On the outward flight, I was allocated an aisle seat next to two young men. An older man sitting in front of us was wearing a tallit and was putting on tefillin. When he had finished praying, the man next to me asked to borrow his tefillin and even his black kippah. The man in front of us passed him both and then put a baseball cap on his head to replace the kippah. The young man next to me proceeded to put on the kippah and tefillin and then prayed, returning both after his prayers. It was so surprising, as he had seemed so secular!  Only on a flight going to Dubai!!!!

My daughter’s apartment is at the end of the line of the biggest Metro train line in the world that has no drivers and we went back in the rush hour. There is a separate carriage for women and children. The largest population is from India; the announcements were in Arabic and English and the journey took over an hour. Few people live at the ex-Expo 2020 site – there is one enormous car park that is yet to be developed. Their residence buildings are mostly occupied by  teachers, many also  ex-Russians and have someone at the entrance (concierge) to register any visitors.  It is government-owned, very modern and spacious, and they have a private cleaner 3 times a week, from the only agency that can work there – it is illegal to employ anyone else. Someone was cleaning cars in the parking lot as well.

The Rove Expo hotel where we stayed was nearby – a huge hotel and reasonably priced because of its position far from downtown, the business areas, and the huge Malls (including one of the largest in the world). They had a winter festival at the Expo Center (with Christmas themes) so there were a few more very smart people staying at our hotel. The service everywhere was with a smile – the receptionist spoke perfect English and said happily, “You’re from Israel! – I’m from Kenya!”.  The picture above reception, on the walls of the Malls, and many other places, were of the 3 royal Emiratis who rule Dubai.  There is a different one in Abu Dhabi – the other main Emirate 100 miles away.

Our daughter drove us to Abu Dhabi to see the beautifully designed Abrahamic Center, which has a church, mosque, and synagogue standing side by side. We had a guide who explained the architectural similarities and differences. The women were given a scarf to cover their hair in the Mosque and we had been warned previously that women had to wear long skirts to cover their ankles. We saw photos of the 2019 ceremony when Pope Francis and the Emiratis signed a “Foundation Stone” to promote relations between the three Abrahamic faiths, but there was no Jewish representative.  Various excuses were given – e.g. no Jewish leader could be found; it was the Pope’s visit and they didn’t want to confuse it by including a Jew!   After the tour we happened to meet  the Rabbi (Jeff Berger) who appealed for us to come and stay for Shabbat – they have a Shabbat service but only sometimes get a minyan. The Emirate pays for the kosher catering for festival meals, participants are not allowed to donate. Our daughter went there for Succot and said it was great.

The main roads in Dubai have 8 to 10 lanes and on the way to Abu Dhabi, one road has a minimum speed limit of 120 km/hr. If you go under the minimum the speed cameras ensure that you are automatically fined – as our daughter discovered when she went the first time. They use the car a lot and have just bought another – a 7 seater in time to take us all together and (e.g., ) for driving through on desert roads in Oman on a 4-day trek. Not my idea of fun.! Most of the year you can’t walk outside because of the extreme heat!

There are 6 kosher restaurants in Dubai. The first was Le Fournil – a French bakery near the Marina, just around the corner from the only outdoor pedestrianized area/cycle lane in Dubai. We walked past some fabulous yachts on the Marina. The second was Sababa – a food takeaway in one of the malls, which we had difficulty finding as it didn’t have its name displayed – instead it said Kingston 21. The 3rd was an Israeli-style restaurant, amazingly called Cafe Bibi. Ethiopian Israelis were eating there. We went next to the Dubai Mall – the largest mall in the world, very near the Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building. Inside was a full-sized ice rink, a waterfall, and “Chinatown”. Our grandchildren went to the kid zone, which contained rollercoasters and a ride with the VR glasses that took you to the top of the Burj Khalifa and dropped you down.

We got a good view of all the fabulous buildings on our metro ride back to the airport. Dubai is the largest airport in the world. We flew Israir as the El Al flights were either full or went at the wrong time. The israir flight took four and a half hours to get home, but no information (in English at least) to explain why. It only took three and a half hours to get there. Israir let us down on the outward journey – they lost our pre-allocated seats and we were at opposite ends of the plane. Next time (if there is a next time) we will go with El Al.