The City where lines don't matter.

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[youtube=UQLJ4zy_jgs]

Link to the video I made of the pictures and video on YOUTUBE.com:

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Dubai is a combination between Las Vegas, Miami Beach and all the planets in Star Wars. It has huge buildings with tons of lights and things to catch your eye, there are man-made waterfalls everywhere, flashy Bentleys and Porsches everywhere you look and even the taxis are BMWs. The Miami Beach part brings a lot of palm trees and a beach with lots of men in thongs. Star Wars comes in with Dubai’s huge building, called the Burj Al Arab, with a bar that hangs off the top in an oval shape and on the other side has a huge helicopter-landing pad. At night they have a sequence of 8 colors that illuminate the side of the building. It’s pretty much a hotel and a bar and to get inside for a look, you have to pay 200 DH, which comes to about 65 bucks. Oh, but they do give you a free cup of coffee, so that makes it worth it.

We’ve been put up at the Ritz Carleton right on the beach. The hotel, itself, is a very wiiide building and has lots of grounds to sun and eat and the beach out in front with umbrellas and employees who spread out your towel for you and come around with cold hand towels and chunks of pineapple. I just had to order a drink and have them bring it to me. A smoothie and no umbrella, but it was still fantastic. Maybe next time. The water in the Arabian Gulf is bath tub warm and Ocean Salty, so its very easy to swim in because of its buoyancy. Apparently this is the time of year to come, too, it being winter, because it gets up to 110 degrees here in the summer, easy. Also on the beach is a man with two camels who strolls up and down the beach everyday hoping to give a beach goer a ride, so I did. For 50 Durrahms, which is about 17 bucks, I got a ride on a camel up and down the beach of Dubai!

After returning from a workout on the beach and some more shell-collecting, my dad told me he had made arrangements to go on an adventure starting at 3:00 and ending at 9:00 with Arabian Adventures! Stoked, we changed and headed down to the lobby where we were picked up by a huge SUV, went to the Jumeirah Hotel, shaped like a wave and directly next to the Burj Al Arab so it looks like a sail boat and a wave, to pick up a bubbly African couple. Then off we went! Our driver was so informative. He started off with what was already built and then telling us what was to come within the next 5-6 years. They are “future planning” in preparation for the day their part of the world runs out of oil. Their fall-back plan is tourism, which I think will work, considering all of the plans they have in mind. They have plenty of space out here. Once you leave the city, it’s just sand for ever.

For starters, they are building about 100 new hotels, which they’re going to need if they’re going to have all these tourists come to visit. Not just any hotels. They are taking the plans from other famous 5-Star hotels around the globe and reproducing them. They’re building the worlds largest mall, world’s largest airport, world’s largest amusement park, whose name pretty much sums up what will be here within the next 5-6 years: DubaiLand. Another city will include 40 meter dinosaurs, while another will include an Eiffel Tower. They already have a Globe Market, which for 3 months is a huge flea market where merchants from all over the world have stalls and sell their traditional crafts. I was sorry to miss this one.
In terms of more permanent living space, they’re not only using the miles and miles of sand to build villages of villas in the style of villas from around the globe, they’re going right out into the Gulf. Two man-made constructions will put a giant palm tree just south of Burj Al Arab and over 70 islands that are organized to look like a world map. United Arab Emirates is obviously in the middle of the map. Every inch of the side of the road had either the beginnings of a building or a billboard advertising what was taking over that plot of sand. It was like the previews in the movie theater. Coming soon: Fall 2008. Except that these coming attractions will be a bit more permanent.

Pulling into a convoy, we entered the Desert Reserve. I guess with a country full of sand that will soon be covered in roller coaster tracks, kids with ice cream all down their fronts and women who wear sunglasses indoors, the desert, itself, will be become a commodity. Pulling between three huge dunes, everyone in the convoy climbed to the nearest peak to shoot some pictures while the drivers deflated all of the tires for better sand driving conditions. Now, my dad set this up, so I had no idea what was coming, which made it all the more exciting. A couple of horn honks later, we jumped back into the convoy of 4-wheeler SUVs and found one of the other SUVs equipped with a GPS system, which I guess being in a desert with little to no landmarks, was a superb idea. Off we went!! We were accelerating up, sliding sideways down on the sides of and surfing to the bottom of each dune that came our way! No wonder they told us to fasten our seatbelts! The driver had some great techno playing on the radio too, which I don’t know if anyone else in the car enjoyed, but I sure did up in the front passenger seat. Our driver was insane! I thought we were going to roll over down the side of one of these dunes every other second, sand flying everywhere, everyone in the car going WOOOOOOOO including the driver!!! I really wish Sandstorm was the song playing, but I’ll find a way to arrange that on the video when I get it to my computer at home. The cars in front of us and in line behind us danced in and out of view, along with a clear view of the sky. Every once in a while, you could catch sight of a car that had gotten stuck in the sand. Stinks for them!! I could tell when I got in the SUV at the hotel it was going to be an interesting trip because all the windows squeaked when you tried to put them up or down. The driver looked over with a smile and said, “yeah, they have to put up with a lot of sand.”

