Sept 6- We arrived around in Dubai, United Arab Emirates at around 1am and hung out with JJ's old friend Mike Campbell (brother of Melissa of Brisbane fame- see previous blog entries) at his apartment. Dubai is a very cosmopolitan, westernized city in UAE, on the east coast of the Arabian Penninsula. It's a big business, oil, import/export city with lots of ex-patriots (foreigners like J3 working there). And everywhere you look, there is a building under construction. One interesting fact Mike enlightened us with is that UAE was recently noted for having the 2nd most active cranes in the world China! Let's just crunch some numbers for a minute. The UAE has a land area of 83,000 sq. km. with a population of 2,563,212. China's land area is 9,326,410 sq km with a population of 1,306,313,812! Bottom line, the UAE has money and lots of it!
We awoke late and went to lunch w/Mike, Dave, and Hassan. That night we shifted gears from roughing it in places like Turkey and Morocco....in a BIG way. We saw the hot hip-hop band The Black Eyed Peas at the Dubai Expo Center. Aside from the fact that the sound was the quality you'd expect from a...well...an EXPO CENTER...it was a great time. But we were definitely experiencing a little culture shock.
Sept. 7- More of the same- coffee around noon frm Costas downstairs, and lots of blogwork, laundry, and hanging out trying to get over Mustafa's revenge.
Sept. 8- Note to self- Thursday night is like Saturday here! So we hit the town, first to Jumera mall, which had incredible interiors- almost like a Las Vegas casino. We were denied entry into a bar due to Dave's sandals (this ain't NYC!) and ended up in Trader Vics, where the drinks were as stiff as my back after the Hong Kong beds (sorry, getting ahead of myself). We weren't that impressed w/the ambience, so we headed to IBO for some real fun. It's no Rich's, but a good time was had by all.
Sept. 9- Up late, food w/the boys including our new buddy Hassan @ Tony Roma's in another mall. This mall was designed where each section of the mall is designed as a different part of the eastern world- from China to Egypt to Morocco. Headed back to Hassan's where we relaxed to jazz and tried his mango flavored tequila....mmmm!
Sept. 10- We shopped for xmas gifts at the local shopping area, then off to a desert trek & dinner. Our Landcruiser got stuck (no JB root beer belly jokes please), rode a camel, had a great dinner at the "oasis", and watched the sunset over the dunes. After a shisha and watching some belly dancing, we headed back & hit the hay early for once!
Sept. 11- Sunday lunch @ the Jumera Beach Club, which overlooks the Burj Al Arab (the most famous hotel in the world right now (you know, the one that looks like a big sail). No one can get into the Burj...without dinner reservations worth probably $200! We met the hotel mgr of the Jumera Hotel & Club-Rebecca, a friend of Mike & Dave's, and she gave us a tour of a villa & the view from the rooftop club. After some rest at the apt, we went out for dinner at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Notable- JJ's old friend Tarek showed up to say hi. After dinner, we said our goodbyes and headed off to the airport in a cab...both of us coming down with chest colds!
<<On a side note- Think you (or we) have been around a lot? Check this out.>> Christian, a friend of Hassan's, has moved around a lot in his life due to military parents, and currently due to his job as a hotel manager. He has been to the following places (amount of time in parentheses): Bombay, India (3 yrs), Vienna, Austria (3 yrs), Paris (3 yrs), Cairo (3 yrs), Tunis, Tunisia (1.5 yrs), Switzerland (3 yrs), Providence, RI (1.5 yrs), NY, NY (3.5 yrs), San Francisco, CA (3 yrs), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1 yr), Bahrain (1.5 yrs), Agaba, Jordan (6 mo), Abu Dhabi, UAE (6 mo). He is headed soon to the Maldives, a tropical island chain in the Indian Ocean. We proceeded to make fun of him for never visiting the moon, Antarctica, and Never Never Land. AMATEUR!
Thanks to Mike, Dave, Hassan, and the rest of the gang for showing us such a great time! Now, like Alexander the Great, we feel the need to go further east!
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