I tried to make it sound like we were just doing a quick spin through Dubai so my Saudi friends wouldn't get too jealous that we were taking two fabulous vacations within a month. The truth is we were meeting a friend who was flying in from Houston for a business trip who had another expat friend flying in from Amsterdam for the weekend, and we all wanted to see and experience as much of Dubai as we could in 3 days!
The logistics were a little more complicated than our usual vacation. Travis, the girls and I flew in on Thursday evening a few hours after Kristin arrived. Kristin's friend Amy arrived late Friday night, and then Travis had to fly home Saturday night as he had to be back at work Sunday morning. Amy flew home late Sunday. To accommodate everyone's coming and going and a jam-packed itinerary of things that Amy and Kristin wanted to see, I booked the first three nights in a 3 Bedroom suite at the Shangri-La in downtown Dubai and the last two nights (where it was just Kristin, the girls and me) at the Jumeirah Beach resort. Both of these hotels are pretty swanky but I thought this way our out-of-continent visitors could get a taste of the real essence of Dubai, which I can summarize as excessively opulent luxury.
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| The Burj Khalifa, from our hotel room! |
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A few years ago I never would have considered spending extra $$ on suites vs regular hotel rooms, but the babies (Lucy) and their (her) finicky sleep issues have changed that! I've only tried to sleep in the same space as Lucy a few times this year and we're at about a 30% success rate. Which means I'm happy to pony up the $$ to guarantee she has her own space so I (and our friends!) can get a good night's sleep. Ellie does fine sleeping in the same room as us, but she's STILL not consistently sleeping through the night, and I just can't chance her waking Lucy up! It will be so nice when they are older and we can go back to not spending a lot of money on large hotel rooms.
In the meantime, we are happy to enjoy this 2000 sqft suite and the view!
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| The living room. A kitchen and 'nanny quarters' were directly to my left, the master suite on the right, and two additional bedrooms were also on the left. It was great for our group of 3 adults and 2 kids! |
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Looking SW, the tall building in the ocean (in the distance) is the Burj Al Arab.
As you can see, there is a lot of construction still in progress in Dubai! |
The first day we had tickets to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa at 10 am. That meant getting up early enough to take advantage of the free breakfast buffet at the Shangri-La (by 'free' I mean we have paid them enough money during previous stays to get 'free' breakfast. Trust me, we paid for it already!)
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| And we're off! Testing out the new camera in the taxi. |
Thank goodness we left with about 30 minutes to spare to get to the Burj. The taxi driver first tried to take us to the private residential entrance, where of course the security guards refused entry. You'd think a taxi driver in Dubai would know how to get to the top tourist attraction in the country! We soon found out that ignorant taxi drivers were common... or maybe they just all play dumb to rack up the rate. Anyway, after the initial confusion he finally gets us to the mall where the entrance to the Burj Khalifa is located. Once in the mall, we were scurrying to get to the entrance by 10:00. I was really glad we had ordered tickets ahead of time because all the viewing times for the day were sold out!
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| I just can't get enough of cute pictures of Lucy and her Daddy. No this escalator did not go all the way to the top :) |
I was impressed at all the displays and information available to read as we made our way to the top. Seeing the comparisons of the Burj Khalifa to other tall buildings around the world was fascinating--I wish I had taken a picture of this, it's SO much taller! They even had a film showing the 'making of' Mission Impossible 4 where Tom Cruise was flying around the outside of the building (did anyone need further proof of how crazy he is? That is pure crazy, my friends!!) This building is so tall it doesn't seem real! It is at least two, sometimes three times the height of all the 'tall' buildings around it. My ears popped about 5 times during the elevator ride up to the 124th floor where the observation deck is.
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| Panorama from the top, looking North West. Our hotel is the 3rd building from the top right side of the highway interchange, light brown in color, with kind of a twin towers look |
The view was breathtaking! The open air observation deck is surrounded by thick glass and seems very secure, so with the wide ledge it didn't feel nearly as terrifying as I thought it might to look over the edge.
