Finally

So, I am finally on my way to Australia as I sit in the Dubai Airport in a layover. It has been a journey to get here, and I still have a few hours until I get on the plane for the last leg of the trip. That will be a 14 hour flight to Sydney, but if the plane is like the last one I was on, I won't mind at all.

So, we flew out of our post in Iraq with little trouble. Sucks having the gear on and climbing in the back of a C130, but it was all good. Flew around 1am or so, and landed at 2am. Then got to the post in Kuwait about 3am. Got briefed, and then turned in our vest and helmet. That was a lot of weight. Got our briefing at 9am, and started the process. This was on Wednesday. We find out that evening that we fly out Thursday at 3:45am. The itinerary is Kuwait to Dubai, Dubai to Sydney.

So we get out to the Kuwait airport, military side of the house, around 1030pm. The guy that was there sent us into the back holding area to wait for a bit. He would call us out when ready to take the bus to the airport. So we are resting and trying to relax. I get some reading done and nothing happens. Finally, it is a little after 2am, and someone asks for us. ok, maybe 2:15am. Well, it was way too late to get to the airport, as you have to be there at least one hour before the flight, and it was a half hour drive from one side to the other. So, we didn't get out that night.

So we had to go back to the Kuwait post and get our tickets redone. We got a tent again and got some rest. Got our new itinerary and we were flying out of Kuwait earlier, but with a long layover in Dubai. Things went fairly smoothly. The lines were long, but moved fairly quickly. Security was almost funny compared to back home. Didn't have to pull out my laptop from the bag as I sent it through the scanners. They scanned us three times before we got on the plane. Once before we checked our luggage, then when we were going back to the gates, and then finally before going on the plane.

Now we flew on United Emirates Airlines for the hour and a half flight from Kuwait City to Dubai. The plan was a 777-300, and it was really nice. They had screens on the back of every seat with touch screens. You could listen to music, watch movies, or watch tv shows. They also had satellite phones that you could call on, or even call seat to seat. So on this short flight, we got a full meal. Meat, rice, pita bread, crackers, cheesecake, and some veggies. Really good quality service from this airline, and I hope the plane to Sydney is the same or better. They even had outlets at every seat if you wanted to plug in your laptop or whatever.

So now we are sitting in the Dubai airport. They have this section where all the duty free shops are located that looks a lot like a mall. The duty free shop with tobacco and alcohol, toy shop, perfume, wine, electronics, bags, makeup, clothes....just about anything you could think of. It is pretty impressive, that is for sure.

So now that we are on our way, we know when we return. Our leave ends on the 31st of August and we return to Kuwait on the 1st of Sept. So that is a nice stretch, and I am looking forward to getting to Australia now and seeing all the different things I have read about.

That is it for now. I will probalby write the next post after our first day in Australia. We land at like 6am, and it will be interesting getting a hotel room and seeing how we feel when we land to decide what we will do on day one.

Until next time.....