Vacation time. We lazily awoke, had our breakfast, and were out to the pool. The temp here is perfect - a nice 80 degrees with a small breeze. I'm starting to understand why there are so many British people here (other then the mass advertising done in their country :)). With nothing to do except hang out at the pool, I spent the afternoon reading the local newspaper. Continuing the theme of extravagance, even the newspaper was of high grade shiny coated paper (they can do with nothing less then the best here). It was interesting to read the paper, and get the local views of Iraq, along with the local laws. It's strange being in a very strict Muslim country. Even though Egypt was 80% muslim, it seemed much more relaxed. Here in U.A.E., the impression I received from the paper and their editorials, along with some outside internet reading, is that this place is more hardened Islamic, with a government more strongly tied to the laws of the Quran than the government of Egypt was.

I guess what I felt, while in Egypt, was a lot of sympathy for the Muslim people, how wrongly personified they are in the media, etc. When reading the paper of Dubai, I began to understand how a faith could be misrepresented so harshly, as the thoughts and ideals here coincided more with the image that the western media speaks of. In the Egyptian papers, I read articles talking about the Iraq war, and discussing both sides more openly. In the Dubai papers, the articles are almost completely anti-US. I'm not for the war, but I'm also not for a one-sided opinion for or against. The Dubai paper obviously had a different view. They discussed how the west shouldn't get involved in the Afghanistan issue with the Muslim converted Christian (he should be killed or revert back). It's hard to understand that the Afghanistan constitution calls for freedom of religion, but then wants to use a different section to prosecute this guy. It just doesn't make sense to me - to force someone into a specific religion. Even crazier, is that others (obviously the Dubai paper), support the Afghanistan prosecution. It's a different world here. I guess what happens on both sides, is a dangerous use of actual facts. IE, the paper's anti-US article talked about how the US military has not built one single school. I can accept that has a hard fact, as that's not the military's job. But I do believe that the joint forces are helping disseminate funds from oil sales to have contractors build those schools. I also know that the Western media is stating cold facts too, but lost is the rest of the concept of Islam. Frustrating - as its easier to hate what we don't know than learn to understand it.

We spent time at the pool, and then just hung out, catching up on emails, internet, etc. We had dinner at the Thai restaurant at the hotel, and are hoping our Thai experience in another week matches this taste & quality :).