheers from milions......and then ...6 minutes later the fun began. 2 million people wanted to go home after the fireworks were done. Chaos and pushing and shoving and many impolite body crushing moves pushed everyone in a tsunami of humans rolling towards the one gate to the Metro  station entrance. I was nervous ...but twice the size of most of the crowd - and..for 30 minutes -I was in the flow.... most of the revelers are probably still waiting their turn at the Metro turnstiles

My oh my what a mess . I'd do it again...

The clerk at the hotel warned me not to do this. He equated it to putting your life and limb at risk - but I did it...survived to talk about it...and even had the English speaking  pushing crowd roaring whilst greeting the new year thru the tiny gate ....and the cops let me thru the gate faster ....maybe for crowd control purposes---or to shut me up... this was one big fat vapor trail adventure, I'll tell ya.

Do Buy in Dubai

  After a solid 7 hour sleep I was up and ready to see this great place.  First adventure after a wild buffet breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express Dubai Airport was riding the Metro. There is a massive mass transit system here and I love riding the rails so I did.
The metro stop is a short walk from the hotel and a day pass is 22 Dirhams ($4.99) which worked great.
first stop Dubai Mall right next door to Birj Khalifa - the tallest building on earth and ground zero for the largest fireworks display on earth in a few hours.

 The giant mall was packed with every store imaginable and people of every racial,social, economic designation buying stuff. Retail therapy is a reference I heard many times today.
But I'm not a Dubai buyer - I like the experience.
So I found a tour bus at the mall. Over 1.5 million folks will be watching fireworks tonite downtown so tours all ramp down after 2 PM -as traffic will likely block most streets.  Mine started at 1:15 - almost the last one out.
   What an incredible city!  Modern, stylish, a blend of ancient tradition and futuristic vision. Oil money buys a lot here. .. and adds a lot to the accounts of the few at the top.  But it is booming.  Construction cranes everywhere and buildings in various states of completion from dirt holes to structures awaiting the ribbon cutting.
 ...And mosques.

Over 3000 of them in the city and more under construction - you can never have to many...
   Dubai invests it's oil money heavily in schools and infrastructure. The long term vision is to be all set up for when the oil runs out. Wow - they are doing a great job developing a hugely diverse economy and the investment is paying off....bigtime.
  After a couple hours touring I hopped off the bus at Emirates mall....the largest mall in the world...bigger than Dubai mall and piles more folks engaged in retail therapy. Emirates will soon open a new wing which is a mini city encased in mall. Streets, housing and all the fixins to ramp retail therapy to the next level. Emirates is so big it has indoor ski mountain.

Yep - let's go to the mall kids and go sking, or roll down the hill in a giant snow ball, or go pet the penguins -- 28 degree indoor environment open year round - u can rent ur parkas, gloves, skis and boots -  You can buy anything in Dubai!!!
More vapor trails - enroute....

Happy new year folks - my new year time starts at 2 PM your time.

Sleepless in Seat Aisle

  Boarding for Qatar Airways 702 at JFK was easy with the help of my new pal Elissa.
She greeted me and answer my many questions at the ticket counter and was there at the gate to send me off - with early boarding.... in an aisle seat. I am travelling my 21000 miles in 12 days with 4 big city stops lugging a small carry on wheely - board bag and a backpack. Early boarding means I get bin space.
My hope was to snag some sleep - as I have spent a few retiree hours sleeping in a chair to practice up for long haul vapor trailing.  Didn't work. My personal entertainment center showed me our position and lots of other flight data.  Coldest temp reading I saw was -80 F .. inside the cabin it was over +80 - too hot to sleep....so I watched movies, played games , got up and walked regularly (no swollen feet on tjis guy) hecked flight status, and rattled around in the occasional but bumpy turbulence.
12 sleepless hours in my aisle later, we arrived in Doha, right at sunset, grabbed my bags and headed to gate A8 for the next leg....an uneventful 48 minute hop to Dubai.
  Got up at 8:30 am (est) Dec 29 - -- and put my head down to sleep again 0:30 (Dubai time/3:30 est)
31 hours later..... I slept well .... dreaming of dancing with vapor trails.

Planes Trains and Automobiles

It's game time!
Left Windsor about 1:30 Dec 29 , 2014
Made it quickly to New Haven and the Metro North 2:25 to Grand Central Station
The family bid adieu as the train rolled out of the station

Got to Grand Central a bit past 4 and grabbed the airport shuttle on 41 st. The driver gave himself kudos for getting there in 40 minutes

Qatar Airways flight 702 to Doha takes off in 2 hours - my new favorite airline person is Elisa - took care of my ticket and boarding status at the counter and ran down to the gate to bid farewell to the travelers.

Back in 1973, when I cashed my first paycheck Sue and I flew to JFK for dinner at the big fancy airport here. You could actually walk around the circle of terminals and pick a spot to eat and watch the planes land. And we flew on a jet all the way back to Hartford ...in 20 minutes...

All adventures are relative...

I'll continue the posts as I vent the hot air in my head and make some new Vapor Trails

Prologue

Almost launch time for the bucket-list round-the-world trip - 21000 miles stopping over in 6 countries and hanging out in 4 of them over 12 days - Lots of time in airplanes making happy vapor trails.

Al and Buju are getting married part deux - the part une was in Manchester CT in August (incidentally, officiated by me), deux is in Kolkata India January 2-4 ( long weddings ) - sounded like a blast to be in on that so I'm going - on my way in and home figured I'd stop over a few places to see what it's like on the other side.

In 1991 I spent 2 weeks in Thailand but only did half the arc - this time its a whole circle heading east all the way around.

I'll have pix and stories all posted here. It's easier to review and catch up ( for all who are taking notes) in case you miss a chapter or two.

I'm on my way - Happy vapor trails to you...until we meet again