Departure Day!

Today, Tuesday July 20 we leave for Cape Town, South Africa. We will be flying Emirates Airlines via Dubai. We will arrive in Dubai at 7:35 pm in the evening after a 16 hour flight. Since our flight from Dubai to Cape Town does not leave until 8:50 am our flight tickets include overnight accommodations in Dubai. Our biggest challenge for this part of our journey is limiting ourselves to absolutely no more than 15 lbs. of carry-on luggage including all our personal items such as purses or laptop computers. When we reach Dubai, we have also arranged to leave directly from the airport for a short sightseeing tour of Dubai before we head to a restaurant for a Lebanese dinner. After that, it is straight to the hotel where we will tuck in for the evening to get some sleep before we take off on the second and final 9.5 hour journey to Cape Town.  Cape Town is 9 hours ahead of Santa Monica.   We will arrive in Cape Town on Thurday, July 22nd at 4:25pm.

Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula. Dubai has the largest population and is the second-largest emirate by area, after Abu Dhabi. Dubai is often recognized as the “Pearl of the Persian Gulf”. The state of Dubai is commonly referred to as a city because it has been distinguished as the most modern and cosmopolitan environments in the Emirates, especially due to its rapid technological transformation over the past few decades.

This short overnight stay in Dubai will provides us an exciting though brief opportunity to extend our global experience.