Sunrise Over Arabia

Apart from traffic delays on the way to Heathrow, the holiday  has started quite well; we flew Business Class with Qatar which made the overnight flight much more bearable, although the flight wasn’t long enough to really sleep well.  As they were serving breakfast we were able to watch the sunrise over the desert of Saudi Arabia which was quite lovely.  (Note to self; avoid Arab Meze Breakfast in future!)

This is the furthest East that Brett has ever been and he seems both excited by the prospect and a little nervous of it.  He mentioned previously that this is his first trip outside of the ‘Western World’, so I suppose some trepidation is to be expected; he knows it will be different but he’s not really sure how different or how he’ll respond to it.

Ping is also excited, he is less clear about why though.  It seems to hinge on the concept of ‘the Western World’ too; he says he gets this feeling when he goes anywhere in the East now, but not to places like Helsinki, even though he’s never been there either.  Perhaps the sense of the exotic, the unknown?  I’ll have to see if I can tease it out of him as the trip progresses.  He also mentions his enjoyment of travelling with friends, which was nice.

As for me, I am not yet excited but I am starting to feel that I’m on holiday.  I think that the excitement will develop once we leave Colombo for the safari.  Tracking game in the jungle by Land Rover and sleeping under canvas will be enjoyable enough, but having a staff to serve your meals and make your bed while you do it will be quite the experience!  That, plus I probably need a few days to decompress and relax.

Have just chatted to Mark on Facebook and he tells me it’s looking like a lovely day in Colombo.  Chris is home too (last seen in Russia and Switzerland) so the timing has worked out well.

Ah, and now I’ve got a chat window with Chris C in Oregon – what a globe-spanning network of friends and relations I have.

Anyway, I’m going to publish this and go have a nosy out of the windows to get my glimpse of Qatar – although we have a longer layover on the return, so may save any exploration attempt until then.