I had about three meetings in Dubai which seemed reasonably timed. One at 9 am, next at 11 am, and the last at 3pm. My flight was at 8:50 pm so I thought I had enough time to go to all the meetings, get work done, some shopping and a movie.

The one factor that wasn’t really taken into consideration was how much I misjudged the amount of traffic in Dubai. Two meetings were close and one was far, based on distances I had to travel 30 minutes for the second meeting so it meant 60 minutes total, but that turned into 2 hours due to traffic. I finished at 10:30 am, made it to the second meeting by 11:30 am, that finished at 1:00 pm and I go to the mall at 2:10 pm which gave me exactly 20 minutes to pick up what I wanted before having to go to the 3 pm meeting, which I barely made.

Then there was the drive to the airport, I had to be there by 7:30 pm at the latest to make my 8: 50 pm flight. I took off from the hotel at 6:30 pm I thought I would make good time since usually it would take about 25 minutes to get there. This time was a different story it took over 1.5 hours to go to the airport, I arrived at exactly 7:55 pm which was cutting it real close, I wasn’t sure I was even going to get my bags.

Traffic is hell in Dubai, in every direction and at every point in time.