Shakira and the City

Hello there.  I’m making good on my promise to do my final blog post for this trip.  Sorry for the delay.  Been super busy with work and life since arriving home.  And I literally couldn’t write it on the plane.  The person in front of me had their seat so far back that my keyboard ended up smack up against my chest, so that wasn’t happening.  Plus, I think I slept for a solid 12 hours out of the total 18-hour flight time home.  We go hard when we go on vacay!  And writing the blog every night means I’m often only getting five hours of sleep a night (and sometimes less), so I had some major sleep to catch up on.  

So let’s begin with the little teaser I left you with in my last blog post.  Shakira.  Apparently, it’s Ashley’s new name.  We found out about her apparent name change when we visited the souks, which are basically large marketplaces filled with many booths selling everything from gold to spices to clothing to ceramics to just general souvenir junk.  These are some photos that I took at the spice souk.

We visited two different souks while in Dubai - and “different” is a good word to sum up the experiences we had at each one.  The first souk was a little classier - think upscale souvenir junk.  Just our kind of place.  It wasn’t very crowded and the vendors were not at all aggressive and let us shop in peace.  I was specifically looking for a decorative dallah, a traditional Arabic coffee pot, to bring home as my knickknack souvenir from Dubai and I found it there, along with a matching teacup and saucer.  

From there we went to the spice souk, which was a totally different experience.  The vendors are SUPER aggressive.  You literally can’t move two inches without ten men shouting at you to get you to come into their booths.  They are shoving samples of spices and who knows what in your face and saying, “What do you smell?  What do you smell?”  I really wanted to ask about some of the items in the spice baskets.  I especially wanted to know what the light blue stones were and what the yellow stuff that looks like giant chalk sticks was, but it was more than my life was worth to ask.  We would have been dragged into their shops and we’d probably still be there negotiating a price for things we didn’t even want to buy.   These vendors are so aggressive because competition is fierce. You have a hundred-plus vendors all selling variations of the same stuff and they all want you to buy from them.  And heaven help you if you do buy something from someone.  Then you immediately have 14 people from other booths shoving similar merchandise in your face as if you’d be thrilled to buy the same thing 14 more times.  Added to all this chaos was what became the constant wolf song of “Shakira! Shakira!”  They weren’t yelling this at me, they weren’t yelling this at Jill and they weren’t yelling this at my mom.  They were yelling this at Ashley.  Relentlessly.  If Mom, Jill and I were having things thrust at us, Ashley was having things thrust at her 20 times as much.  “Shakira, what do you smell?”  “Shakira, come here!”  “Shakira, come inside.  I want to show you something.”  “Shakira, will you marry me?”  Apparently, calling someone “Shakira” is the equivalent calling them “pretty lady” and the souk hucksters were drawn to Ashley like bees to honey.  She had no less than ten marriage proposals in the hour we were there.  Don’t worry.  Mama bear was standing by with the pedophile stick if anyone got truly out of line, but the cub has learned her lessons well and had no trouble fending the wolves off all on her own.  Overall, it was an interesting experience and I got a great deal on a beautiful shawl wrap (75% off the asking price!) because I can be just as aggressive at bargaining and holding my ground as they are and I’m not afraid to walk away and let them chase me down if they really want to make the sale.  No chase, no sale is fine with me too.  If it’s something I really want, someone else no doubt has it and will probably be more than willing to wheel and deal to separate me from my money.  

We had booked a dinner cruise on a dhow boat for that evening.  Dhow boats have been used for centuries to transport people and goods across the Dubai Creek, a channel of water that cuts through Dubai, originating and ending in the Arabian Gulf.  Some of the dhows have been made over into dinner cruise boats and while the food served was a mediocre glutenfest, the views of Dubai more than made up  for what dinner lacked.

One thing that I especially enjoyed about Dubai is that the buildings there are fantastic.  It’s like they have some sort of ongoing contest to see who can create the most unique or over-the-top design.  Below are some photos I was able to take as we traveled around the area.  I apologize in advance for the crazy window glare in some of them.  I did the best I could while riding around in taxis driven by super aggressive ex-pats who all seemed to be auditioning for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.  (I think I have taxi PTSD)

And apparently Abu Dhabi is not to be outdone by Dubai.  They have their own over-the-top style which includes mainstream as well as futuristic designs.

