There is water in the desert...Dubai, part II

Besides shopping and eating all the western food we good handle...we also spent some time in the water.  Dubai has a nice beach (Jumeirah Beach) and a medium sized water park.  Both spots were interesting sets of contrasts between the extremely conservative bathing suits of the Muslim women, covering even arms and legs, and the not so conservative suits of the mostly European women.  In particular the beach had a very explicit set of instructions on attire, including the fines if not followed (most tourists were not following).  Cameras were also forbidden on the beach, so any shots you may think were taken at the beach, most certainly were not.

   

The Burj Dubai in distance...and the closest Amanda will get to riding a horse this vacation.

  

The Burj Al Arab (most expensive hotel in Dubai) from the top of a waterslide and from the wave pool.

Tanner tries out knee boarding and Justin takes a ride on the giant water slide.

We ended our trip in Dubai by bringing in the new year and watching the fireworks from the top of our hotel and missed the opening of the world's tallest building by a few days, but we had a great stay and were not quite ready to head back to Shanghai.

Between China and Egypt…Dubai…

On our way back to China we decided to spend some several days in Dubai, including New Year’s Eve.  What a great choice that was.  China has its third world moments and Egypt only had a few non-third world moments, so we were ready for a modern and as it turns out very Western location.

We did not know what to expect with Dubai, only hearing about the expensive hotels and desert tours.  Because the hotels were so expensive we stayed at a fairly reasonably priced “4-star” hotel.  Being used to having to stay in “5-star” traveling in third world countries, we were a little nervous, especially since we were going to arrive at the hotel around 1 am.  Well, “4-star” in Dubai was excellent.  Our “room” ended up being a two bedroom luxury apartment that was huge.  The service was fantastic and the price was more than reasonable…a good start to the trip. 

As it turns out Dubai felt very much like staying in California.  It was warm, but dry and a night it was very comfortable.  We were nearby two huge malls (one with a indoor Ski resort, the other an aquarium in the middle) and lots of Western restaurants…our first meal was at Chilis and it was the real deal!

  View from our hotel.  Farthest in view is the Burj (world’s tallest building).

As it turns out, Dubai is mostly shopping and desert.  We skipped the desert part, having gotten enough of that in Egypt.  In terms of shopping we did some of that, including visiting the Gold Suk.   Lets just say we were window shopping there, after checking out a couple of the more reasonable looking pieces, which turned out not to be so reasonable.  It was amazing to see how many people were buying bags full of extremely expensive jewelry.

The kids favorite store at the mall...