Day 2 -- Touring Dubai

We both woke up around 4 a.m. and attempted to get back to sleep but it was futile. At around 5:15 we decided just to get up and start going. We’re going to grab some breakfast and see what we can do to play tourists for the day. –continued--

We grabbed breakfast ($30 each – ouch) and found out from the concierge that the mall and the tourist bus we planned to catch didn’t start until 10 a.m. However, with full tummies, we decided we might be up for a nap so we took one. We both slept pretty hard. We woke up about 10:30 and decided we’d better start moving if we were going to see anything today. We packed up and headed out on our adventure.
The heat of the day had only just begun. Luckily our hotel is only about 3-4 blocks from the Mall of Emirates (home of Ski Dubai) so we found our way over there, dodging a little traffic. The mall wasn’t overly crowded but we managed to find Ski Dubai fairly easily. There are a lot of information desks and almost everyone here speaks fairly good English. Seeing Ski Dubai in person was pretty neat. I didn’t realize how big it really was nor that it had a lot of things for the younger children. People on the hill and sledding seemed to be enjoying themselves. Though it was tempting to "show them how it’s done," we decided that we’d better continue to play tourist.

We looked all over for the “Big Bus Tour” and even asked around but couldn’t find it. Rather than keep endlessly walking around we took the Metro to the Dubai Mall which is also close to the Burj Dubai aka. Burj Khalifa (world’s tallest building). We made our way through the mall and found the ticket booth to “At The Top”. Kelly figured it was his good looks but Serah got us tickets to the 1:00 entrance which was sold out. We drank some yummy limeade while waiting the half-hour, tried unsuccessfully to connect to the internet (you have to still register and they send your PIN to your mobile – ugh), and then made our way to the top. The elevator was incredibly fast. You only felt your stomach drop for a second and then the windowless elevator (they have screens that play advertisements) takes about 60 seconds to make it to the very top, ears popping along the way. The view from the observation deck is phenomenal. For $30 ea. I think it’s still worth paying for. You can see The Palm with Atlantis on the end, Bur Al Arab, and the “World” islands. Of course, from that height, you can see everything for miles, and miles and more miles. This city truly is an Oasis. Dubai goes from straight desert on one side to instant construction of buildings. You can never stop counting the number of cranes you see at any given time. Its expansion is massive and obviously over the top.

We made our way down and managed to find the main entrance and purchased our bus pass. It’s a double-decker bus that includes ear-phones that you can wear to hear a narration about the city and the UAE in general. From the Burj, we went downtown and saw some historic buildings, a linen Souk, more historic buildings (unfortunately missed the Gold Souk – it was getting too late) but made it to an Arabian Dhow Creek Cruise. Dhows are wooden boats used primarily for trade between Arabic countries. Ours was of course outfitted for tourists, but dozens and dozens lined the creek sides packing everything imaginable (cars, grain, TVs, clothing, air conditioners, appliances,) for their next voyage to Iran or maybe Pakistan.

After the Dhow Cruise the night was fast approaching. We caught the Metro (very clean and efficient) to the Mall of Emirates. We fell in love with a family with gorgeous little girls and laughed along the way with them. We were tempted to return back to the Dubai Mall so we could see the fountains (like the Bellagio) but we were far too hungry so we headed back to the Emirates Mall. As you can tell, they say Dubai is a Shopper’s Paradise. I lost track of all the shopping malls they have. What’s even more amazing is they are packed all the time. We found the food court (KFC, Subway, Papa Johns, Hardees, McDonalds) and chose McDonalds as the line was short and we knew the food would be fast. Maybe we were really hungry, but that food was awesome. We thought the fries were the best. We enjoyed our food and sat and people watched. I think Dubai is the biggest melting pot in the world. You see every race there is just in one food court (with us whities being the minority). We particularly enjoyed watching one Islamic mother playing with her twin 20-month-ish boys. She was teaching them sign language and feeding them food. It made us long to see our three children.

We left the mall and walked back to our hotel after a long 10.5 hour day. I actually feel safer here than Salt Lake at any time. The people are generally very friendly (maybe it’s because we’re curiously very white) and I never once felt we were in danger. The tour guide said Dubai is one of the safest metropolitans in the world. There’s a very good military and police presence and I think that along with stiff penalties keep everyone and everything safe.

The weather is starting to get very, very warm. A gentleman in our elevator last night said to give it another month and it will be so hot we’ll lose half our weight walking around. The humidity is bearable but it wasn’t “dry” like I thought it was going to be.

Back at the hotel, we arrived very exhausted but happy with the progress we made. Short of Atlantis, the beach, and the Burj Al Arab, we’ve seen almost everything we’ve wanted. Since tomorrow is Friday (Islam’s Sunday) most things will be closed downtown so we’ll stick more around our “neighborhood” and go see Atlantis and the Burj Al Arab.

Good night – Love you all.