Oh, the Places We Will Go....in Dubai

Day 9 - Saturday, December 29th

We’re off to Dubai today. It’s a mild, beautiful morning.  We’re driving along just enjoying the scenery. We look over beside us and see the 2008 Indianapolis 500 Pace car with Emerson Fittapaldi’s signature on the side.  Our thoughts - “I bet that cost a pretty penny to buy and ship over here.”

Things along the way to Dubai:

• Nice, smooth 6 lane road (3 lanes on each side)
• Well-manicured palm trees down the center
• Street lights down the center - each pole is numbered - not sure the reason behind that
• Small neighborhoods
• Huge homes under construction – with 10 – 15 feet concrete walls around them
• Lots of beautiful sand dunes – green bushes dotting the sand dunes
• Mountains off in the distance
• Mosques dotted all along – small and large
• Date farms
• Camel farms
• Camels in back of trucks – Andrea says she never gets tired of seeing the camels in the back of the trucks – they just get crammed into the back of a truck and most of the time they are just lying there looking around – it’s the funniest looking thing ever!
• Lots of fast cars

Warning: Picture overload - I couldn't decide which ones to post! 

We wanted to go to the Deria Creek Souks, the traditional souks of old Dubai first.  The traffic was crazy – crazy doesn’t even describe it – 4 lanes of traffic where there should only be 2 lanes.  We drove around and around and around and finally found a parking space.  The weather was beautiful so we enjoyed just walking along the edge of the creek and looking.  I wanted to look at pashminas so we headed to the Textile Souks.  That’s where I meet my friend, Ali. J

Me, Ali and a Good Bargain

I knew I could probably find a couple pashminas (shawls) at a good price if I was willing to negotiate and who doesn’t love a good bargain.  Randy and Andrea were a little apprehensive as to what I would say or do but I thought “what the heck – I’m in a different country and I’ll probably never see these people again” so I started looking and bargaining.  The first shop we stopped is where I met Ali but I didn’t buy – “just looking”, I said and continued down the row of shops. He followed me and I said, “I may be back”.  Well, after looking in 3 or 4 more shops, I decided to go back to see Ali – he was so cute and friendly. (I wish I had taken a picture.) 

He saw me coming and came out to meet me – with the pashmina that I had looked at previously in his hand.  It was white with black on either end, made of mixed silk and was 40 dirhams (about $11 USD). I asked about a solid black in the mixed silk but he didn’t have one.  He pulled out a solid, black cashmere and said it was 140 dirhams (about $38 USD).  I said, “No, I don’t want to pay that much.”  Randy had given me 50 dirhams and that was all I wanted to spend. (I thought if I could get two of the mixed silk ones for 50 dirhams, I would be a happy camper.) After going back and forth for a few minutes, he said, “you have plastic” (meaning credit card) and I said “no, I’m married – my husband doesn’t let me carry plastic”.  (Well, that is partly true – I wasn’t carrying plastic that day. LOL) And then Ali made a sad face like he felt sorry for me.  I said, “why don’t you let me have both of these for 50 dirhams because that is all I have.”  He looked at Andrea and then back at me and said, “OK – both for 50.”  Well, it was hard to maintain my “poor, pitiful face” and pay him.  As we were walking to meet Randy, Andrea said, “Only you, Mama, could pull that off.”  So I got a mixed silk one and a black cashmere one for about $14 USD and he had started the prices at about $49 USD. Yep, it was a good day in Dubai!

Then we took the dhow across the creek to the Spice Souk.  It costs one dirham (about 36 cents in USD). 

Andrea and her friend, Christine had been a few weeks before and had gotten frankincense and myrrh and I wanted to get some to take home. We found the spice market where Christine had gotten her spices and got the ones I wanted.

We also found Andrea's "new friend". When Andrea and Christine came about 3 weeks earlier, this guy wanted to sell Andrea a pashmina and he wanted his picture taken with her so she let him. (Picture on the left)  Well, today when we were walking through the souks, he saw her and wanted his picture taken with her again and she said “NO, I took my picture with you the last time I was here.”  And of course, he argued with her until she showed him the picture on her phone.  He just laughed and said he wanted her to take another picture today so she did. (Picture on right)

The souk owners/workers are always hawking their wares and trying to get you to come into their shops and look.  They kept calling Randy the “Big Boss” because he was with Andrea and me.  Andrea said, “Dad, he really doesn’t know who the Big Boss is, does he?”  I think she was talking about me. LOL

After we left there, we rode around to see some of the beautiful buildings in Dubai.  The architecture is absolutely beautiful – some of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, we have ever seen.  We’ve traveled to a lot of other countries and nothing compares to this. 

We couldn’t get close to Burj Al Arab - we had to take picture from the security gate only.

• 4^th tallest hotel in the world and the world’s only 7-Star Hotel
• Located on an island about 280 meters offshore
• Its shape mimics the sale of a dhow

Rolex Twin Towers, also known as Dubai Twin Towers

 Did I mention they love their sheikhs?

Palm Jumeriah

• World’s largest man-made island covering 560 hectares of land (1,383 acres)
• 6 lane sub-sea tunnel built to connect spine with crescent ; 1.4km long, 40m wide, 25m below sea level (about a mile long; 131 feet wide;  82 feet below sea level)
• Main road (trunk of the palm); 16 streets off of main road (fronds of palm); road around palm (crescent)
• Atlantis Dubai located on Crescent Road
• Homes, Apartments, Villas, Hotels, Markets, Beach Resorts located throughout Palm Jumeriah. Words can’t describe – got to see to believe!
• The pictures below are just some of the scenes at Palm Jumeriah.

Atlantis Dubai

We headed over to Dubai Mall and dinner at Friday’s. Thanks to Andrea’s friend, Khalid the manager, we had a table on the balcony overlooking the Dubai Fountains.

Dubai Fountain

• A performance of light, music and water
• Fountain shoots water jets as high as 500 ft
• 900 ft long and has five circles in varying sizes and two central arcs
• Set at base of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, right outside the Dubai Mall

Everything is over the top – beautiful night, beautiful lights, beautiful city, beautiful people (my family). After dinner and the fountain show, we left and headed to the Global Village. 

Global Village

• Claim to be the world’s largest tourism, leisure and entertainment project
• Shopping, eating and entertaining from representative of countries around the world
• Over 39 pavilions each representing their country
• We visited Greece, China, Egypt, Bangkok, Africa
• No United States pavilion L

Home at 11:00pm – Whew!!! A long but fun day!