The older we get, the more jet lag kicks our butts. With that in mind, I figured we should return to India after Christmas break a bit early to recuperate. However, the winter air quality in Delhi keeps us indoors, so we opted to spend a few days in Dubai instead, tempted by sunshine, fresh air and quite a few friends who used to work with us in Shanghai and now teach at the American School of Dubai.
We crashed at the home of the Toas, friends from Shanghai days. Unfortunately they had to work, but they left us a key and information on getting around town.
Dubai was everything we expected it to be. Biggest this. Tallest that. Fanciest everything. Sunny, bright, clean.
We spent one day walking around in the Dubai Mall (biggest mall in the world, of course). There, we gawked at the Dubai Aquarium fish tank (only the second biggest in the world, sigh…, although it does have the world’s largest acrylic panel). The tank holds 10 million liters of water and houses more than 140 species of aquatic animals, including … ahem, the largest collection of sand tiger sharks in the world. We walked through the aquarium’s acrylic tube, which offered surreal views of the sea life with a background of mall shops. The rest of the aquarium was much like aquariums everywhere. I loved the bilingual signage, though.
Although the outside temperature was a bit chilly, we braved the cold to enjoy delicious Lebanese food on the terrace of Al Hallab restaurant, overlooking the Burj Khalifa’s fountain show. As we were eating, Tony suddenly realized the building next door was The Address Hotel, which had caught fire on New Year’s Eve.
I couldn’t get the top of the building in the frame!
Our second day in Dubai, we got a bird’s eye view of the city from the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. An elevator flew about 33 feet per second to the 124th floor. We snapped a few photos and looked through the time-traveling binoculars that showed both real-time and historical images of the area below.
Then we climbed up the stairs to level 125 and stared out to where the city met the the desert on three sides and the sea on the other.
Back on earth, we hopped on the City Sightseeing Dubai hop-on hop-off bus. Without thinking it through, I insisted we take the “historic” route. I guess I thought we might see some evidence of the city’s former life as a fishing village and hub for the pearl industry, as illustrated in this old Daily Mail article, “Dubai Before the Boom.” We did not. However, we hopped off to visit the gold and spice souks, and then walked along Dubai Creek for a bit, which was interesting. When we were ready to continue the bus tour, we realized the company’s map was woefully uninformative and we couldn’t find the next bus stop. After awhile, we encountered a few others with open maps and perplexed expressions. Eventually, we all sat in the shade to rest, and lucky for us, the bus pulled right up! (For future reference, I’d suggest the Big Bus Dubai company instead, if for no other reason than we saw their marked bus stops all over the place. We never did see a marked stop for City Sightseeing Dubai.)
How’s a girl to choose?
That evening, we hung out with Shanghai friends, Kara and Dave. At their place, we played with their cats, chatted passionately about books with their daughters, gossiped about former colleagues and laughed until almost midnight. Not a good plan when you’re trying to get over jet lag! But super fun nonetheless.
The Coles, the Dents, and Sarah (We didn’t get a photo with Jake! Doh!)
The next day, we blew off Dubai and read by the pool for the entire day (with just a couple breaks to visit nearby cafés). We met up with yet another fabulous family we knew in Shanghai, Robyn and Jeff. It was great to see how happy they are living in Dubai. “You just work, work, work all week, like you always do, and then if you can find time to relax at the weekend, it’s like a holiday resort,” Robyn said.
For our final day in Dubai, Tony and I took Jake’s advice and checked out Dubai Marina, which naturally bills itself as “the most luxurious man-made marina in the world.” It was pretty swanky. Carved from the desert, the 3-kilometer long canal was flooded with water from the Persian Gulf. We walked along the promenade, flanked by everything rich people need: shops, restaurants, apartments and yachts.
It was just a short jaunt to the beach, which was surprisingly clean and user-friendly with showers, toilets and heaps of family-focused diversions. You could go tubing, ride a camel, bounce around on floating inflated “icebergs,” skydive, rent wetsuits for swimming in the chilly water or a lounger for sunbathing, dine at a beachfront restaurant and/or stroll in the surf, collecting little shells. We had a mouth-watering lunch at the Shake Shack (I know, this is something I would mock if someone else said it, but it truly made us so happy!), and then kicked off our shoes to dig our toes into the hot sand. Scrumptious.
In front of the restaurant.
Behind us, you can see construction under way of the future Bluewaters Island, a $1.6 billion (with a B) project that will include retail, residential and entertainment zones, all built on reclaimed land.
That’s the Atlantis Resort on the man-made island, Palm Jumeirah, in the background.
We left Dubai early the next morning, and arrived back in Delhi to find an elephant in our neighborhood, entertaining kids at a birthday party. Never a dull moment!