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Published: December 20th 2008
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Dubai
Breakfast after arriving at the airport.
Kiavesh, Maryam, Roli & I Dubai, United Arab Emirates (7 - 17 November 2008)
After Sri Lanka, the contrast to the life in Dubai could not have been bigger! What a city: one big construction site, with sky scrapers up to 900m (Burj Dubai), traffic jams all over, posh people, gold and glitter, mega shopping malls, amusement parks (indoor skiing, water parks) , and so on - an artificial (Disney) world for adults!
Meeting Roli at the airport, we went for a nice brunch with Maryam and her boyfriend Kiavesh, before checking in at our excellent guesthouse. Hidden behind walls, our stay started with a cool pool party basically organized by some Emirates Airline girls. And this in an Arabian country! Crazy! And of course then we went out… To the Jumeirah Beach Hotel with a fabulous view on the famous Burj Al Arab.
On Saturday we picked up a ridiculously huge 4 wheeler (Nissan Pathfinder) and headed to Dibba at the Indian Ocean where we were diving for two days. There I did my first wreck dive - great fun!
On the way back on Monday evening we passed by these fine sand dunes and spontaneously decided to test our vehicle for
Dubai
Roli in the brand new Mall of Dubai off road skills. Good plan, but not so well executed since we failed to properly prepare the car for it (letting lots of air out of the tires). So after a couple of miles on easy tracks it was my turn, and of course I managed to get the car stuck in the sand… By that time it was already completely dark, so Roli went to get help (it’s logic, isn’t it: I f*uck up and someone else sorts it out…). Luckily he found some guys on their quads after 20 minutes or so, and they helped us free the 4 wheeler and guided us back to the main road.
Back in Dubai we checked in at the Kempinski Mall of the Emirates where Folker had organized us a suite at an excellent discount rate! Thx again for that!
Tuesday we mainly spent the day at the hotel pool, and on Wednesday we went to the Wild Wadi water amusement park - great fun! In the evening Maryam and Kiavesh came by the hotel, and Roli and Maryam went indoor skiing whilst Kiavesh and I had some drinks in our hotel room…
On Thursday (beginning for the
Dubai
Mall of Dubai Arabian weekend) Roli’s friend Mehmet picked us up from the hotel since we were staying at his place for the rest of the time. We later met up with Johanna at her work place at the Madinat Jumeirah resort, a huge complex of hotels, bars, shopping mall and oriental souk. Together with her colleague Jan we started the evening in one of the wine bars (accompanied by cheese fondue…) before meeting more of their friends at the in-house Jambase Club where we - of course! - got in for free, had a VIP table and a third 1l bottle of Vodka offered at the end of the evening…
Having drunk 3l of Vodka between 6 of us (…) made it necessary to sleep in on Friday before meeting up with Johanna again (thx a lot for the private Madinat Jumeirah sightseeing tour!). Being completely knackered still we went to bed shortly after dinner.
On Saturday we spend the day at Mehmet’s residential pool before going for a drink at the Burj Al Arab bar where Johanna had organized a reservation (usually you have to book weeks in advance to have a chance to get in!). The Burj itself
Dubai
Hotel beach party is absolutely stunning from outside but very disappointing inside. So we only had a couple of (very expensive) drinks in there and headed to the 360˚ bar, having some beers overlooking the Dubai skyline.
On Sunday we went out the Atlantis Resort to spent a day at the water park. Good fun as well, and whilst Roli was having an exclusive interactive dolphin encounter I coincidentally met Anita and her husband Tom, two working colleagues of P&G Geneva! The world is really small… In the evening we went for some Lebanese food with Mehmet, Maryam, Kiavesh and their friends. Excellent food, especially the lamb brain which Roli liked so much (I didn’t even give it a try…). Before Roli had to leave Dubai the same night, we smoked a Shisha water pipe and had some beers in an outdoor lounge bar. I left Dubai on early Monday morning to spend some days in Moscow.
(Travel blog to be continued in Moscow)
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