Here we are again!
As I mentioned briefly in the opening entry to this blog, the hotel at Dublin airport SUCKED. So did Dublin airport. Is anyone surprised? ...Yeah, didn't think you would be. The flight was fine apart from the sucky Dublin group of males we were seated beside. It always makes me glad I'm Canadian when I see the likes of them. ;D They were the loudest people on a plane that also held Indian families, so that's quite an achievement. And they were loudly rude and obnoxious and drank the whole way. It's such a shame that most tourists to Ireland are forced to land in that city and meet those types of people first. It's a really awful first impression.
I watched Iron Man 2 and the new Karate Kid on my little touchscreen, and because the dub with the beer belly in front of me shoved his seat the whole way back for the entire flight, I watched them both about six inches from my face. I fully support the movement to restrict economy seats to upright positions only. If you want to be an ass, you should have to pay for it. And back to the films for a second, Will Smith's son is AWESOME. How do you learn kung fu so well at the age of nine? Or whatever he is?
SO DUBAI. The hotel is lovely, everyone is friendly (I know it's part of their job description, but it's a nice touch), and the air conditioning makes you forget that it's an inhuman 43°C outside. In case you don't know my father has now retired and, having nothing better to do, has decided to tag along. :D I slept in this morning since the futon in the Radisson in Dublin was so terribly awful that I only got about two hours sleep (there isn't a hostel I've been in that was worse; in fact, Rombuk Monastery at Everest was probably more comfortable - though, to be fair, I had several layers of clothing on while I slept). After breakfast (hey! It's also not Ramadan anymore!) we walked to the Bur Juman Mall, just to experience the reason why taxis are the only way to get around (unless you own a helicopter or a limousine, of course). It's the heat. It's intolerable. We got Big Bus tickets for the day and we had the front seat at the top of the bus in the AC, but only took it as far as Wafi Mall, where we swapped to the infinitely more breezy and un-air-conditioned blue bus.
We took this all down Sheik Zayed road which is actually enormously long. Last time I took the full blue bus route, it took three hours without getting off. The Burj Khalifa (formerly the Burj Dubai, but it ran out of money and Sheik Khalifa, of Abu Dhabi, stepped in and stumped up the money, so they renamed it after him) is now complete and neck achingly tall, so once we reached Dubai Mall, we hopped off to have some food before looking for a way in. Didn't realise until we had walked about two kilometers that Dubai Mall is currently the largest mall in the world, and you practically need your own camel train to get around. We had some KFC anyway, and eventually found the queue for Burj Khalifa tickets (the experience is called "At the Top" or something similarly catchy) only to discover upon reaching the counter that none were available until 7:30 this evening. And we had other plans. :P They have an enormous aquarium there (and a glorious shop across from it called "Candylicious", which I fell in love with instantly), so we entertained ourselves by watching giant fish float way above our heads in a giant tank for a while, before braving the sun and heading outside again.
There is an artificial lake at the base of the Khalifa, so we took some picture there and admired the beautiful boardwalk and Venetian bridges that hardly anyone could use since it was SO FREAKING HOT. There was a souk across one of the bridges, so we went over there for a while, before getting bored and hailing a taxi to the creek. Abras are these little boats that cross the creek all the time (and are far more affordable than the toll bridge, probably), and Daddy wanted to try them. Unfortunately, we got off on the wrong side of the creek and spent twenty minutes walking along beside rows and rows of dhows (larger, cargo boats) being offered dinner cruise after dinner cruise. When we reached Dubai Old Souk, we turned back and hired a small boat for half an hour instead. The driver didn't feel like working either, so he made us drive the bloody thing ourselves. Sheikh Maktoum bridge is still standing, don't worry. I'm an awesome creek boat driver. We picked one of the drivers friends up off the dhows on the Bur Dubai side, then he took the wheel again, and dropped us on the Deira side, where we finally found an actual abra station. Which cost 1 dirham. Which is, like, 20c.
Back at Dubai Old Souk, we held onto our bags, fixed our sight on a point in the distance and charged through. I have enough problems buying normal shoes at home, what with my horrendously gigantic feet, without trying to figure out if a pair of jewelled, curly-toed, genie slippers will match anything I own. I'm also not really in the mood for packing my bag with pashminas or rugs. And I despise being yelled at with "YES! MADAM! IN HERE! YOU COME!". NO I WILL NOT, YOU OBNOXIOUS CRETIN. You know, it's fine. Your women can dress however they want and stay out of whatever buildings or ceremonies they're forbidden from, but just because you can see my neck or arms does NOT mean I'm some sort of immoral hussy that you can stare at or touch. That's NOT my problem. That's YOURS. Learn some god damn manners. >:(
Grr. Onward to Deira City Mall, where we joined the Big Bus brigade again, this time for the night tour of the city. It gets dark very fast once the sun goes down, but it remains hot. In December, someone told us, it can cool to 13°C in the desert. Oooh, lowwww... ;) We had a real live guide - Luke, the Australian expat who was about 18 - but the crowd on the bus sucked and refused to participate in the silliness or laugh at the jokes, so it was basically just me looking weird. I did have to laugh when he pointed out a shop that does a great camel milkshake and reminisced about the time a tourist had asked in shock if "they grind up whole camels to make a milkshake?!". lolz! He also presented us with a hypothetical situation that goes thus: You're speeding down the road on Dubai. On your left are date palms, the national tree. On your right are camels, the national animal. A man jumps out in front of you. Remember, you're speeding. Something's gonna give. What do you do? He felt he had the measure of the tourists on board when all but two opted to hit the man (*guilty*). That clearly wasn't the right answer! If you hit the date palm, you'd pay 10,000 to the government. If you hit the camel, you'd pay 70,000 to the owner/government (one or both, I can't remember) and may be targeted by the camels owner for DEATHHHHH. If you hit a racing camel, you're doomed, and if you hit the king's racing camel, well...your life is pretty much over. Don't do it. If you hit the man, you'd pay another government fine in the hundreds of thousands, you'd owe his family blood money and you'd go to jail. Don't do that either.
So after all that morbidness, it was time to return to the hotel. We went to the bar to get some food and made great friends with the waitress, who was adamant to have us drink some alcohol. And they had such pretty, fruity cocktails, I could hardly refuse. ;) I had some lovely spring rolls (I was too full of Candylicious delights for anything more) and a Singapore Sling. Nice way to end hot day in Dubai.
(I forgot the adapter for my camera's memory card, so I shan't have any pictures for a while. Screw you, Olympus, and your odd formats...)
Back on the bus
Friday, October 01, 2010
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Other Entries
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1An cead oíche
Sep 292 days priorDublin, Irelandphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
2Back on the bus
Oct 01Dubai, United Arab Emiratesphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 1 -
3Into the desert
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4At the top
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5Back in Beijing
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6Walk walk walk...
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7Wall wall wall
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8Back breaking work
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9Time to shop!
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10Rain rain, go away
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11Last Supper
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12Lá ar an Trá
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13By the Wonderful Sea!
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Comments

2025-02-10
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Sheryl
2010-10-12
Mary you crack me up :).
Did you try a camel shake??? If so hopefully it wasn't too hairy :). Chri had camel milk when we were in India until an old man came up and told me to watch out since it ould give him bad gas that night. Tee hee..... Chris descretely threw away the remaining milk. Tee hee.
Cool that your Dad is along for the trip. :).
Have fun :).