I know that I’ve been home for a few days, but I haven’t written my final dispatch for the trip. Some of you already know the exploits, but that’s ok.
On Thursday I had a leisurely day – went swimming in the cold Gulf and then decided to head back to Deira (the part of Dubai to the right of the creek) and went wandering around the Gold Souk again to look at fake Rolexes and jewelry for the family. I also did manage to wander into a government building and took photos, which is a no-no. But I was able to talk my way out of getting into trouble and went on my merry way. Sweet.
At night I had dinner at the Burj Al Arab, which is the only self-proclaimed 7 star hotel in the world, in their seafood restaurant called Al Mahara. I knew from reading about the restaurant that a 5 course meal would set me back 800 Dirhams ($220 or so) but I decided that I would just sac up and do it. To be honest, the food wasn’t that great. I had a lot of interesting food, such as Sea Bass in Liquorice Ravioli with Chorizo but in the end, I felt disappointed and very rushed by the staff who seemed determined to get me out of the restaurant ASAP so they can flip the table. That combined with my anxiety towards “fine dining” made me irritated and uncomfortable. Final damage with one martini and water (nothing quite like a $6 small bottle of Evian) was 905 Dirhams ($250). After that I decided to go wander around the hotel and take a crack at getting into the sky bar at the top that’s cantilevered out over the Gulf. Drinks started at 55 Dirhams ($15 for a bottle of Budweiser, lol) and went insane from there. They had some concoction that involved Johnnie Walker Blue and Dom Perignon for 5000 Dirhans ($1400) but it served 4-5 people so I was like “well, in that case, that’s a good bargain.” After the staff was harassing me about trying to snap photos aimed outside, I said that I’d go home and change and relax by the pool and write postcards and smoke shisha (hey – it’s a good way to relax).
Friday was a day of slacking. I had a 3pm pickup for a desert safari/bbq/belly dancing from the hotel so I went back to trying to finish “The Upside of Down” on the beach and try to get a tan so I can go from pasty white to merely beige. The safari itself was more than amazing. It started out with us driving up and down sand dunes, which seems to be quite the weekend hobby. There were a lot of natives and ex-pats who bought dune buggies and ATVs and were tearin’ ass around the desert. If I had that in my backyard, you’d better believe I’d do the same thing. It’s a must-do if you’re in Dubai. The belly dancing and the barbecue was quote fun as well and it was nice to hang out with the people who were in the SUV with me on the trip – two older French ladies and a mother/daughter who were British Moroccans. They were all really nice and had me laughing about how the mother had “awesome” American food at the mall today – Cinnabon! My arteries were weeping for her. I did end up spending the evening closing out the poolside bar and smoking more shisha with daughter, Nawal, who works for the AP (and who loves America because of the cheap gas, nice people and restaurants like IHOP).
Saturday was the final day before I had to head back so I did all the mall hopping to get last minute souvenirs. I ended up back at the Mall of the Emirates before I went down to Mercato, which is a very elaborately decorated mall filled with expensive shops. If I were a fan of Dolce and Gabbana, this would be my new hangout. I also made a final run to the Deira City Center, which was one of the first kickass malls in Dubai before it exploded into the shopping area from hell. I had dinner at The Boardwalk restaurant inside of the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, which seemed like a nice place to go and golf if I didn’t suck so bad at it.
After relaxing by the pool and reading some more, I decided to make a run to the airport so I can finish up last minute shopping and just have a snack before I began the 15 hours worth of flights home. Getting out of Dubai is a lot better than getting into Dubai with shorter lines and I was able to make quick work of security screenings, passport control and all that fun stuff (FYI, there were 3 runs through the metal detector from the time I set foot into the airport to the time I got on the plane). Dubai Intl does offer free WiFi, which is nice, but I found it extremely spotty so it was no fun at all.
My flight was supposed to leave at 3am so I had to stay up to the point where I would try to sleep as soon as the plane took off. Well, that was the idea anyhow. I had a 3 hour in connection in London (connections either inter or intra terminal are complete clusterfucks) and the plane took off 3 hours late and I missed my connecting flight. British Airways let us fend for ourselves, so a group of us had to grab a security person who would walk us through and sent us to the reticketing desk so we can be rebooked. American Airlines did do a good job at making sure I would be back on a plane. British Airways it seems couldn’t give a shit.
Other than minor snafus, I had a great time on my trip and would recommend Dubai if you wanted a place to go that is out of the ordinary. At no time did I ever feel unsafe or threatened. In fact, you could barely tell you were in the desert because things were lush and green. I would recommend that unless you like schleppin’ back and forth from Jumeirah resorts, then stay in Deira or Bur Dubai.
I did put up the first day’s photos at the normal spot. The rest are being uploaded this week. I’m workin’ on it!
