My last two days in the United Arab Emirates Ray and I went to Dubai. Luckily one of Ray’s friends, who is from the UAE, Khalid, was gracious enough to drive us to Dubai and stay with us for the two days, so we made the drive which is about an hour away from Abu Dhabi. I thought the buildings were so impressive and massive in Abu Dhabi but they were nothing compared to those in Dubai. During the summer months the UAE is not very clear, everything is covered with a dusty haze, so you don’t really see the buildings until you are right up on them. In Dubai, as in Abu Dhabi, there are many sections of the city with tall buildings, with the plan of them all reaching each other into a continuous layout. We drove around the city a bit until we went to our hotel, which we got through Hotwire.com for an incredible deal because of Ramadan. The Nassima Royal put us in a corner room on the 38th floor and when we entered the room and turned on the lights the curtains that spanned the whole room opened to reveal an amazing view of the city.
Our first stop was to go to yet another mall, this one called Festival City, to get my mom her beloved Hard Rock Cafe tshirt. Usually during our travels with students we go to a Hard Rock, and they aren’t our favorite place, but for the tradition we sat at the bar to share a drink (not something we can do with kids).
Then we took a cab back to the hotel so we could hop on the metro that runs through the city to go to Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa.
The metro cars were packed with people because it was their weekend (Friday and Saturday), however, there are cars for women and children only; there was so much more room in these cars- what a relief! Don’t pass that pink line men!
When we got to the Dubai mall we had to walk I’d guess over a half mile through these tunnels to actually reach the mall. Luckily they were air conditioned and even had people-mover walkways and gave lovely views of the city.
The Dubai mall is the biggest mall in the world, but we walked through it quickly so we could get outside and see the Burj Khalifa. The Burj is the tallest building in the world since it was built in 2009, standing at just over 2,700ft. It’s so tall it was hard to get the whole thing in one picture. And there were lots of other beautiful buildings outside in the plaza and a water pool.
There were a lot of people standing around waiting, so we knew there was something good coming up. We went next door to a different mall where Ray had me try Kunafa, an Arabic dessert, which was basically a cheese pastry with a syrupy topping and nuts. It was very unique and very tasty.
We went back outside to see a fountain musical water show, pretty similar to something you see in Vegas, and as the evening progressed the Burj was lit up with lots of different images.
We then continued into the mall. There was so much to see, like this waterfall featuring statues of diving men.
There’s also an ice rink, an aquarium and a zoo!
After the mall we met up with Khalid to head to Old Dubai so we could go to the souk (or is it souq? Or is it both?) which are open-air markets specializing in different wares (there are spice souks, gold souks, textiles). Actually, I want to mention that all of the UAE that I’ve seen has things very well separated. I noticed on my first evening in the car that all the fried chicken restaurants are in the same block, and then Ray would point out the electronics neighborhood, the cell phone area, etc. And even in the malls all the children’s stores are in one section, books in another. Makes shopping easy that’s for sure. And the souks are the same. So to get to the souks we got to take a water taxi, which is a gas powered flat boat where about 20 men (plus me, the lone woman) squeezed on.
Old Dubai is the nitty gritty part of the city. The UAE is a lot of flash and opulence, but this was real Dubai. So we walked around a bit, but got pretty serious in a fragrance store, where we sampled a lot and were able to barter to get some good prices, which is definitely the way to shop in the souks. Khalid and his Arabic skills definitely helped : )
Day two in Dubai and I woke up to this view again. Awesome!
We had a flight in the evening but we had the day to explore, so we got in the car and headed towards the Burj Al-Arab, the third tallest hotel in the world.
However, while I was playing on the beach and putting my feet in the Arabic gulf, I dropped my phone in the water. Whoops! We had to make a pit stop to a grocery store for some rice, but I’m happy to report that my phone is back to working order.
The next stop was…another mall! The interesting thing is all the malls have a very different feel and offer unique experiences. PS, I was shocked by how “American” things felt. Name a store or restaurant in America, and it exists in the UAE. From Payless to Cheesecake Factory, Abercrombie to Texas Roadhouse. One of my favorite buildings in Abu Dhabi was the newly opened Cleveland Clinic.
The Ibn Battuta Mall is named after the Arabic explorer of over 600 years ago, and the mall has sections designed after the places he visited, like India, China, and Egypt. And there are lots of signs and learnings opportunities, so you can shop and learn! They had a life-size model of his ship in the mall too: and an awesome music store where I got to work on my tambourining skills!
Finally, I begged for us to squeeze in one more mall, the Mall of the Emirates, because I wanted to see Ski Dubai, the ski resort inside the mall. Not just skiing , you could snow tube or do lots of winter sports. Looks fun!
These next pictures show how the malls have a sectioned off area that holds the food court for non-Muslims. Since eating and drinking during the day is illegal they had to keep the food court out of sight, and posted signs telling people celebrating Ramadan to keep out (as if they didn’t know). So for everyone worried about my traveling to the Middle East, this was a safer place than back in the US, people were so accommodating, friendly, lovely…I loved it, you should visit here too!
So we got to the airport, and were ready for our trip to Budapest. We snapped this pic because it shows how it so hot in the UAE that inside the plane, the air conditioning made the cabin smoky! Lol, it was definitely hot in the UAE, but I’ll (hopefully) be back. Next stop…Budapest! Stay tuned.
