The End of the Adventure

Now you’ve at least heard some of the nightmare of the month Bob had, I would like to conclude our Dubai journal from a more positive side. While Safi Airways was working on imploding, we kept having visitors, which was great for me. I’ve gotten to be a pretty good tour guide by now.

After RD left, we had a visit from Bob’s brother and his friend R, who was a delightful houseguest and a very good sport in our 1-star accommodations. Among the highlights of their visit was our trip to the souk in Sharjah to purchase rugs. When we got to my favorite rug vendor, the 18-year-old son was the only one there. He quickly realized this was a major shopping expedition and called in the manager from another store, who also brought more rugs with him. Eventually they called the father/owner, Abdullah, to come in and bring more rugs with him. After about three hours and several cups of tea, we all finally agreed on our rugs and haggled over their cost.

As we were about to leave, Abdullah, who speaks little English, invited us to lunch. Of course, we didn’t know if we were going to his home, to the quickie café at the souk, or where. We ended up at a very local Lebanese restaurant. What an experience! It’s men only downstairs, families upstairs. Well, when Abdullah walked in with three Americans, two being female, all eyes were on us and the jaws were dropping. When we went upstairs, people were sitting on the floor eating with their fingers, as is their custom. We did get to sit at the one solitary table. Abdullah had obviously called ahead that he was bringing guests, and our lunch started with soup, then a salad, and then a fish and rice course. Our only implement was the soup spoon, which I kept a firm hold on. When the main course came, we had the ENTIRE fish, which they eat with their fingers. It was hamour, which is a very good local fish. Our group consisted of the three of us, Abdullah, his son, and the Indian manager, who has at least some English skills. In the course of conversation/sign language, we learned Abdullah is from Yemen and has three wives and 15 children.

Abdullah had good reason to take us to lunch after our numerous rug purchases. We purchased a couple of Iranian kilim rugs and a number of the Kashmiri silk rugs. I can’t speak for the others, but I love my rugs, and our lunch adventure was an experience of a lifetime. It was such a fun day, and poor Bob was spending his time having to deal with a lot of Safi unpleasantness.

I took G and R on the desert 4-wheel excursion, and again we had another fun adventure. G was chosen to be the “partner” of the belly dancer. He was a very good sport and turns out to have some talent we never knew about! Poor Bob didn’t get to do that either because of all the Safi issues that week. He did at least get to go with us to the Burj al Arab for one more very nice dinner on the beach. It is a very cool place but soooo expensive.

After G and R left, PW’s friend EE, who is an exchange helicopter pilot with the French navy, had a port call in Abu Dhabi. As we had never seen Abu Dhabi, which is beautiful, we drove down and picked E up to come stay with us. She was in serious need of “girl” time after being on a ship with a squadron full of guys, so I was happy to oblige. We went to the Aviation Club and worked out, went to the pool, and paid the spa a visit for a couple days. We also did the usual touring and made our way to the Indian textile area, where we both had some rather unique outfits made. It was fun!

Bob was able to go on the desert tour this time, and E gave the entire group a good lesson in sandboarding. RD, she put you to shame! We also had the opportunity to go with E to the Souk Madinot Jumeirah, which is a huge complex of souks, theaters, restaurants, and hotels built around canals. It’s obviously built for tourists, but it’s a very neat place.

Of course, we made another trip back to the souk for carpets. E bought an exquisite silk Afghan rug. I had not seen those before, and this one is just beautiful.

After E left, I came back to Atlanta to bring home some rugs, etc., and get some emergency dental work taken care of. I was only supposed to be here three days, but Safi more or less imploded, and Bob told me not to return as there was so much turmoil in the company, as he has just discussed in his entry. It will take a good bottle of wine to go through the entire saga, but the situation became quite ugly, and I was glad when he arrived safely back in Atlanta.

All in all, we are very glad we had the experience this last year in Dubai. We did and saw things we never thought we would experience and learned a lot about some very different cultures. There were good times and bad times, but we met some great people along the way, and we agree we would do it again in a heartbeat. That said, it’s nice to be home with our family and friends in the greatest country on earth.

