A Day and a Half in Dubai

Thanks to a change in the service provided by DFS Airlines, I scored an extra day in Dubai to explore at the beginning of my adventure. I arrived, hot and tired Friday afternoon and had until Sunday morning to explore.

After a short nap (trying to readjust to daytime after being a night owl for the last month), I set out to find Ravi Palace, a Paskistani restaurant that I’ve heard rave reviews about. I got to haggle with the gypsy cab driver that was shown to me by the hostel staff (don’t think I over paid by more than a few diurham and got to ride in a luxury car so I guess it evens out) to arrive at my destination. Ravi is mentioned in most travel guides and on most of the travel sites as a place to go eat if you want good food, reasonable prices, and the chance to people watch. It was a little too hot and humid to sit outside so I had to settle for people watching my fellow eaters (they provided plenty of entertainment).

The food lived up to the hype even though I really don’t know what I ordered. I pretty much asked the waiter what items were chicken off the bone and when he showed me a section with 5 options but didn’t understand my questions as to what they were, I picked one at random. I ended up with Chicken Jalfraizi and Roti (naan). The main dish was chicken, onions, peppers, tomato, and a hardboiled egg in some sort of oil, chili, and garlic sauce. It was delicious.

Since it was still early when I finished dinner, I decided to go for a walk. The area that I was in, Al Satwa, is one of many shopping districts. There you can buy everything from dinner to a gold watch to a trinket for a loved one back home. I meandered through the throngs of people and window-shopped a bit, but the shopping didn’t hold attention for long. Cammi, a girl from work, told me that there is a water fountain and light show every night at the base of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world). Since the Burj Khalifa is so tall is makes an easily distinguishable landmark to follow. It didn’t appear to be very far away from my current location, so I decided I would go for a short walk and see what the light show was all about. 

My short walk turned out to be about 4 miles (staring at something in the distance and using it as a point of reference doesn’t necessarily means it’s really that close to you). The walk lead me through random back streets, downtown, a fancy hotel district, freeway interchanges (where I had to figure out how to cross a multi-lane road without either walking on the freeway itself or playing frogger), along main thoroughfares and small alleys, and allowed me to see quite a bit of the city.

The only problem I encountered on my jaunt is that I’d forgotten what humidity was like. I’ve been able to get used to 100+ temperatures in the last few months and those don’t faze me much anymore, but I’d forgotten how much 90% humidity will kill you. By half way through my walk, I felt as if I had jumped into the pool and then decided to go on a hike in my still wet clothes. It’s not a comfortable feeling. 

The light show is reminiscent of the one that they have in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. There are a zillion and one people crowded around the pond (everyone spills out from the Dubai Mall (hailed as the largest in the world)) for the 5 minute production that goes off every 30 minutes from 6pm till a half an hour before close every night. There are multiple performances that are accompanies by planned music and the jets of water dance in tune. It was beautiful even if I had to view it through a 2 inch camera screen (there were so many people that the only way to see anything was to hold my camera up above people’s heads and view it through the screen). I’m sure it would have been even more amazing if I could have seen it without the wall of human doors. Maybe next visit. 

With jetlag and changing schedules catching up, I headed back to the hotel via the metro which added another mile to my night walk.

Day 2, the only full day I had in Dubai, had me up and out of the hotel at around 8:30 am. I headed back to the Dubai Mall in order to actually explore it some. This mall is so huge that it has its own aquarium, underwater zoo, theme park (Kidlandia), a movie theater, and some 1200 stores of every type. What I discovered upon arrival is that if you ever wanted to see a giant mall without the bustling crowds and without fear of buying anything, show up an hour people anything is open. Apparently the Dubai Mall doesn’t open until 10 am, and I arrived a little before nine. So I wandered around a bit, stared at the giant glass fish bowl in the middle of the mall and luckily found a restaurant that was open for breakfast. As a nibbled on my homemade rustic bread and turkey bacon and truffle omelet, I chuckled as I watched all the rest of the camera toting, fanny pack wearing, westerners wander the almost empty corridors. It appears that I wasn’t the only one that missed the memo on opening hours. 

By 10 am, my quiet was shattered and the mall once again resembled the meeting place for what appeared to be half the city. Bigger malls mean exponentially more people and less inviting spaces. But I still wanted to wander a bit and so I did. First stop, a mani and pedi. Yes, quite a girly ambition, but seven months of desert living and my hands and feet were in need of some TLC. I wandered until I came to the section for beauty (I think I had to circle the mall a few time until I discovered it) and an hour later emerged with blue and red nails and a few less callouses. 

Next on the schedule was to check out the different stores and the architecture of the mall. There are so many stores, that everything is separated into different sections and groups by price and category. My enthusiasm for the place lasted another few hours and then it was back to the hotel for a short nap (eventually I’ll get back on a day time schedule) before my evening adventure.

The main adventure I had planned for my day in Dubai was to go on a jeep Safari tour. Andrianne, a co-worker from LNK, told me that numerous people from there had gone on this type of tour and they all recommended it, so I decided why not. The tour is supposed to be six hours, but it’s really only about 4 and then a lot of driving and picking up of people, but it works out in the end. My driver for the evening, Sal, picked me up at my hotel and we headed out of the city limits to the desert dunes, picking up four others (a local and his three French friends) along the way. As you drive further from civilization you start seeing a multitude of white SUVs with tour labels on the side. This is a very popular excursion. The desert safari is like a being in a Jeep commercial; your driver deflates the tires some, puts the car in AWD mode, and then starts to plow up and down the sand dunes. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes sliding, and sometimes kicking dirt in other drivers’ faces. It was a lot of fun and I managed to avoid turning a little green until the end (damn body and it betrayal of my want to have fun). After an hour of desert fun and some beautiful views, we headed back on the road for a short drive to a Bedouin style camp (very touristy, but cute nonetheless). 

As you walk through the arches of the main gate, you’re greeted with the sight of tables surrounded by pillowed chairs all, aligning around a central stage. On the periphery of the compound were labeled inlets: drinks, hookah, henna, Arab tea and coffee; each set up so that you could experience something different. Outside the compound there were a few camels that you could ride or you could take a turn at sand boarding (like snowboarding, but on sand). I passed on both, the camels cause “been there, done that” and have no urge to do that again, and the sand boarding because I was in full queasy mode by this point and needed to sit for a little bit.

Once my stomach had settled a bit, I visited the Henna lady (you thought I could resist, how naive you are) and acquired two tattoos. The first one was complimentary and the second cost a few dollars, but worth it. The evening’s festivities started with sharwma as an appetizer and the talents of a man in drag dancing like a whirling dervish. He spun and twirled and dazzled with his skirts and with props and then he turned the lights on and his outfit became a one man twirling rave. It was beautiful and my new companions and I were joking of how the dancer was winking at one of the males in my group. 

The dervish was replaced by dinner (meats and salads, hummus, and grilled veggies, all very good) and a belly dancer that seemed to have a fascination with an older gentleman a few tables down from us. Lastly, I got to try a local desert that taste like a cross between a bread pudding and a cheese soufflé. It was really good. Then the excursion was over and it was back to the hotel for some packing and more sleep.

Now I am sitting in the Dubai International Airport awaiting my flight to Scotland and the Next Adventure of Grumpy and Evil (the poor poor people of the UK).