Dubai is plastic

Layover: Turkey sandwich in Turkey, had to do it.

One of the difficulties of planning our journey around the world was choosing destinations, but I always knew that I wanted to check out Dubai.  Luckily Louise had no qualms and we were slated on spending a week there in order to find out what it was all about.  But as our traveling progressed, we realized how much we preferred destinations away from large cities where we could surf good waves at a relatively low price.  We also took advice from other travelers that had visited Dubai and slowly our week was trimmed down to a simple 2 days and 1 night.  The main reason I wanted to check out Dubai had to do with my Developer background, but as my past work faded into the past, so did my desire to relish in concrete.

The second most iconic building in Dubai, the first (The Burge, tallest in the world) opened to the public a few days later.  This hotel is stupid expensive and ironically not worth talking about.

We got into Dubai at around 6 AM and had no sleep on the plane.  We checked into our hotel and passed out.  Louise actually found affordable accommodation.  Don’t be fooled, you can do Dubai on the cheap!  Although our room wasn’t cheap, we could have gone the couchsurfing route or stayed at shadier accommodations for around $40USD/night.  The room was actually an apartment with a kitchen, living room, and even included breakfast ($72 USD).  We slept pretty much the whole day and then got up in time to do some exploring.  After a much needed rest we took the metro which is extremely efficient and headed for the Dubai Emirates Mall.  We had a nice meal and then decided to go snowboarding.

Thats right folks, probably as far as you can get from a legitimate ski slope, we found SKI DUBAI.

It’s an enclosed climate controlled setting that actually snows……..artificially.  It’s freezing in there and since the slope isn’t long enough for you to break a sweat and the lifts are not high speed quads you get pretty cold.  We were dressed up in our rented snowboarding outfits and many of the people in there were locals in their own gear.  Its funny because on a real mountain the people in the rented gear look silly, but here it was the people in their own gear.  I can only imagine what a season pass must cost and is a season pass a whole year?  They didn’t rent you gloves so if you do ever go, bring extra socks for your hands or look on the ground and you’ll find some gloves. 

We had never snowboarded together.  One of the things I have witnessed teaching and working for two seasons in the mountains as an instructor is to never teach your girlfriend/spouse how to snowboard.  It will turn into a fight guaranteed!!!!!!  Luckily for me Louise already knew how to snowboard and was actually very good with a smooth style much like her surfing.  We had a great time that night and rode till they closed down the place.  It was too late to catch the metro back so we caught a cab and surprisingly it wasn’t too expensive.

You can see Lou’s trademark smile!  If you didn’t know, she smiles when she surfs too.

I couldn’t find a toilet.

The next day we got back on to the metro and headed for the water park.  We had heard that there was a flowrider (an artificial wave) and we were anxious to give it a go.  Before we went we decided to walk around a bit and check out the beaches.  We knew that people surfed but we were glad we decided not to break our boards out.  The waves we saw were what I expected, knee high ankle slop.  We’ve surfed worse, but taking boards on the metro is never easy.  After hanging out around the beach we made it to the water park just in time to get the afternoon discount.  We ran to the flowrider and to our disappointment, it was mega-gay.  They didn’t let you stand up and the barrel was tiny.  When I tried to stand up they yelled at me and in this part of the world you don’t want to get in trouble.  Especially at a water park.

Wild Wali Waterpark……weak sauce.

We got back to the hotel which we had checked out of and stored our bags.  They had no problem allowing us use their facilities still, so we took nice hot showers and got ready for our next flight to Bangkok.  We got to the airport with plenty of time which allowed us to kick it in the lounge.  The lounge at Dubai is great.  The food was more like a full buffett, the beer freezing cold, and the service immaculate.  We had a good time in that lounge and I boarded the plane nicely lubricated.

The Lounge Open Bar.

Dubai was what I expected.  Similar to Las Vegas without the gambling.  The cultural aspect is pretty non-existant but it is cool to see the locals in their outfits.  The men wear white robes with a sheet looking thing on their heads and a rope looking type thing around that.  The women are all in black but they are allowed to expose their faces.  In order to differentiate themselves they accessorize.  The add Gucci purses, jewelry, and lots of make-up.  It is an extrememly materialistic place and we were glad to be moving on.  Its definetly worth checking out but no need to set up your second home.

We only have 12 hours in Bangkok so our next post is all about the best power shopping mission in History!

The bus stops are air conditioned

They rake the beaches for big rocks from the imported sand.

The surf is epic.

They serve BJ soup!  Heard its creamy.

Posing in a parking lot.

We rode horses in the city.