The Beginning of the End of Safi

I believe it was in the end of March Safi Airways obtained four charter flights to Iran. As there had been no advance warning of this new routing, I had to explain to the Chairman that the US and Canadian pilots would not be able to fly into an Iranian Military base for charter operations. He just assumed we would be “happy to go!” After a few “heated discussions” we compromised with the Bolivians flying the Iranian flights and picking up the funds. You must understand that the banking system, especially among nations over there is very primitive. This means that our pilots had to be paid in CASH which arrived in a briefcase, just like in the movies. What you don’t see in the movies is the person actually counting the money…one, two, three. At least it is always in $100 bills. Another item over here is all the money is always crisp and new, not like the US.

After the Iranian discussions, normal flying from Dubai to Kabul resumed. However a new glitch soon popped up. That was when the Chairman decided to start layovers in Kabul proper. I felt like I was beginning to be an ALPA negotiator and had to explain that we were told when hired that we would only lay over there in irregular operations. We did not want a scheduled operation where everyone in Kabul knew when we arrived, when we would depart, and where we would be staying. All the pilots were leery of this new development for numerous reasons. Safi Airways maintained the new schedule would commence on the 30th of March.

About four days before the scheduled start date, with emotions running high, our scheduled crew left for the normal Kabul turnaround. They departed Dubai with the normal two flight plans, two General Customs Declarations, and fuel onboard to return to Dubai. The Safi Station Manager in Kabul informed the crew when they arrived that they were spending the night in Kabul and if the crew tried to return at that point they would be charged with stealing the aircraft and arrested. The crew was given the choice of paying their own way to Dubai (no flights available till the next day), or staying in Kabul and flying themselves back to Kabul.

The crew wisely decided to stay at the Safi Landmark Hotel and return the next day. Needless to say, many discussions followed. There were three days of down time on their return and a compromise was worked out for a short term basis in Kabul, even though this amounted to a kidnapping. Talk is cheap but money was the trump card.

What made all these events that much more interesting was that we had guests in our small apartment the entire time. G, R, E, and RWD all went through these events with us as they unfolded. They had to listen to numerous cell phone calls during dinner and touring. ASD worked out to be a great tour guide as she had been in Dubai for many months and had been most places.

Early in April Safi Airways had received a grant/loan from either the IMF or World Bank for a good deal of money. Almost at the same time a new face appeared in the office, a Jordanian, who claimed to know everything about everyone and an “expert” on the airline industry. The word “shyster” came to mind immediately. He immediately wanted to buy six MD80s. Of course he was looking for a large commission, and those of us in the office were able to convince the Chairman not to buy the aircraft. There was not an MD80 within fifteen hundred miles of the Middle East, much less maintenance support! What a joke! The Jordanian didn’t like losing and had the Chairman release a number of us from our contracts with pay. No problem there, I made my Board meeting in Pensacola well rested and Preakness Weekend is now history.

A couple items that should be said of the layovers in Kabul. Obviously security was paramount. We always had two armed guards as well as a follow up vehicle. Once again Safi’s political power came through loud and clear as roadblocks always just “melted” in front of us. The only one we seemed to had to wait for was the President and even then we were always number one in line to proceed.

Another item in Kabul is the rug trade. For Westerners, rugs in Dubai are about a third of the price you would pay in the States. However, once you get to Kabul and the further cities out, the price drops dramatically from there. The only trick is getting to Afghanistan safely in the first place.

The last item I would like to mention has to do with security. If we took one step out of the hotel, there was immediately an armed guard behind us. How did they know?

Prior to departing the UAE, there was a very nice party at L’s. The evening ended up in the pool as we all could see the Burj Dubai lit up in front of us. It was really great to be able to exchange regular email addresses with everyone and to see the enthusiasm of all the young people. They were all great and learned so much in a year! L did a great job.

Since this is the last blog about Dubai/Kabul I thought I should put a very good travel tip out for those that may someday arrive in Dubai. The world’s only seven star hotel is in Dubai, the Burj al Arab. This is where one of the most expensive restaurants, the Al Maharah is located. The average price there is between $500 to $800 per meal for two. If you call ahead, or better yet, e-mail their reservations department and make reservations for the beach restaurant, the Majlis al Bahar, you can still get a tour of the hotel and save $300-$400 for the meal for two! Yes, you read that correctly, it is still going to cost you $300-400 for the meal. Do not go to the Brandy Bar in the lobby for an after dinner liquor, unless you want to spend $500 per drink! Bon Appetite!