On the edge of the grounds of the hotel where we are staying is a raised platform, about 30 inches high, perhaps 10 feet wide and 30 deep, and over it is a canopy, so that most of the rain stays off the deck. A few feet from the platform is a sign advertising manicures, […]

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 After a few days, seaside paradise gets old (well, not really), so we booked a driver to take us into Phuket City, also known as Phuket Town, and by either name it is the capital of the island and province of Phuket. We took the one-hour ride through some fairly severe local traffic for two […]

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A fair question, especially if you live in North America. Why Phuket? Hawaii or the Caribbean are very similar, and much closer. I can’t imagine I would have come here, from L.A., for instance, because the distance is so great. Hawaii is five hours; Phuket is more like 18 from LAX, with a plane change, […]

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Far as I can tell, that expression is rather like the Hawaiian “aloha” — and can be used, in Thai, as a generic greeting meaning either hello or goodbye. Yes. We are in Thailand. And it is fair to ask why someone who lives in Abu Dhabi would depart the UAE at this point on […]

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The Dubai Airshow began today, and the first day was an orgy of spending. Or at least an orgy of commitments to spend. It apparently was the biggest day in the history of the aviation business. Boeing and Airbus, the world leaders (and rivals) in building big passenger planes, were the major benefactors of the […]

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Living and working in Southern California for three-plus decades, I am sure I did not adequately appreciate the enormous advantage conferred on those living with a few miles of the Pacific Ocean. Pacific Standard Time. Indeed, no time standard is as felicitous when it comes to presenting the day’s sports events as dear old PST […]

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The UAE seems to see a major hotel open every week. And that is only a slight exaggeration. Every luxury brand is here, sometimes several times over. I believe we have at least three Fairmonts in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. I might be missing one. A couple of Ritzes, a Kempinski … name a brand […]

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Air travel has become crude and brutish over the past few decades. It has gotten worse in nearly every regard. But not on every front. Planes are safer. They seem to go more places. And the big one: The multi-media platforms most of the big and/or new planes have. Most of the movies I watch […]

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If you have watched the TV sitcom Seinfeld, you remember the Bubble Boy episode. That was George Constanza’s description for the kid with immunity issues, who spent his days inside a plastic bubble. Over the past year-plus, the UAE has had its own “boy” — the inevitably named “Fear-of-Flying Boy”. And local media, including The […]

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We were riding in the Land Cruiser over the broad and grassy uplands of the Masai Mara, looking for a leopard, when we saw a tent-like structure on the horizon. What could that be, out in the middle of the game conservancy? A watering station for some truly exotic creatures who would be traversing the […]

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