summary of Dubai fun

hey guys,

I know I am overdue for a posting. I hope some of you weren't worried that we got swallowed up by the sea of Indian dudes walking around Dubai or that I got sent off to join an Emirati's family of 5 wives and 10 children. Anyways, here's a bit of an update on what we have been doing the last few days. Sadly you'll have to wait a little while longer for pictures because the sketchy internet cafes here that don't have skype (apparently they block it here because it's a monopoly or something...damn straight it is. it's like 2 cents a minute for us to call home), these computers don't have a legit version of windows XP and they don't recognize my memory card reader. So, sorry about that!

Day 1 in Dubai - recovery day: mostly spent recovering from jet lag. it was 6 hours difference from Fiji to Thailand, 1.5 hrs (I think) difference from Thailand to Mumbai, and another 1.5 hrs from Mumbai to Dubai. My poor body clock has no idea what time it is anymore!

Day 2 - wrong way, every time: because we went to bed so early the first day, the second day we woke up ridiculously early. We left our hotel around 6:30 am to go to the Burj Dubai (which is now the tallest building in the world but is still not done being built. It's a secret how tall it will end up being). We also went to the Dubai mall, which was closed. We just walked around for a while, then went back to our hotel to relax for a while. On the plane, I read that there was the world dressage challenge so we sort of found the address, then got a taxi driver to take us out to watch it for a bit. It ended up being a wild goose chase, with us asking about half a dozen people where to find the emirates equestrian club and everyone giving us a different answer (there was also a racecourse and camel racing nearby, so I think that added a degree of complication to our search). We finally gave up, but not without getting some great shots of the Dubai skyline (including the massively tall Burj Dubai) and seeing camels hang out in the desert. We asked our taxi driver to take us to the Dubai mall so that we could actually see what was in it. What a place! There are TONS of high end shops, and it even has the world's largest aquarium (because everyone needs to go to a mall to see sharks and manta rays) and an ice rink. I don't know what was more fun to watch; the middle eastern kids skate around all wearing the same colour of rented skates, or the middle eastern families. It's a little difficult to see how genders are fairly equal in Canada but women have essentially no rights here. So, after a long day, we tried to take a shuttle bus back to our hotel instead of paying for a taxi (we can't really complain, taxis are quite cheap here) but the one we wanted to take was full so someone suggested we take another route, which ended up taking us the complete opposite way of where we wanted to go. On the shuttle, it was Jason and I and two teenage boys who were slowly annoying the driver. At one point, the driver kicked everyone out of the shuttle so we had to take a taxi back to our hotel. On the plus side, we had great night views of the most amazing hotels that money can buy, and by the time we headed back to our hotel it was so late the traffic had died down. So, kind of a crazy day!

Day 3 - blast from the past: My good friend Rheanne recently moved to the UAE, in one of the nearby Emirates. She met us at our hotel and we spent the day on a bus tour exploring the new part of the city. We saw some incredibly buildings and hotels that were recently built or are being built now, including the Atlantis on the Palm and the Palm Jumeira, which are island in the form of a palm tree. We also walked around an area and saw one of the stars of the new James Bond movie (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0316284/) . It was a great way to see the city!

Day 4 - cruise and safari: We took a Dhow cruise along the Dubai Creek (it's a lot bigger than a creek) and then in the afternoon went to a desert safari where we were in a Toyota Land Cruiser (their version of the 4runner) and went dune bashing, where you take a 4 wheel vehicle and drive up and down desert dunes. It was pretty fun! Sometimes we took the vehicle down sideways and I was sure we were going to roll, but our driver was great. We also took a snowboard down a dune, I pet a camel and we had a great BBQ dinner complete with a belly dancer. I also got a small henna tattoo, and Jason and I dressed up in traditional Emirati clothing. Sadly our camera got some sand it in so we'll need to buy a new one because the lens won't open, but I will post whatever photos we took when I can.

So, that's it! Today we leave for Egypt for two weeks. We are debating whether to try to go to Bethlehem for Christmas or not....it might be a hassle trying to get there, but we'll see!

I hope all is well with you and I look forward to seeing you when we are home in two weeks.