As part of my international business whirlwind, I found myself in Dubai last weekend on a compressed schedule. Although I had intended to give myself a day to acclimate to the time difference, my travel agent miscounted and I ended up with only 30 hours on the ground. It seemed that I wouldn’t have a chance to explore this amazing city so far on the other side of the world that I had the option of flying through Europe or Asia to get there.

As it turned out though, I was given a little bit of luck, and the Radisson SAS I was staying in happened to be literally next door to a huge outdoor concert venue in the Bumbershoot style. Playing at the venue was a two day festival billeted as the largest concert to ever hit U.A.E.: Desert Rhythms 2007.

I wish I had known about this immediately the night I landed, because the headliner on the first night was Kanye West. But I realized the error of my ways in time for the second night, which featured Joss Stone. I had missed Joss Stone at Bumbershoot last September since I was in Seoul, but everyone that went told me that she was amazing (and hot), so I wasn’t going to pass up my chance. Joss Stone was amazing, but it turns out she wasn’t the headliner. It was someone I hadn’t heard of before–Mika.

When the MC announced that Mika was up next, tremendous cheering and even a fair amount of "Mika, Mika, Mika" chanting erupted. I was alone, so it was easy for me to get pretty close to the front of the stage. Where I picked my spot, I noticed something quite interesting…though there was a variety of ages at the venue, everyone ahead me looked like young teenagers, and mostly girls. At this point, I’m figuring that Mika is one of two types–Britany Spears or James Blunt.

Before I continue, let me dispell any notions about Dubai–it’s a very progressive place and pretty western. Everyone speaks English. Most people are dressed in jeans just like you and I. Burquahs are present, but not super-common. But for the modern city it is, there are some things I didn’t expect.

For starters, as soon as he (it turns out Mika is a guy) got on stage, it was clear that Mika was gay. Now this isn’t a big deal  for anyone who reads my blog, but then again, I’m in Dubai, and the Wikitravel page for Dubai says that the official penalty for homosexuality is death, though it’s questionably enforced.

It gets more interesting from here…I notice a guy a little bit ahead of me that’s got this rainbow striped belt that he’s holding up and waving around. Okay…again, not a big deal at home, but really suprising to me here.

And now, everyone is singing the lyrics word for word. And it’s happy-fun music, which is cool. But one of the lyrics I heard was, "making love to a man." Whoa. Then I hear two songs which are undoubtedly Christian themed, one around Jesus and one around the disciples. And everyone is singing along.

Now this was a cultural experience. Even now I have no idea what exactly was going on. But I love how my expectations have been totally blown out of the water. I haven’t had an experience like this for awhile now, but it reminds me of what it is I travel for.

It may be a whirlwind, but I’m loving this.

More photos of Dubai

I love China. I’ve been catching up on unread items in my RSS reader, especially those in my China category. There’s some stuff here I just can’t resist passing on.

• How to Order Chinese Food – Ever wonder what real Chinese food is like? Well, here you go. Ordering guides by type, region, and even a culinary glossary.
• Sucking off an American icon – A new shopping mall opened in Beijing and they had a giveaway for a free Chevrolet Aveo. How do you win? By seeing who can suck on a pacifier taped to the car the longest. Naturally. What did you expect? The winner was a woman that sucked for a full twenty six (26, count ‘em) hours.
• Women Receive Gifts to Shop in their underwear – It just gets better and better. May a thousand flowers blossom with your prosperity.
• 16 year old girl auctions breasts online – You’re probably thinking that this is a bit in poor taste, being borderline prostitution. You’re wrong. It’s not prostitution…well, if it is, this girl totally missed the point.
• Hooters in Beijing – Hooters opens its first in Beijing, right on Sanlitun. Interview with the manager included.

I love China.

I returned this afternoon from another whirlwind of airports, security lines, and the roar of aircraft engines from my most recent trip to New York. It was your typical business trip: take the first flight out on Monday and come back on the first flight back on Wednesday morning, making sure you check the boxes of jetlag, late nights, and early mornings to guarantee a successful path towards exhaustion. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to be exhausted. As the saying goes, there’s no rest for the weary. Unless you make time for it, that is.

I recently discovered on my business trips, much to my surprise, that there’s quite a few CRM partners out there that actually read my blog. Hi! J For those of you who haven’t run into me, hopefully we will soon—my latest spat of trips are for the CRM Titan Global Readiness Tour as the technical track presenter. After knocking down San Francisco and New York with my teammates, I’m slated to present in Seattle, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Moscow, Milan, Madrid, and Amsterdam. It’s no secret, especially if you’re reading my blog, that I love to travel, but with CRM 5 planning under way, I also need to stay focused on the core of my job, revving the intellectual horsepower of my brain to design new features. For the meantime, until about the 10^th of November, this leaves me burning the candle at both ends, working through the evening in the great cafes of Seattle and the world.

This is the part where my parents and my close friends worry if I’m pushing myself too hard. It’s like sprinting—exhilarating for a little while, but subject to burn out if you don’t learn to pace.

I had the opportunity last weekend to go on a retreat that the Wilderness Ministry at my church put together at Mt. Baker. I had signed up weeks ago, but on the Wednesday before the retreat was to start, I started to wonder if I could afford to go. I needed to catch up on e-mail. I needed to stay on top of my bugs and keep my developers unblocked. I needed to dig deeper into perf and scale work. I needed to do some more thinking around CRM 5. I was flying out to New York at 7a on Monday and the presentation wasn’t ready. More time, more time, I needed more time!

As I pondered my options, two sermons that my pastor gave recently on subject of Sabbath came to mind. The whole idea of Sabbath, resting, is to set aside a time to step out of the raging river that consumes us during the week to focus on mind, spirit, and spirituality. It sounds really good in concept, but who has time for the Sabbath? Stop treading the waters for a day and you’ll drown. But if there’s anything to learn from my time listening to Richard, it’s that sometimes one simply needs to make the time. Take the leap of faith, embrace a weekend of not working.

I went. I turned off my cell phone, left the laptop at home, and went to Baker.

“Come to me you who are weary and I shall give you rest.”

The retreat was held in this awesome four story A-Frame mountain chalet, filled with the presence of a hundred personalities. Amazingly for the first week of October, Baker had gotten dumped on by snow—1.5 to 3 feet! When the same retreat was held last year, it was 75 degrees and sunny outside. This year it was hovering in the 30s. Great time to make use of the insane amount of merchandise I’ve purchased from REI.

Friday night, Thien-An convinced me to sleep out on the snow. I had a tarp below and above me to keep me dry and I fell asleep listening to the tarp crinkle ever so slightly under the impact of a hundred falling snowflakes. I had hoped to wake up covered in snow, but it was the sound of rain from the warm morning light that woke me up. On Saturday I donned my gaiters (one of my favorite pieces of gear) went hiking through the snow in complete whiteout conditions to arrive at Artist Point with newly made friends, returning to the chalet and hot chocolate to warm our hands three miles out later.

It was wonderful. To spend time in the outdoors, hanging out with fun people, focusing on building bonds with each other and God. By Saturday afternoon I felt more fulfilled and joyful in my core than I have in weeks. Maybe months.

I knew I was weary. I just forgot how great it feels to rest.