Pausing again for water and soft drinks, we got another view of the Arabian Desert. Seeming endless, you could spin all the way around and see nothing but sand and poisonous apple bushes. Chugging my water, I took the opportunity to fill it up with sand. It’s flippin’ heavy, but worth it, in my opinion. Another passenger and I climbed up to the top of one of the dunes for some picture taking and noticed three other passengers in our convoy to take a picture of. They weren’t just tourists, they were TOURISTS. Three Japanese girls dressed as if ready to mate with the first person they found at a nightclub. The look was completed with high heels.

The feeling of Star Wars crept up again at our next stop, which was the Bedouin’s camp at the camel farm. There were about 50 female camels being cared for by small men and women covered in white, long attire and head wraps to protect them from the sun. I fully expected to turn around and see C3P0 and R2D2 sifting over the top of the next dune in a picturesque scene of three moons. If not C3P0, at least those guards from Spaceballs combing the desert. The only thing detracting from the Star Wars feeling was those Japanese girls giggling as they fell up and down the dunes in their heels.

At this spot, we watched the sun go down. The sun was bright red and wind was kicking up sand on the horizon. Absolutely no pollution. This was strange for me, the New Jersian. I’m used to sunsets that take up the entire sky, but the sun set in the desert was more like a Jersian sunrise. The only thing that changed color was the sun.

As dusk ensued and darkness crept up around us, we drove to the campsite for a quick spin on the new 2007 model camels. Ours farted when we got on it and didn’t want to be led by the dude leading the camels, so he just let ours go with 2 other camels roped to the back of us. He knew exactly where to go and led us right back to the line of passengers waiting for their turn. The ride was too short, but I’m not gonna complain there because I rode one on the beach just a few days before and everything else about this trip was spectacular. Entering the campsite, we found huge BBQ grills cooking up diner, a bar with water, beer and wine (essential to any trip to the desert). Beyond that was a little elevated platform with speakers and two lights attached to it surrounded by walls of tents with long tables and cushions to sit upon. In the back corners were three Henna Tattoo artists surrounded by a pile of pillows. Me, always wanting to have one, sped straight for said artists and got a flower design on my hand. Later in the evening, I visited one of the other artists to continue a flower design around my hand. LOVE IT. They said it would only last for a few weeks, in which time I might need to find a Henna Tattoo artist in the Jersey area.

They fed us till we were stuffed with appetizers, meat dishes, which I made sure to read the labels to make sure none of it was camel, breads, humus (best humus I’ve ever eaten), and Fosters beer, shrug. Then the show began. A real, live, authentic belly dancer. She was very good, especially in getting some of the ogling men from the surrounding tents up to dance with her. She was trying to get them to roll their bellies like hers, which in the process of doing went to each one and lifted up their shirts around their ears.

After chatting with a man from Sri Lanka, but living in Adelaide, Australia in Dubai on business, I ventured over the blankets and rugs they had set up behind one of the buffets. This scene also included more cushions and 3-foot tall hookahs. For smoking honey-flavored hashish. I joined smoking communities with a couple from England and we sat around this contraption taking a puff and passing the pipe/hose. Then came the announcement that the last event of the evening was to turn off all of the lights in camp for 15 minutes to star gaze. Buzzin’, we all leaned back on the nearest cusion and stared at the sky. It was a bit cloudy, but the moon and most of the major stars where visible. Everything was silent, besides the occasional camel groan and the sound of the wind through the tents.

15 minutes flew by way too fast as the lights turned back on and everyone knew it was either stay and get left in the middle of the desert or head back to the cars for the drive back in the dark. Appetizing as both of these options seemed, I thought the drive back in the dark would be interesting, so I sat up and started to stand up. It was then I realized I was buzzin’ a little bit more than I thought. Stumbling through the sand to collect my belongings back at the table, I made my way to the caravan, climbed in and endured a tamer car ride through the sand that on the way out. Pausing roadside, our driver pumped out tires back up and we got on the pavement again to drive back to Dubai. 8:30 felt like getting sat on by a larger person at 5 in the morning.

