Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Oh, Hi Dubai!


I think the trip that shocked me the most was going to Dubai. 
Never in a million years did I think I would go to the middle east. 

But around these parts it's a common destination for holiday. 
So we jumped on the bandwagon in February.  

Here's a little recap
We stayed at the Atlantis which had a water park on site. 
Perfect if you're traveling with children. 
view from our room

We did the Sunset Safari excursion which was a four-wheeling drive through the desert.

 We stopped at a few places to take some pictures and climb dunes.


We saw a falconry show and learned a little history about how they were used for hunting. 

 

Driving through the dunes in the desert took it's toll on us older folks. Matt was hanging on for dear life. Many of the other cars had to pull over for car-sick passengers. 
It was hysterical and nauseating all at the same time.


We ate an authentic meal sitting on rugs in the sand in a desert campsite. It was very very cool! There were tents with henna artist, shisha, arabian coffee and a dancer.  And we got to ride a camel. 




The clean up crew. 
As I was leaving I peeked into a dish and saw this massive beetle enjoying some leftovers.


Within the hotel there was an enormous (probably 3-4 story high) aquarium. The fish were amazing. We had to stop every time we passed it to watch for a few minutes. 
Photos can't do it justice and it never got old. 

 I thought the jelly fish were really interesting.

We took a bus tour.
which included a boat tour. The little boat shown here is a water taxi called an abra they take you from one side of the river to the other where the old souks are.

 The textile souk was fun but exhausting. The stalls all have a lot of the same stuff and the staff/owners are incredibly aggressive. At first it was fun talking to them and laughing at how hard core their sales approach was. "You are a my good friend, I'll give you a good price."  
Then when you couldn't get away from them it got old. One guy literally chased me down the alley when I got fed up and walked away.


Dubai felt old and new at the same time.  It's a city under construction and well on it's way to being the Las Vegas to the rest of the world.  
Our flight home was at 3:00 am. So we had some time to kill after checking out of our hotel.

So Matt and Drew went snow skiing. 
Yes, you read that right. There is a mall in Dubai that has an indoor skiing park complete with a penguin "experience". 



Where else in the world can you go to a water park and then snow skiing in one day? 
It was the trip of a lifetime. 

6 comments:

Coulda shoulda woulda said...

So good to see you had fun and are making the most of local holiday traditions too :)

Next time you get a chance you must to to Marrakech - it is actually closer than Dubai and even more mesmerising! Perhaps not as kid friendly as Dubai seems geared for families but as it is only three hours away it is possible even for a weekend.

Hope you are loving being a Londoner!

the gardener's cottage said...

julie can you even believe you got to do all this? just think how cool it will be for drew when he's like 18 and saying, dubai? yeah, been there...it's alright. haha.
you are one lucky lucky gal! xo

webb said...

Now there's an experience that your son would never have had if you hadn't taken the leap and gone to London for a while.

Stitchfork said...

Having fun and making memories! Keep it up and enjoy!
xo

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness, the adventures youre having are amazing! What a wild place and so different from the US but it's a shame it's becoming Las Vegas :(
Hope you have a great summer. xo Nancy

About Last Weekend said...

Wow, you did everything there! Love the light there, its the most beautiful at night don't you think.

We keep meaning to go as one of our best friend's lives there but keep putting it off because of the flight, that country seems to be so many contradictions - is that the place where there is a palm shaped island? Mad made?