As if I needed another reason to stay out of Dubai

I am not exactly a stay-at-home, but I’m not the world’s most adventurous traveler, either.

I’m happy to have seen most of these United States, and before I kick the old bucket, I would like to fill in the missing pieces: North Dakota, Alaska, Kentucky and Tennessee. (I might be able to claim Kentucky, as I did have a business trip to Cincinnati, and their airport is in Kentucky. Now, I don’t count time in airport as a visit to a state. Thus, having a layover in Memphis doesn’t allow me to check off Tennessee. But to get from Cincinnati Airport to the city of Cincinnati, one is on the ground and outside the terminal in Kentucky. So KY is a maybe.)

I’d like to see more of Canada than the little I’ve seen. The Maritimes are on my list of “must see”. And I wouldn’t mind taking in Quebec City.

I’m a Europhile, so virtually all of my overseas travel has been thataway. I’ve been most places I care to go, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Portugal, Iceland, and Finland at some point. Maybe the Baltics. But I’ve been through most of Western/Middle Europe – and, yes, that includes Liechtenstein – and enough of Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia when it was still Yugoslavia) to call it a day. Plus I’ve been to Turkey, and have no desire to return.

And speaking of no desire, although I wouldn’t mind seeing Vietnam, I have mostly no desire to go to any place hot. Which leaves out a good swath of the globe.

I have no desire to go any place dangerous. And no desire to go any place where women are treated like crap. These sorts of places mostly intersect with “hot”, so I’m good to do without. Not very adventurous, but good with my decision.

Anyway, part of my No Go Zone is obviously the Mideast, a trifecta of hot, dangerous, and women treated like crap. Thus, Dubai, for all its glories – like indoor skiing when it’s 120 degrees out, the tallest (over half a mile!) building in the world, fancy-arse malls – is not a place I was ever going to want to go. (That said, I do have a couple of cousins who’ve been and who enjoyed it. Just not for me.)

But after a read about the woman who was arrested (and, with her four year old daughter, detained) after imbibing a complimentary glass of wine on Air Emirates, my decision to keep Dubai off the bucket list was reinforced.

On July 13, Ms. [Ellie] Holman, a Swedish citizen living in Britain with her family, flew from London with her daughter for a five-day holiday in the Gulf. But when she got off the plane in Dubai, an immigration officer questioned her visa and demanded to know if she had consumed alcohol.

Holman admitted she had been served a complimentary glass of wine aboard the Emirates flight. Holman said she did not know that it was considered an offense to film the encounter, nor did she understand that it was illegal to have consumed alcohol in Dubai (the wine on the plane.) She was reportedly subjected to a blood alcohol test, and had a reading of 0.04 (half the 0.08 BAC where one is considered ‘impaired’ for driving in the US). She and her daughter were immediately taken into custody and had their passports and phones confiscated. (Source: Forbes)

The story may have been more complicated that wine breath. The woman – a Swedish dentist who lives in England – supposedly had an expired passport. (Who in god’s name leaves the country with an expired passport????) But she was able to whip out another passport that was still good… There was some back and forth and Holman found herself detained.

She said guards tried to rip out her hair extensions.

Anything but that!

Her partner, the girl’s father, could not locate them for more than a day. When he did, he immediately flew to the UAE and brought their daughter home.

Holman was released from her cell but required to stay in the United Arab Emirates for almost a month to face charges which could have put her in jail for a year. She spent more than $40,000, her family’s savings, on legal help to fight the charges. After questions from journalists and a firestorm of publicity from British and Australian news outlets, the government chose to release her. She was finally able to fly home last weekend.

Dubai officials make no mention of any problem with the free/not free glass of wine Holman had. But their statement:

…noted that after a ”legal claim was issued against Ms. Holman with charges of profanity and photographing a government official at the border crossing.”

A charge of profanity?

I might be able to pass up the free glass of wine. My goal on long flights is to minimize trips to the toilet, so I always think twice before having a drink-drink or a cup of tea when on a plane. But being detained for a month in part because of use of profanity???

I’m staying the f out of Dubai, thank you.