Within 15 hours, we were on the SLOPES. Hard to grasp, I know. It was for me too. One of the malls has indoor skiing. And not just any indoor skiing, pretty darn good indoor skiing. Not skiing in a while, I was concerned about the whole thing, to say the least. That and the fact that I didn't have any gloves, but that wasn't gonna stop me!! oooh no! I hopped on that ski lift and went allll the way to the middle of the run. So like a 2 minute ride to the bottom and not too scary. Let me tell you though, the first drop when you get around to the slope from the lift was pretty daunting. Everytime I return to skiing, I think, can I really do this?? But after a couple of runs from the midway point by the Avalanch Cafe, the girl I hitched a ride with on the lift convinced to me stay on the lift, up past the Cafe, past the little mound for doing jumps and up to the very top of the slope! This turned out to be a 5 minute run. My legs, luckily were there for me. As the girl I kept company up to the top tipped her pole and zoomed away, I wondered where the days had gone where I flew down entire mountains with no poles and no turning. Where was my NEED for SPEED? After a few snap shots of the view from the top, I found this need for speed. Dug in and conquered that slope. The top of the slope saw me at least 4 more times that day. The last step of the building would have been to go down the super steep and narrow side of the course and do jumps and flips, so I was happy with my day.


The end of that day included getting super dressed up and driven to a black tie 2nd anniversary party for the financial city. Dubai is a collection of these "cities". There's the Internet City and the Health City. On top of them future planning by developing tourism, they've deemed English the language to do it all in. So anyway, I'm all black tied up (I would have gone in a tie, but I didn't think of that and was stuck with a fancy girly outfit, eep!) and we drive up to this huge tented walkway that goes in two directions. The carpet was yellow, but it may as well been red. There were cameras flashing everywhere and reporters snatching people walking in for a few words. There was a whole lot of royalty there along with Jose Correras, a famous former member of the Three Tenors. I hope I didn't end up on the "What not to Wear 2006" Dubai version of Extra. I'm sure they have one. Have the radio channels are in English and are people with English accents gossipping about the weather.

After passing through metal detectors and brushing shoulders with people who could have been a server or a prince, we made our way to the eating area. That's my favorite area most of the time. There was sushi, lobster, meat of all kinds, chocolate fountains, watermelon juice and get this: There was a harpist. That's not the crazy part though. She was playing the harp in a plastic bubble. True story. It was a true test to balance a coat, two plates, a glass of juice, a napkin, chop sticks AND stay in line to scoop up more and more food AND watch the harpist. They did have these plastic things that attached to the dishes so you could hang your wine glass-shaped glass off of it. So that removed one of the balls being juggled in the air. I couldn't eat fast enough, I was almost putting the plate up to my mouth and picking the food up with my mouth to eat it. And when I say "almost" I mean "was".

Soon following, we all merged for the open air 3,000-person stadium and the place was PACKED. There were the stands, spot lights shining up in the air, a huge stage with a big screen and a huge building framing it and hellicopters circling around overhead. Each seat had a bottle of water and a CD of a poem the King wrote sung by a famous Ukrainian female opera singer. The place was PACKED and for good reason too. The show was out of this world. I don't know how they're going to keep this up and top this year next year. There was a huge orchestra, projections on the screen and right on the building of the earth rising, libraries, DNA spinning, colors, flames, then there were actual flames, bursts of fire around the edge of the stage. Fireworks that flew right into the audience, a fog machine that pumped in fog to reflect a dancing laser show and the topper: They had dancers suspended from the top of the 20 story building framing the stage that came from over the top ledge and walked down the building running, jumping, spinning all the way down to the ground in crazy costumes. Insane.

Jose Correras was pretty good. Not as cool as the wall walkers though.

This was pretty much the end of the trip. We went out to dinner with Marwan and his wife Cheree our last night in Dubai and ate WAY too much food and had a grand ole' time. The day we left we ventured to the movie theater and saw Casino Royale and were further convinced that people don't care about lines. Lines are staggered, not straight and if you don't stand withing an inch of the person in front of you, you're inviting someone to walk up and stand right in front of you. Something we like to call "CUTTING!" in Western Culture. Then when you get to the front of the line, you realize why you waited so long. The people behind the glass take forever to get you a ticket and then you have to choose seats! It's assigned seating like at a live theater event! Backwards! Nice thing though, you can order food and they'll deliver it to you in the middle of the movie. The guy next to us, though, must have had trouble with the food he ordered cuz he got up for the bathroom a quarter of the way through the movie and never came back... I'm guessing there was a messed up queue for the lieu as well...

That's about it for the Dubai trip if you don't count the rediculous amount of times they checked our boarding pass and passports in the airport and how their queue system had everyone wait online 9 times before arriving to their seat on the plane. The fact that Emirites Airlines has personal movie screens with 250 movies to choose from that you can start at any time, pause, rewind, fast forward and stop anytime you like made up for it though. Fly Emerites!

Thanks for reading! You made it to the end of the China/Dubai trips! Let me know what you thought of my writing. Really. I want to know. [e-mail]

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Photos

skiing in Dubai!
Skiing within 12 hours of being in a desert is a very strange phenomenon.