Sunday 5/11/2008- Thursday 5/15/2008
Minus the absolutely awful smell of feet on the flight, we were very happy with the quick and painless flight to Dubai. We landed early, collected our bags and then had a ‘Seinfeld’ episode with Budget Rental Car…. That went something like this: “But we have a reservation, what it the point of this reservation if there are no cars….” Around an hour and half later, we were so graciously given a two category upgrade to the Nissan Tiika, and we were on our merry way to see the United Arab Emirates.
Thanks to Katie’s Starwood points, we stayed our first two nights at Dar Al Sondo Hotel Apartments by Le Meridien. We were able to check-in early and get settled in our free studio apartment located in the old part of Dubai, Bur Dubai.
We stupidly ‘walked’ to find lunch, where Katie had a very fun place picked out… but after feeling like Bedouins trekking through the desert, since it was around 115F, we ducked into Automatic, a Lebanese eatery. After kebabs, kibbah, hummus, baba ganoush and a huge salad plate, we made our way back to the hotel to rest and enjoy the bling bling amenities.
We were very surprised to learn that while surfing the web, the UAE has blocked our access to many sites. We knew in advance that our Skype Internet phone wouldn’t work here (thanks for the tip, Jallad’s), but we didn’t realize that site content is heavily regulated by the UAE. For example, we tried to visit several travel websites: www.travbuddy.com and www.couchsurfing.com and we received this message on the page:
We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.
Our five days in Dubai went by too quickly… from exploring different neighborhoods to watching Emiratis play in the snow, Dubai is booming with growth, skyscrapers and new construction on every turn. However, one of the largest issues with Dubai is the lack of road infrastructure.
Our second night in Dubai, we met up with our friend Eric’s friend, JC and his girlfriend Christine for dinner…in a pyramid. Of course, Dubai is very ‘Vegas’esque’ with the audacious buildings and dreaming up the incredible when it comes to outlandish architecture. We realized that many of the restaurants in Dubai are either at hotels or within several meters of hotels. Why you ask? Alcohol. Hotels are legally allowed to serve alcohol, but no one else can gain a liquor license.
Needless to say, we had a lovely fondue dinner (Dermot’s first!) at Vintage, a very cool and chill wine bar. We had fantastic conversation with our hosts, JC and Christine. One of the more humorous things we learned from their five years of living in Dubai....no one has mailing addresses in Dubai. We couldn’t believe it… how do you get your mail? They simply call you and ask where you are, and then they’ll deliver it to you. But, since there are very few addresses and/or street names that everyone knows- you simply go by landmarks. However, in Dubai, with so much construction, new buildings are popping up overnight, so JC told us that a postal address system is currently being planned.
We also learned that Christine works for a privately owned airline company that rents out private jets—and they actually had someone spend over one million US dollars to fly a private jet aircraft filled with falcons from the States. Falcons are huge icons in Dubai and they are also found on each piece of currency…move over Presidents on US Bills.
Our third day in Dubai consisted of being tourists. We found “Irish” crème at the local supermarket, as well as Katie’s personal heaven: Dunkin’ Donuts. Of course, she got a very tasty coffee, but they don’t use ½ and ½….but she didn’t care. We made our way through crazy Dubai traffic to the Dubai Museum. We found a lovely outdoor café for salads (amazing…fresh veggies again!) and made our way into the old walled city of Dubai, which has been transformed into the Dubai Museum.
The museum was full of very lifelike statues of Emiratis going about their everyday life, as well as huge tour group that unfortunately came in just after us. We learned about the old Souks (markets) as well as Dubai’s large cash cow in Pearl Diving in the early 20th century.
After our touring, we checked into Fusion Bed and Breakfast, the only B & B in Dubai. Since it was a house, it was rather difficult to find, but after checking in, we hit the road for Abu Dhabi to meet up with our friend Will’s cousin Jared for a night of fun in the Emirate’s capital.
We didn’t realize that it would take a little over two hours to get to Abu Dhabi, with all of the blessed traffic…we met Jared at the “Burj Al Arab” of Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Palace. We had some very pricy cocktails, then escaped the glitz and glamour for Jared’s favorite local food at the Lebanese Flower. We had great conversation with Jared learning about his one year teaching exchange, and how he’s the personal tutor for a Sheik, Emirati Royalty.
Our last full day in Dubai was action packed, as we found the ‘secret’ beach between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Our new Dubai friend JC drew us a very handy map that was perfect. We successfully found the Jazira Beach Club, where we enjoyed a completely empty, beautiful crystal blue water beach all to ourselves. Seriously, we were the only people on the beach. We decided to take advantage of the amenities like the water trampoline and rock climbing, as well as the reasonably priced wakeboarding.
Our Capitan was originally from Sri Lanka, and he was a fantastic wakeboarding teacher. In only a few tries, Dermot was up on the water, shredding the Gulf Sea like it was his job. We enjoyed a frosty beverage at the beach shack before heading back into Dubai. We attempted to stop in “Internet City” to visit the Dubai Google Office, but found a very scary, similar to 9/11 type fire on top of a nearby skyscraper. On the radio, we found that a crane had fallen on the top of the building. However, we could not get off the exit due to the insane traffic as well as the building being in Internet City.
So, we continued back to our hotel to get jazzed up for our big night on the town. We made our way over to Mall of the Emirates to see the infamous Ski Dubai, as well as grab a bite to eat at this huge mall. Afterwards, we made an all too quick stop to see Riwa, one of Katie’s friends from childhood (through her friend Zein). She had just returned from London, so we were very glad to have met up with her, if for only for a quick visit. She will start her new job with Philips in Dubai in June!
We made our way over to the seven star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, for drinks with our new friends in Dubai. We met Jared (who amazingly took the bus from Abu Dhabi and miraculously arrived at the Burj on-time) and our two twin friends Mani and Charmaine, who we met covered in mud on the Dead Sea in Jordan.
We enjoyed ridiculously innovative (and the price tag to prove it) drinks on the 27th floor of the Burj, overlooking all of Dubai. It was lights as far as the eye could see, as well as glitz and opulence all around us. Our drinks had innovative names like: Melting Camel, Lizz Ard, Guavy Chill, Rise of Tiki and of course the Burj Royal. We had our fill of bling’tastic drinks and made our way to the hotel next door for our last Arab meal and sheesha. Thanks so much for showing us such a great time in Dubai gang! We’ll be back once you get street addresses and highways!