My wife and I are finally out of freezing Salt Lake City for a month long vacation in warm Dubai to be with my parents. Having grown up mostly in Dubai, it has always been home to me, and a trip I always look forward to. Usually, I don’t blog much during my vacations, but this time, I am going to try and at least post some of the interesting experiences during my stay in Dubai. So, let me start off with:

The Journey

Ever since Emirates started the direct flights to Dubai from JFK, that has been our preferred route. The journey is still a long one, about 17 hours of flying time, but the on-board entertainment and service on Emirates are both great, and that helps kill time on such a long journey. There is plenty of time to kill and I usually spend most of that time observing and contemplating. So here are a few things I observed during this trip:

1. Boarding Passes: One thing that caught my attention this time, was the use of paper in the airline sector. From boarding passes to baggage tags to e-tickets, a lot of paper is used and most of it probably ends up in the landfill and not recycled. So, this made me wonder why we can’t come-up with a reusable solution to paper usage in the air travel domain, rather than the regular old disposable ideas.

2. Noise Cancellation: Planes are loud, and Bose QuietComfort noise cancellation headphones seems like a must have for a comfortable long haul flight. However, $350 for a pair of headphones just sounds like a stupid way to spend your money. So we ended up getting two sets of the lesser no noise cancellation Bose On-Ear headphones for $180 a piece. Still a stupid buy, but the sound quality and on ear comfort are priceless. But Bose has skimped on the connectors, and the connector from my wife’s headphone came off on the flight.

Here is an idea for Apple, noise cancellation built into ipods, now that would be the ultimate killer app.

3. Puma: When it comes to fashion, airports can sometimes give you an indication of current fashion trends. Apart from the regular fashion, there is always some kind of sporting brand which stands out, and this time it was Puma. From Puma shoes, to bags and other accessories, Puma is in right now. Pretty impressive for a company which was almost out of cash back in 1993. Amazing Apple like turn around by focusing on design, style, line and color.

5. Airports:

US airports have to be the most boring in the world. They are no architectural marvels like airports around the world, quiet filthy, old, and poorly designed. JFK International Terminal has to be one of the worst. The air train system is a joke, and so is the terminal, but the sparrows flying around and the bird droppings are a nice third world touch. What were the designers of this terminal thinking when they put the escalator going up on one side of the terminal and the one going down on the other end! They do however have very comfortable seating, nice hard concrete slabs! I wish I had taken more photos, but it’s New York, it’s an airport, I am an Indian, and so it’s not hard to imagine what might happen. I did manage to get a few quick shots of the elusive sparrows at JFK.