This building was constructed to resemble a dirham coin.  It won an international award in 2008 for best futuristic design.

And after the Burj Khalifa, the buildings below have to be one of my favorites.  Known as the pineapple buildings, these buildings are covered by fully automatic shutters that close when in direct sunlight and open as the building falls into shadow.  These building officially get the International With4YouGetEggroll Coolest Building Award.  

If you look  at the left side of the buildings, you can see the open shutters.  Totally automatic.  Totally cool.

And if we’re talking about ridiculous futuristic design, I must include an arial shot of Abu Dhabi’s Ferrari World, the world’s largest indoor amusement park.  This picture comes courtesy of arabian-adventures.com.

It was an amazing trip full of amazing sights and experiences.  Dubai is larger than life and a really great time.  We hit it at the perfect time of year.  The temperatures were mid 70s to low 80s every day and the humidity wasn’t bad.  From April through November the place is hotter than hot (up to 119 degrees) and the humidity is around 97 percent.  Miserable doesn’t even begin to describe it, as our friends Brenda and Toni can attest.  Fortunately, the coronavirus load there is very light compared to California and many other countries so hopefully that, along with the precautions we took, worked in our favor.  The next two weeks will tell.  No idea when or where the next adventure will be.  Time and world conditions will tell.  In the meantime, hope everyone out there stays healthy and virus-free.  

 

Mallin’ UAE

Yesterday we visited the two main malls in Dubai, Mall of the Emirates and Dubai Mall.  Here are the stats:  Mall of the Emirates is 

2.4 million square feet, has four floors and over 900 stores and services.  Dubai mall is more than 10 million square feet and has more than 1,200 shops and services and is among the largest malls in the world.  But there is a large difference between the two beyond their difference in size.  While Mall of the Emirates is a large mall that just happens to have the first indoor ski resort in the Middle East, the Dubai Mall is a destination.  This place is amazing! Not to mention huge!  And beautiful. We only saw a very small portion of it and what we saw was absolutely beautiful.   It’s also attached to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, which is an amazing experience all by itself.  

So the plan was to visit both malls - Mall of the Emirates in the morning, followed by a visit to see the Burj al Arab, the iconic hotel shaped like a ship’s sail that has become the symbol of Dubai, then a visit to the Dubai Mall in the evening for dinner, sightseeing and a visit to the 124th and 125th floors of the Burj Khalifa.  Both malls have very high-end stores inside along with many, many American stores (think Forever 21, H&M, etc.) so our intent was mostly to sightsee..  But let’s face it.  We were at the mall. Two malls! And we’re chicks.  Chicks on vacation.  Of course we had to shop just a little.  What red-blooded American woman could resist?

So first up was Mall of the Emirates and Ski Dubai.  Ordinary large mall.  Very clean.  Lots of stores.  A little bit of interesting architecture.  Not much to write home about.

Then we strolled down to Ski Dubai.  Looked cool but three of the four of us are not skiers and no one was really too interested in paying $65 each to get inside to interact with their captive penguins, (much as we all love ourselves a captive penguin)  which is the cheapest “experience” you can purchase, so we had to content ourselves with what we could see through the viewing windows, which wasn’t much.  Sorry, Linda!  These pictures are the best I could do.

The human bobsled ice slide experience

The ski lifts.

From there it was off to see the Burj al Arab, that iconic hotel.  This place is so exclusive that you can’t even get onto the part of the island that it’s located on without a reservation at the hotel or in one of the bars or restaurants.  We considered it, but decided that $80 apiece for a drink was too rich for our blood no matter how opulent and amazing we’ve heard the interior of this place is.  Evidently, it’s really something to see.  We decided to leave it for someone else to see.  We did, however, get to see the outside of the hotel from the adjacent beach area.  The shocker of the day, at least for me, was the color of the Arabian Gulf (the preferred name in Arab countries for what we call the Persian Gulf).  I was totally expecting the water to be the normal blue-gray that we see in the Pacific at home.  Who knew that the Arabian Gulf is the long-lost cousin to the Caribbean Sea?  I was blown away by the color.  Oh, and the Burj al Arab was cool to see, too.

Moving on, we arrived at the Dubai Mall in time for dinner.  Oh, my.  From the moment we stepped out of our taxi, we were dazzled.  We’re suckers for some sparkling lights.

