The next part of our journey --

 

A Sychelles Air cargo jet was chartered to bring us to Dubai.. Just the 50 or so of us were on the plane. We were served omelettes for dinner. After we were served the lovely staff asked if we wanted a second dinner. 

The charming cabin staff dressed. in their adorable turquoise uniforms of chicly shrunken jackets and bright floral shirts invited passengers to go lie down in the unused seats. This was by far the most pleasant flight I have taken in decades. 

 We had eaten so little while we were in the bunker room, Shabbat I grabbed the bag of pitot that I had baked Friday and brought it into the bunker room and we had bottles of water. That's what we ate our first day in the Shelter room. None of us was particularly hungry . 

Sunday there was a period of a lull in the fighting. We all showered and we all grabbed some stuff to eat from Sam's fridge. Later in the day I wanted to make some dinner and discovered that the gas had been turned off, probably because of the fire Shabbat morning so I made rice in the microwave with spinach. We added bits of green pesto cheese from the Russian store. We all ate sparingly from plastic bowls in the safe room. Who knew when we could go out and buy more food? 

So having as much as we wanted to eat just felt like a luxury. I took a bite of the omelette and then opened the beautiful whole wheat roll and the package of butter. I broke the roll into bits and buttered each bite and felt lucky to be able to consume such good food. I probably haven't buttered a roll in decades.  I savored  each bite as if it were a complete meal. A bit of Bontcha Schveig after surviving being bombed.

We had purchased our breakfast in the airport at 4:00 pm. David and Sam each purchased a slice of pizza. I purchased a Havita (omelette) sandwich. I kept commenting about how delicious it was. It might have been delicious or it could have just been a mediocre mass produced air port sandwich. 

I had expected to land in a normal airport. Instead we landed in a luxury jet port for private jets. Two men with the most perfectly trimmed facial hair , sparkling white robes and sandals checked our faces against our passports and collected them. Orange uniformed men of color ran our bags though X ray machines. Various staff people stood at attention and guided us to the lounge area that looked like something out of a James Bond movie with low white leather couches. bouquets of orchids and bottles of water and a lucite piano just like Leonard's of Greate Neck.

We were invited to use the restrooms if needed.. They had those high tech Japanese toilets... such a nice way to freshen up after a trip!!! 

The seat was heated one could choose various washing and drying options. 

One could have showered or sat down at the hair and make up table. The bathroom was paneled in exotic wood and the soap and hand creme were by Dior.

The bathroom counter. There were no paper towels just little cloth towels. It felt great to scrub my face after the trip. Check out the labels on the soap and lotion. The smelled nice too.

I was in the bathroom with two other evacuees and we all got the giggles in the bathroom because it was sooo elegant and over the top.

Soon all of the passports were returned to us. We and our luggage were loaded on a fancy bus and taken 40 minutes away to the hotel. It's a luxury place. David and I were given a suite. Two

bedrooms, three bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, a washing machine, a dining room living room

and a bit of an office area. It's crazy. I think that our bed is bigger than Sam's safe room where we all three of of stayed cheek by jowl for two days. Sam is in a regular room. 

by contrast this is the floor of Sam's utility room after the initial blast 

I find myself jumpy when I hear airplanes.

This morning we went to the breakfast buffet.... they served Indian dishes, The Dubai version of an Israeli breakfast, hot cereal hot American breakfast and pickled vegetables and many kinds of olives probably the best taboule I have ever eaten... almost no bulgher and masses of parsley and some mint. I decided to risk the sesame cross contamination issue which was a mistake fixed with half a Benadryl and very strong coffee. They had offered to prepare it for me specially. I will take them up on the offer tomorrow.

Below are some views from our hotel window. 

It's crazy hot and muggy here. The heat almost knocked us kill over when we got off the plane last night. We may go to the Burj Khalifa.

It seems that we will be here for a few days. 

It's hard to believe that it was only two and a half days under fire... I'm starting to hear of casualties from my friends. A young man from Rochelle's moshav had been one of the missing from the r

ave. My friend Nina Wacholder's nephew  murdered in his home in Beeri. It is a relief to be basking in luxury but also very odd to bask while such terrible things are going on.