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| See Kristin's hair blowing in the wind? Proof we are outside! This picture is looking South East (I think) |
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| More Lucy-Daddy cuteness |
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| Family picture At the Top! |
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| The girls with a view to the South |
One interesting tidbit we learned is that all of the condensate from the air conditioners is collected in a large pool and is used for irrigation and some of the water features around the Burj.
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| That's a lot of condensation! |
After we had our fill of the endless views and the gift shop, we headed back down. This time my ears popped about 10 times!
Next on the agenda was to see the fountains. They were supposed to go off at 1:00, so we were in search of a place to eat lunch with a view. On the way we found this gift shop and made Kristin take a picture with the camel.
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| Can't take enough camel pictures when you're in the middle east! |
After posing with the camel we found a great spot for lunch called the Social House with an air conditioned view of the fountains.
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| CHEEESE! |
They had burgers, pizza, sushi, and a great kids menu in addition to the view we were hoping for. We ordered a pitcher of iced tea and were a little surprised when they came out and scooped what looked like ice cream into our glasses and then poured tea on top:
It was AMAZING! The 'ice cream' was actually more like a lemon sorbet. It was so refreshing! If you're ever in Dubai please stop here and have one of these for me!
After lunch we wandered around the mall for awhile hoping the girls would nap. We ended up in
Level, "
an entire metropolis dedicated to unparalleled selection of women's and men's exclusive shoes & sneakers at Dubai Mall." It was like a designer shoe mall within a mall. The python-soled shoes at the entrance should have tipped me off that I wasn't going to find anything in my price range here!
At some point we decided to book a dinner cruise so we had several more hours to kill before needing to be back to the hotel to meet the shuttle. The aqaurium looked like a fun attraction so we ventured in. And who doesn't like walking through an aquarium tunnel?
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| Yep, those are sharks... |
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| The girls were mesmerized! |
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| This stingray looked to be about as big as my old Toyota Corolla. |
The rest of the aquarium had a lot of fun exhibits too.
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| The lion fish might be my favorite fish in the ocean. He's got so many accessories! |
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| Well Hello there, Mr. Crocodile. I'll just stay over here if you don't mind. |
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| Don't think I've ever seen that side of an octopus before! |
Leaving the mall, Dubai showed us what we came for--not one, but two gold plated cars sitting side by side. There was a nice Mercedes in front of the Porsche and a Rolls Royce behind but they couldn't compete with this:
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| This only could have been topped by seeing a tiger in the backseat. And yes, those cars had Saudi license plates. |
We had been told we'd be picked up for the dinner cruise at 7:45 and it would last from 8-10. While I knew it would be a late night for the girls, that didn't sound too bad because Dubai is an hour ahead of Saudi time, so 10 pm Dubai time is only an hour later than normal bed time. What actually happened is we were picked up about 8:20 and the cruise was from 9-11! I was a bit worried about this but the girls did great.
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| All the boats are decked out in lights. |
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| The woodwork inside was exquisite! The buffet was in a replica of some boat (not the one we were in, hahaha!) |
They served a fairly traditional Arabic meal that also included some Indian dishes and lasagna, I suppose to appease the picky eaters in the crowd.
The cruise took us down Dubai Creek, which runs through the whole city. Towards the end of the evening the entertainment came out. It was a traditional dance (not sure where from!) with two dancers in large skirted brightly colored costumes. They spun around and around for at least 10 minutes, without stopping, lifting portions of the skirt to show other glowing skirt layers. Later they picked a couple "volunteers" from the audience to try it out, and Kristin was lucky enough to be one of them!
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| View from our table |
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| The dance begins |
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| I think he's probably still dizzy from all that spinning! |
Towards the end of the night some cartoony characters came out. Lucy was terrified. Luckily that was the only tears of the night, and then we all got a great night's sleep after returning to our hotel at 11:30!
Despite such a late night (Kristin's friend Amy arrived after we went to bed!) we were up ready to go around 9:00 the next morning. First stop was Jumeirah mosque, where a presumably Saudi woman jumped into our picture. Since she really wanted her picture taken I'm going to assume she also wants it on the internet.
They handed out headscarves to the ladies and had abayas and thobes available for men and women not wearing appropriate clothing. I'm pretty sure the doorman wanted me to wear an abaya but since I was wearing a sleeping baby I got away with entering in my mid-calf length skirt.