As we walked from this area to the portion of the mall where the outdoor restaurants were, we got a great view of the Burj Khalifa, which at first was all flashing, twinkling white lights...

...and then suddenly the Burj Khalifa busted out the most spectacular light show I’ve ever seen.  If you follow my Instagram, you may have seen the full video of the light show.  For those of you who do not follow me on Instagram, here are some collages of frames from that video so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about since I can’t for the life of me figure out how to embed the video on this blog.  Sorry! 

Is it just me or is this not just the most fantastic thing?  This light show alone made the 17 hours of flying (26 total hours of travel door to door) totally worth it.  Just sayin’.  

The area where all of the mall’s outdoor restaurants are located is quite beautiful, too.

Ashley and I have decided that we want to live here.  Right underneath this canopy.  Forever and ever.  Or until the summer heat hits.  Whichever comes first.  The end.  

Of course, the inside of the mall is not to be outdone by the outside.  We only got to see a small portion of the mall because we were crunched for time to make our 9:00 reservation for our “At the Top” experience in the Burj Khalifa, but I mean, come on!  Two entire four-story walls of cascading water with silver divers?  In a mall?  Good grief!  Beautiful and amazing.  I would love to eat in the restaurant at the bottom!

As if all this awesome, over-the-toppedness isn’t enough, we will now move on to the main event of the day - the ride to the almost top of the Burj Khalifa.  We bought tickets that took us to the 124th-125th floors.  The tickets to go to the 148th floor were way, way expensive, almost triple what we paid, and we decided that the 124th-125th was good enough for us.  The Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world.  (Apparently, Singapore and Shanghai have buildings currently under construction that will dethrone the Burj.  Not to worry.  Dubai already has plans in the works for a massive building that will top those.  Don’t mess with Dubai!  They take their tallest building in the world title seriously!) The Burj is 2,722 feet tall and has 163 floors in total, but visitors can only go as high as the 148th (1,821 feet up).  It also houses the highest mosque in the world.  The 124th floor observatory is 1,483 feet up.  The elevator to ascend to the 124th floor ascends at ten meters (32.8 feet) per second and the whole trip takes one minute.  The unbelievable thing about it is that the ride is so smooth that if your ears were not popping like crazy every few seconds, you would not even discern you were moving. Same holds true for the trip down.  You cannot feel the elevator start or stop.  How they accomplish this at the speed this thing moves is beyond my comprehension.  Oh, and did I mention the video display inside the elevator during your ascent?  It’s so captivating that you don’t even really think about the fact that you’re rocketing to ridiculous heights in sixty seconds. Here are some screen shots from a video that I posted on Instagram.

Coolest elevator ride ever!  And the view from the 124th floor wasn’t bad either.  And in case you’re wondering, you’re looking down on some very tall skyscrapers.

Our final stop was the dancing fountain show in the lake in front of the Burj.  It happens every half hour from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and is a completely different show each time.  The shows last for up to five minutes.  Apparently the fountain show is very similar to the show at the Bellagio in Vegas, but since I’ve never been to Vegas (go figure that one!) this was new and exciting for me.  Our show was set to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”  I managed to keep my phone up high above my head and steady with bags hanging off my arms for the entire four-plus minutes so I got a killer video.  Here are some still captures from the video.

It was quite a day, I’ll tell you.  Dubai is really larger than life.  Amazing and stunning and over the top.  I keep saying that if Hong Kong, Las Vegas and New York City had a baby and dropped it on the banks of the Persian Gulf, Dubai would be that baby.  Without the filth, crime, awful traffic and weirdos, that is.  Really.  

So that’s it for now.  Tomorrow is a super busy day.  We’re up at 5:30 a.m. to finish packing, have breakfast and head out for a full day tour of Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.  We get back at 7:00, have to go have dinner, come back, change, grab our stuff and head to the airport at 11:00 for a 1:50 a.m. flight out of here.  I will do my very, very best to work on a blog post that will cover today’s shenanigans and tomorrow’s, too, and I promise, promise, promise that I will post it when I get home.  

In the mean time, I’ll leave you with this little tidbit:  Did you know that Ashley’s name has been changed?  Apparently she is now known as Shakira.  Just ask any of the Arab men we came across while shopping in the souks today.  They’ll tell you.  More on this next time.