It was the best of times, it was … Actually, that’s about it. There was no worst about it. My one-day stopover in Dubai was just plain good times, thanks especially to my two amazing tour guides, Tim and Curtis. The following are the highlights:
City 1: Modern Dubai –the Vegas of the East. After a lazy morning in Curtis and Tim’s bed (yes, their bed. As in both of them. Don’t worry; they weren’t in it. Though you probably should worry it belongs to both of them…), I arose and got my first real view of Dubai out their apartment window: sand and skyscrapers. That’s about it. It’s kind of a strange combination, actually. I understand the need skyscrapers in Manhattan or Tokyo, where for some reason a billion people have all decided to live on a piece of land the size of a postage stamp, but Dubai? Land is cheap; spread out, not up. Or maybe there’s something symbolic in reaching for the sky despite living in a wasteland. Or in growing more like a redwood than a squash plant.
Dubai, like Vegas, is a city of fantasies in the midst of a desert driven by tourism and architects’ imaginations. We started our morning by picking up a friend, Rob, and driving over to Burj al-Arab, the world’s only 7-star hotel. The hotel boasts a rooftop helicopter landing pad and tennis court, the world’s tallest atrium, a fleet of Rolls-Royces, and a staff to guest ratio of like twelve to one. Even just to go inside and look around in expensive and has to be booked in advance. Needless to stay, we just took pictures from the beach. The beach was uncomfortably hot, even at 10 am (and that was the season’s first “nice” day, per Curtis and Tim). The water was bath-water warm. I just can’t imagine what it would be like in July or swimming in head-to-toe clothing like these folks:
No wonder the Emirates love their air-conditioned malls!
Breakfast. We walked around the shops at a nearby outdoor/indoor mall (Mall #1) and then had breakfast at one of the restaurants. I ordered “cheese French toast,” which resulted in this:
I guess that’s what I asked for. Tim refused to eat the butter with his meal because it came from New Zealand. Silly Aussie. 🙂
After breakfast, we drove the Palm Islands, which are a huge man-made archipelago in the shape of a palm tree and which contain three of the world’s largest man-made islands. The main trunk of the tree is like a mile long, and along each frond there are hotels, mosques, and tons of condominiums. At the far end of the trunk there’s a tunnel that goes under the ocean and comes out on the outermost island, which is also one of the two locations for the world-famous Hotel Atlantis. It was so crazy to drive so far and see so much on land that once was ocean. It’s amazing what people dream up.
Mall of the Emirates (Mall #2) was next. While the mall is big in its own right (it was the second largest in the Middle East when it opened in 2005), its biggest claim to fame is Ski Dubai, the Middle East’s, and my, first indoor ski slope. Yes, that’s right. Indoor ski slope. And it’s amazing. You walk into the mall, turn the corner, and there before your eyes, through the glass windows and surrounded by tacky mall tables and chairs, is a winter wonderland, complete with ski lifts, bobsledding, and snowball fights.
Of course we went. Well. except Tim. I think Tim went to a chick flick instead (did someone say Twilight?). 😉
Since everyone in Dubai is obviously dressed for the 100 degree weather outside, Ski Dubai includes snow pants, socks and a winter coat in the cost of the ski pass. But for some reason they don’t include gloves, forcing us to buy these beauties from the store next door:
The skiing in Ski Dubai was surprisingly good, considering that the entire mountain and all the snow is completely fake, and my snow-boarding was unsurprisingly bad, considering my once-every-three-years history. But it was really fun. I ran up afterwards to grab this photo:
I got some stares and comments from the other folks as I was standing there, which was understandable since I was once again in my flip flops and shorts. It was so crazy to think that just 4 hours before, in the same flip flops and shorts, I was standing on burning white sands instead of freezing white snow! After skiing we were all starving again, so Curtis and Tim took us to a favorite locals restaurant called Eat & Drink. We let C&T do the ordering, which resulted in so much food that even three starving boys had to wave their white flags (okay, napkins) in surrender.
City 2: Old Dubai
Old Dubai couldn’t be any further from modern Dubai in every way except geographically. It’s populated not by Emirates but by imported Philippinos and Pakistanis who work low-level jobs (think “sanitation engineer”) and live 20 to a room in order to send money back to their distant families. Kind of like the United States and Latin Americans…though I believe the Pakistanis are actually legal here. The streets are lined with typical third-world type shops with cluttered, colorful storefronts and metal, pull-down doors (and a bjillion men … more of that later, I hope). We started our visit walking through town to a river front, where we boarded a flat boat (no safety rails needed, thanks) and paid the guy manning the small ski-boat type engine 25 cents to take us up and across the river. On the other side was the Dubai spice market and gold souk. The gold souk is estimated to contain about 10 tons of gold at any one time, not to mention other precious metals and jewels of all kinds. Curtis flirted with a gold bangle that turned out to cost $2000 and Tim offered get me this ring if we got married:
I should have held out for this one: 🙂
As cool as the gold was, my favorite part of Old Delhi was finally seeing the place I had heard and dreamed about for so long: Curtis’s yellow pants shop. Ever since I read (and reread, and reread) Curtis’s infamous blog post, I had wanted to see the actual spot. And this is it.
Las Vegas, here we come! It was all he described and more; totally worth the hour we spent in traffic asking directions from confused Emirates who had no idea what we were talking about. Tim and Curtis were awesome shopping buddies, as you can tell. Here’s Curtis trying on some new looks…
and Tim advising me on Dubai shoe styles:
In the end I didn’t get the shoes, but I did get…
Yes! My very own yellow pants. I’m so happy. I even wore them home. 🙂
We finished the day back in Modern Dubai at the Dubai Mall (Mall #3), the world’s largest shopping mall, which houses an indoor ice-skating rink, a massive indoor fountain, and Dubai Aquarium, the world’s largest suspended aquarium, with over 33,000 marine animals inside. Outside the mall is the Dubai Fountain, the world’s largest dancing fountain (think the Bellagio fountain x 5). It was so beautiful, and I loved that it was set to Eastern/Arabic music. And that it was right next to this:
The Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building by a long shot. It looked to me like something out of the Lord of the Rings or like the White Witch’s palace from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We liked the fountain so much we watched it three times. 🙂
We ended the night back at Tim and Curtis’s house and then to the airport for my 2 a.m. flight. Overall an awesome adventure! Thanks, C&T. It truly was the best of times!
*More pics on FB if interested.
Little Girl, Big World 