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| Or maybe covering a sleeping baby wasn't a proper use of a headscarf? Maybe too much of my part was showing? I'm not sure what sin I was committing here but I definitely got a look. |
The talk was interesting, not all that different than the presentation we heard at the Grand Mosque in Bahrain. I couldn't help but roll my eyes when the lady giving the presentation talked about how the main reason women cover up is for the weather, and the abaya actually helps with that. That is the biggest bunch of baloney I've ever heard! Sure you won't get a sunburn wearing an abaya, and yes since it is black you can get away with wearing fewer layers underneath than if it were white, but no, it is definitely not cooler to walk around in the middle east in an abaya than in normal clothes.
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| A captive audience. |
The mosque itself is beautiful but not as architecturally interesting as the mosque in Bahrain. I've heard that Grand Mosque in Dubai is also very nice so if you can only pick one to go to that's what I'd choose!
Lucy and Ellie really started enjoying themselves when they found the play room:
However this mosque does have a cafe where they serve lattes and ice cream made with camel milk. We didn't particularly care for the "camelattes" but Amy said the ice cream was good.
After the mosque tour we took a cab to the souks.
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| Family picture in front of a shop in the gold souk. This picture of Lucy is more accurate than most for how she spent her vacation. |
There were shops selling gold for what felt like a mile. I have no idea how one would choose what to buy.
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| I most definitely do not have a long enough torso for that piece |
We toured the gold souk, spice souk, and a textile souk. The shop owners were surprisingly pushy in the souks and we had to turn down about 500 offers for Louis Vuitton purses and Rolex watches. Authentic, I'm sure... They were so in your face that it wasn't that pleasant of an experience. I don't think I will be going back, also because we can get the same stuff in our souks in Saudi and Bahrain. I do regret not buying the camel print rompers, but we were really hungry. So maybe there will be a next time!
To get to lunch we had to take this shady looking water taxi. Thank goodness no one fell in.
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| Can't really tell we're on the water taxi here (except for my extreme grip on Lucy), but it's too cute not to share! |
Amy had read about a restaurant called Local House that served camel meat in a safe way and wanted to try it. It was a long hot walk to get there, and we ended up short-cutting through this narrow alley without having a clue what the other end would look like.
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| The stroller barely fit! |
Despite the hike the food was good. And they had the traditional lemon mint drink!
After lunch Kristin and Amy took off to squeeze in a visit to the Dubai museum before their 'dune bashing' adventure and Travis and I decided to take the girls back to the hotel and cool off in the pool.
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| Great view of the Burg Khalifa from the pool! |
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| Ellie and Daddy getting in some good tickle time |
We headed to the buffet for dinner and discovered they had a kids area in the dining room. The hostess put on "Frozen" for Lucy and she was in heaven!
Sadly, Daddy had to leave after dinner to catch his flight home.
The next day there was more touring around on the agenda. We took a brief stop at the Jumeirah public beach, then went to the Madinat Jumeirah area to walk around. This area was really interesting and part of the whole Jumeirah complex. It was fairly new construction but designed to look like an old souk. However there were no pushy sales people here! We wandered into a few pashmina and antique shops, and then ended up in the Mina A'Salam Hotel. Amy wanted to see the turtle rehab at this hotel, but we didn't realize what a treat it would be to see this hotel itself! It was stunning!
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| Waterside dining behind the hotel |
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| Beautiful Lapis Lazuli floor inlays in the elevator lobby |
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| These turtles had some rough times, but they're living a happy life now! |
Next item on the agenda was to check out Ski Dubai at Mall of the Emirates. Unfortunately Middle Eastern people have this crazy fear of cold weather and children under 3 aren't allowed in, so we just had to view it from the outside. After lunch at a Lebanese restaurant in the food court, we headed back to the hotel so we could check out. I was headed to our next hotel, the Jumeirah Beach Resort, and Kristin and Amy had a sunset appointment at the Burj Khalifa and an evening High Tea reservation at the Burj al-Arab.
