Dubai, Day 4

May 23, 2009

Dubai, UAE

We slept in late and had a breakfast of parahta and an amazing array of fruits, including the best mangos I have ever had, fresh figs, chikoos (a sweet, slightly gritty fruit), and lychees (a round white fruit that tasted like rose water).

The showroom was definitely "showy," designed to attract money from potential investors

The day's outing took us to the Dubailand Show Room, an elaborate set up displaying the amusement park now under construction.  When I say "amusement park," I really mean a crazy city with themed districts, rides, attractions, and a lot of superlatives, like what will be the world's largest ferris wheel.

The largest model took up an entire room and had a raised walkway around it so you could look down on the whole thing

This bored tiger paced an enclosure in the lobby

Illika, being a dinosaur

After the showroom, we drove to Jameira Islands, a housing development made by digging moats to make a grouping of small "islands," each with a different theme.  People in Dubai seem to have an interesting fixation on water, showing off as many ponds and fountains as they can.  But they're still in the middle of a desert.

Houses in Jameira Islands

The view back towards Dubai.  Check out all those cranes on the horizon.

We went next to the Mall of the Emirates, where we saw the famed Ski Dubai, the one and only indoor ski slope.  Only in Dubai...

It even had a chair lift.  And check out the people, all in the same clothes.  No one in the desert owns a coat, so they all have to wear rentals

Hilary with an arabic Barbie

A Ferrari rocking horse, for the children of the really, really rich.

We capped off the day with a dinner of crab, from the fish market the day before.  This meal was made even messier by the fact that in Dubai, they use tissues instead of napkins.  There's a reason tissues are for your nose, and not your messy fingers; they just can't hold up to crab dinner.

Dubai, Day 3

May 22, 2009

Dubai, UAE

We spent the morning in the fish market.  Our goal was to get the most non-tourist experience possible.  Goal: accomplished.  A portion of the market sold produce (including some delicious dates).  The fish portion was huge, and full of tables covered with whole fish, sharks, shrimp, lobster, and stuff I couldn't even name.  People with wheelbarrows followed us around, asking to carry our fish for us.  All the fishermen, standing by there tables, were eager to get us to buy their fish.  One man kept holding up his jumbo shrimp, which was alive and kicking, and letting it flick its tail at us so that we could see how fresh it was.

Following a little afternoon nap, Illika's mom drove us around the city for a little tour.  We drove out to the man-made Palm Islands, and to the Sheik's palace (no visitors allowed, but we got close to it).

A sailboat off the Palm Islands

Picture time on the coast of the Palm Islands

The enormous Atlantis hotel, on the Palm Islands

We stopped for refreshments.  Here, Hillary's drinking an aloe vera peach, a drink with actual chunks of aloe vera floating in it.  It was delicious.

Peacocks lined the driveway to the Sheik's palace

We walked around the beach at the Creek Club, a park and golf club on the riverbank.  Then for dinner, we had some of the seafood we'd picked up at the fish market that morning.

The Creek Club

We watched the sunset as we walked along the beach

Dubai, Day 2

May 21, 2009

Dubai, UAE

This was a day of a lot of walking.  We started off with some window shopping at an upscale mall called Wafi.  This was my first experience with the Emirates concept of "mall;" huge, and very snazzy.  This one had an egyptian theme, and was shaped like a pyramid.

Giant stained glass window forming the tip of the pyramid.

The shortest escalators I've ever seen.  Silly lazy people.

The basement of the mall had a Moroccan theme

Starbucks really is everywhere.  The sign is in Arabic, read right to left.

In one computer store, I spotted the keyboards-- with English and Arabic letters.  I got some very funny looks taking pictures of the laptop.

We stopped in an arabic sweet shop in the mall, which was great because all the workers there were quite enthusiastic about feeding us samples of the various baclava and other sweets.

We ate lunch at a little Indian restaurant, where I had a delicious dosa and a mango lassi.  We all (especially Hillary and I, the clearly American-looking ones) got a lot of stares from the regulars there-- this was clearly no tourist joint.

Dosa-- something like a crepe.  There is a small amount of filling in the middle, but mostly you "rip and dip" the outside into the 3 dips you see on the tray.

After lunch we walked to a pool hall for a mid-afternoon break.  This was a very common thing to do-- spend the hottest hours of the afternoon indoors, sitting around talking and relaxing.  And it was REALY hot that day.  The walk to the pool hall in the 106 degree heat was killer.  You could literally feel the sun baking your skin.

A flower that grows on some trees there, very orange and very big.  Translated, the name means "fire in the forest."

We spent the afternoon at Karama, a market district where more locals shop.  It was quite the reverse of Wafi, including some intense haggling that was really interesting to watch.

For dinner, we went out with Illika's parents to a restaurant next to the fountain show.  Here, we ate outside while watching a very well choreographed fountain show every half hour.

This fountain is the tallest in the world-- 15 stories high.