Greetings from the UAE! To begin, I need to apologize to everyone, especially my wife: I’ve been really slack about putting up photos… we STILL don’t have an internet connection in my villa, and dragging my laptop all down to the internet café is a pain. Excuses, excuses.
The Dubai skyline during the day
Well, no more! I’ll walk you through a couple of day’s worth of Dubai exploration which really only gives you a glimpse of the full meal deal that is this construction project they call Dubai. Seriously, every crane in the world must be here…I just wonder: does this place really need 300 new skyscrapers?? Apparently the answer is Yes.
The Limetree Cafe's Courtyard
Anyways, onwards. Let’s start at the Limetree Café, a la Lonely Planet guide. Across from the beach, this place was funky. Sitting outside, sipping a Limetree Mint Lemonade and watching all the flies go by. And there are a lot of flies here in the UAE. You might not think flies could be hostile but you’d be so wrong! In your nose, in your eye, in your ears…these things have a facial orifice fetish. Disturbing. Take a swat at them, all they do is figure eight around your head and then zoop! They try a new hole.
The food here was top notch and I think I’m addicted to Mint Lemonade now. The shade was nice too. I don’t tan; I toast, fade to white and repeat. My skin scoffs at the feeble screen of protection offered by my SPF 45 skin spackle. Shade and I get along just fine thanks! My stops at the beach have been extremely brief...other people in our group can work on tans - I'm going back to the Limetree!
Jumeira Beach Road, with Jumeira Mosque in the distance
If you take a very expensive cab ride up Jumeira beach road you’ll get to the creek where the real souk action lurks. Once at the edge of the creek (and about 50 Durhams lighter thanks to the cab), all you need to do is commandeer an Abra (a boat) and head across to get to some of the bigger souks.
Our Abra's Captain Leaving the Dock
At least, that’s the theory. The Reality: The boat captain will see you coming and boot all other passengers off the boat so he has the option of taking you on a tour down the river. It’s noisy, crowded, chaotic and husbands, stay glued to your wives to discourage any…um…unwelcome physical contact with men in the crowd. Basically wear your shades and look like you REALLY want throw someone into the water. Rahrg! Actually, just wearing the shades seems to suffice!
Taking the Abra to work A Tour Dhow
Fills you with confidence about the boat under your feet, doesn't it?
Once aboard, our captain nodded thoughtfully as we explained where we wanted to go (straight), and then he immediately started off down the river (right). Having embedded the LP’s wisdom in my skull, I remembered this was a tour route that most people actually want, how much was considered fair fare, and where we should head down to before crossing and coming back up the other side.
A quick group consultation, consensus, offer of and acceptance of fair from our captain, and off we chugged. I have never seen such clean blue water! Victoria, eat your environmentally conscious heart out! Down one side, up the other, the pics show the trip. Bade farewell to our fearless Captain and off we hopped… literally. You have hop off the bow of the boat onto the sidewalk.
Spices at the Souk
After your (hopefully) successful hop, you are within a few minutes of a variety of souks. And there are a LOT of shops in each souk. They all appear at first to sell exactly the same things so I wondered how in the world they all stayed in business…but they are all subtly different in a mind-numbing sort of way.
A view down the Perfume Souq Shesha Pipes for sale
There’s the Spice Souk, the Perfume Souk and the Kingdom of Blingdom, the Gold Souk - the only commercial area where I’ve seen cops with guns wandering around. Very effective shoplifting deterrent in my opinion! Doesn’t deter the guys from sliding up next to you and offering you imitation everything for sale though, and there’s always the ubiquitous phone card sales guy; He'll fan them like a magician’s card trick right in your face, thinking " The closer I get, the more likely the tourist will buy them." Surprisingly, this doesn't work.
Um, about the Mastercard bill...
The streets are crowded – tourists in a variety of herd sizes being…yes, you guessed it, herded up and down through the shops, local workers trying get from A to B, and in at least one case, trying to get a wee bit too close to the ladies in our group. This guy shadowed us for a couple of blocks, and not subtly either. We finally just stopped walking and I got to use my big scary sunglass face on him. After that, no hassles (I have pretty scary sunglasses) and off we wandered.