Jumeirah Beach is a lovely hotel. I had booked a "One Bedroom Ocean Suite" in hopes there would be enough room we'd all get some sleep, and it did not disappoint! The "Suite Life" package started with check-in. They led me to the Executive Club lounge and offered snacks and drinks while a concierge assisted with the check-in process. I was impressed that when I asked for iced tea, a server said they didn't have any, but then about 5 minutes later appeared with a glass saying "We make special for you, miss!" One thing the Middle East is never lacking in is hospitality (when you're paying for it :) ) And I must say it was delicious!
Here are some pictures of our suite:
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| Lucy's pack-n-play fit perfectly in that nook back there! |
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| The bottle of wine was a nice surprise. We had an amazing view off the private balcony! |
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| This kid just has no idea how good she has it! She's not even three yet! |
One of the reasons I wanted to stay at Jumeirah Beach for this portion of the trip was because the kids club was free for kids two and older! First order of business after settling in was taking the girls there.
The kids club was amazing! Lots of toys and activities for kids of all ages. Lucy's favorite part was actually this sand bucket on a chain:
After a light dinner at the executive club I got the girls in bed and then Kristin and I opened a bottle of wine and sat on the balcony enjoying the view. We didn't have a corkscrew and Kristin had a rather hilarious exchange with the front desk when she called to ask if we could borrow one.
K: Hello, could you please send up a corkscrew?
Front Desk: M'am, you need a screw?
K: No! Could you please send up a corkscrew, for a bottle of wine.
FD: You would like us to send up a bottle of wine?
K: No! We have the wine, we just need something to open it with!
FD: Oh! You want a wine opener!
The next day we slept in and went to the restaurant that was open until 11:30 for breakfast. It was good, but I had enjoyed breakfast at the Shangri-La more. After breakfast we decided to explore a little. We were dressed for the beach or pool and just needed to decide which beach or pool to go to! Tough decision! We ended up at the Executive Pool and couldn't have been happier with our pool choice. The kids pool was only about 6" deep, had a slide, fountains, and a few other fun kid toys, and LIFEGUARDS! At first Lucy was the only kid in the kid pool and the lifeguard was so sweet and playing with her. A staff member was walking around delivering popsicles and juice. So refreshing! We had a great time at the pool and stayed there most of the morning. We also checked out the beach for awhile and then headed in for naps.
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| Eating a free popsicle while a lifeguard watches Lucy in the pool. Win win! |
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| Ellie gets to have some fun pool time too! |
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| View of the resort from the pool |
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| View of the Burj Al-Arab and Jumeirah beach from our beach chairs! |
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| Cutest picture of the Burj Al-Arab you'll ever see! |
When it was obvious the girls needed naps we took them inside for a rest. The kids club at this resort was great and would take kids as young as 2 (!) for 1 of 3 time sessions during the day. Kids club is Lucy's favorite part of any vacation so I was happy to drop her off there so Kristin and I could go to dinner. We walked around the marina to the bar in the bay, but they don't let kids in (we still had Ellie with us) so we walked back. It was not for a loss though as we got some amazing sunset views!
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| Panorama of the Marina |
We ended up at a German restaurant with the strangest service I've ever experienced. The food was good but we had to laugh our way through the meal, especially when salads came both as a first course and a side dish!
After dinner we could have gone back to the hotel room and got the girls in bed at a sensible hour, but instead it sounded like fun to head back to Madinat Jumeirah and do some shopping. It was really fun to see this area again but at night because this time the water way was lined with restaurants and people enjoying some al-fresco waterside dining. Kristin also got this beautiful night shot of the Burj Al-Arab!
The next morning we packed our bags and enjoyed breakfast at the main buffet, which was impressively large. It also had what matters most to this westerner living in Saudi Arabia--A PORK TABLE! They also had a kids dining area with a movie playing and plastic plates.
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| Ellie is chewing on a piece of ham |
Ellie picked a piece of ham off my plate and wouldn't let go. I'm pretty sure her smile is saying "Where has this been my whole life?"
We were sad to leave a couple hours later but it's so fun to go home and be reunited with Daddy! Will we return to Dubai? Absolutely! It's only a cheap, one hour flight away and there's still a lot to do that we haven't explored yet.
Now I'm off to plan our next trip--Greece!