More reasons to NOT carry plastic!
A small aside here for any feminist who happens to be grinding her teeth right now: I do not think for one minute these ladies couldn’t handle themselves in a scrap. I’ll put my money on an angry Canadian female over a lonely Pakistani man any day! The truth of the matter is, I am simply Creepy-man repellent and I’m good at it. And this way, we can all play nicely with each other and just carry on peacefully. Some day though I think I’d like to see one of these get his…uh, ego…handed to him by one of our group’s ladies! Just once would be enough. Especially if we caught it on camera!
Flavoured Tobacco for Sheesha Pipes The World's Funkiest Delivery Truck!
The biggest problem with the souks is that you need a LOT of time to explore them properly, especially if you want to buy (read Barter Heavily”) anything, so we really only skimmed through this time. I‘m going back for a more focused hunt next weekend…and the weekend after that…and maybe the weekend after that too!
The Ski Hill INSIDE the Emirate Mall!
Another million Durham cab ride later and we were at the Emirates Mall, the great-great-grandpappy of all shopping centres. “Big” is simply the wrong adjective to use here. Colossal? Gigantic? Disgustingly Large? Choose your own combo of words and that will get you close. Once you step inside, materialistic overload will set in and you will stand numbly in the entrance way, gazing blank-eyed and slack-jawed at the rows and stack of shops stretching out before you and towering high above your head. Then you’ll snap out of it and start exploring!
This place is so…BIG…that it has its own ski hill inside the mall. A ski hill. Inside. With a chair lift. And lots of snow. In a desert! Sit down, have a bite to eat at one of the bazillion restaurants in the food courts, and watch the people SKI while you sit on the other side of a floor-to-ceiling window in shorts and a t-shirt, gnawing on whatever takes your fancy! It is quite a surreal experience!
I am very proud to say that this time I walked out of this shopper’s super-mega-big paradise without having purchased anything except my lunch. Before I start to sound too virtuous here, I should point out that I will be going back to actually buy things on my next trip! Sorry to all you virtuous -shopper types back home…you try locking gazes with over 400 stores and see who blinks and whips out their wallet first…it ain’t gonna be the stores (I know stores don’t have wallets – it’s just imagery for cryin’ out loud!).
Dubai from the Rooftop Bar
Now the evening was upon us and there was one last stop to make before we called it a trip and headed home. The “One and Only Royal Mirage” is the actual name of a hotel in Dubai. Opulent, gently lit with candles in strategic places, mosaics on the floor and ceiling domes...just the place to come clompin’ in wearing sandals and lugging a backpack! The reason for or intrusion: The Rooftop Bar and Grill. It is, as you have already guessed, on the rooftop of the hotel. You think the hotel’s INSIDE is relaxing?? Wait until you get to the roof!
A typical Candle-lit table up on the roof Some other lantern shots
Candle lanterns, a central bar, a very low-key yet funky DJ, and couches and comfy chairs set around low tables. Such a great place to end the day! I happily slurped on my over-priced Pepsi as we shared over-priced hummus and others sucked back over-priced beer. Prices are a bit high. You really can’t buy the kind of ambience this place has going on though. Makes you just want to curl up and stay all night…those chairs are seriously way too comfortable! You also have this tremendous view of Dubai at night and its tall towers of sparkling lights all around you, with the music playing the background and the candle lanterns flickering orange light on the walls. This amkes for some very bad night/low light shots of the group - sorry Emil, Fraser, Doug, Laura, Laura and Mel! And then time to get on the bus!
Sunday (and work) comes far too quickly when you spend Saturday in Dubai. I’ll put some more pictures up of some of the other places I’ve been in and around the UAE soon. Until then, long live SPF 45! And Aloe Vera jell! And my Scary, Creepy-Man-Repellent Sunglasses!
The End.