World Cruise - Day 92 - Apr 13 - Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Didn’t get up for sunrise this morning.  We had a big oil ship attached to us all night refueling.  I guess this is the port to do the refueling, gas is pretty cheap here.

Heidi, the Bedouin camp was amazing, one of our favorite tours of the trip.  We’ve been able to get a variety of unleavened bread.  India has several types of unleavened bread, as do the Arab countries.  We did bring some matzos and Trader Joe’s sesame crepes with us.  The flies got to the matzos yesterday in the room (they actually got into the plastic packaging, nasty flies), so we have to keep them covered.  The ship does provide matzos at dinner each evening.  It has been difficult ordering, though, since you don’t know necessarily how the food may be prepared, so we tend to order things we know are safe.  And, when in doubt, don’t eat it.

Julie, the photo I took of Krissie with the other women in the background technically was not allowed, but that was my sneaker photo.  The other pic of the Muslim woman at the mosque was by permission.  None of the other photos had Muslim women in them in any visible way, so I didn’t ask for permission, I just took them quickly and moved on (in most cases people didn’t know I was taking their picture).  Krissie didn’t buy anything at the gold souk in Bahrain because I’m too cheap (or so she says when I read her your comment).

Brandon, everyone liked my hat yesterday.  They said it looked very Lawrence-of-Arabia-ish.  Very functional, even if it isn’t the coolest hat in the world.

We heard from some people who went up the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world) that it wasn’t a very good view due to the sandstorm.  It looks hazy again today, so I guess the sandstorm is still clouding things up.

We did a Bible study this morning on Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, then hopped a cab with Phil and Betty Bowen to go look at more of Dubai.  No mosques today (Friday they are close to the public), but drove by this one:

We stopped by the Burj Al Arab, the “7-star” hotel (there is no such thing, hotels are only rated to 5 stars, but they gave themselves that rating) in Dubai, built to look like the sails of an Arabian chow:

We then drove out to the Palm Jumeirah on our way to Atlantis at the end of the palm:

Krissie out in front of the Atlantis Hotel (out at the east end of Palm Jumeirah):

We got into the guests only part of the hotel by asking the security guard out front.  He said he couldn’t let us in, but if we showed up in a cab in the next 10 minutes, he would wave us through.  So we walked across the street and hailed a cab.  The cabbie was a little confused by our request to go down a block, do a U-turn and come back to Atlantis, but he did it and the security guard waved us in as promised.  We had full access to the facility:

Atlantis has a huge aquarium, similar to what we saw at Atlantis Bahamas on Paradise Island:

Lots of fish along with stingrays and sharks:

View of the aquarium at Atlantis:

Out by the pool area:

View from the beach looking at the back of Atlantis:

Remember that everything you see is built on landfill in the ocean just off the coast.  So the sand is shipped in and placed on top of crushed stone.  It didn’t really feel right to us, more like we were walking on a sand parking lot than a beach.  But Krissie did go out into the water:

Spotted this across the way and took a pic of it.  Know what it is?  A cell tower built to look like a palm tree:

No paddleboats here at Atlantis—they are all battery powered:

View of Atlantis waterpark from the monorail:

View of Atlantis from the monorail:

View of Atlantis from the monorail:

One last pic, had to include it as well:

You can see the fronds of the palm tree that is Palm Jumeirah:

Every property is waterfront:

There is a waterway in between each frond of the palm:

You can see that some of the fronds have not yet been developed, like the open sand on the left:

Here is a better view of the yet to be developed frond:

View of North Dubai as we are coming in on the monorail.  The sandstorm has calmed some today, but still obscuring the view:

We then took a cab to Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world:

As we entered the mall, I took this pic of a local guy hanging out with his three wives at the mall.  I wonder how he decides who gets to buy what and when?  Still room for one more?

There was another huge aquarium at Dubai Mall:

Stingray at Dubai Mall aquarium:

Inside Dubai Mall:

View of Burj Khalifa with Krissie posing in front:

I didn’t quite get the top of the tower in the last pic, so here is one of the entire building:

Nearby was a cool place to eat, note the name:

I love ping pong, I would have eaten here:

Lots of impressive buildings in Dubai:

This is the pond area between Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa where the water fountain show takes place later:

Nearby skyscrapers.  They say the national bird of Dubai is the crane.  The building crane.  There are at least 6 in this pic:

Other skyscrapers, more cranes (at least 7 in this pic):

Waterway next to Dubai Mall:

Can you see Krissie in this photo?

How about now?

Now?

Closer up view of the top of Burj Khalifa, where Tom Cruise did his stunts for MI4:

Krissie with Phil and Betty Bowen waiting for the water fountain show:

Water fountain show in front of Burj Khalifa:

Later we went walking through the Bur Dabai and the souk area on the north side of Dubai Creek:

Love the shoes:

There are water taxis that will take you from one side of Dubai Creek to the other for one dirham (about 30 cents):

We ate lunch at Baytal Wakeel, an Arabic restaurant overlooking Dubai Creek:

Old and new: burka and cell phone (no, she did not know I was taking her picture and this is actually the corner of a larger pic that I cropped down to just her):

Can you see our ship out over Dubai Creek?

Just the smokestack is visible:

We walked through more of the souks:

We then took a water taxi across Dubai Creek, here is a view of the restaurant where we ate:

Pic of Krissie on the water taxi (and creepy guy behind her checking her out).  Note that she is the only woman on the water taxi:

Pic of Dubai Creek and some of the surrounding buildings:

Spice souk shop:

Pic of some locals, although not really locals.  Very few locals are actually Arabs.  Most are expats from India, Pakistan and other countries.  And mostly men:

Gold souk shop:

There was almost always a hawker outside each store trying to get you to come in (like this crazy looking guy on the right who is trying to interest me in Rolex watches):

Here is a guy hawking Krissie to come into his store:

…and another guy on the right hawking Phil to come into his store:

Guys walking around selling drinks:

This gold store in the gold souk is rather famous for its…

…huge ring on the left, although Krissie was admiring the gold outfits on the right:

The ring is the world’s heaviest ring, per Guinness:

The ring is a total weight of 63.856 kg or 142 pounds:

These upper buildings were built to provide natural air conditioning to the buildings below:

View as we came back across Dubai Creek as we made our way back to the ship:

One last view of Dubai Creek.

Back onboard.  We really enjoyed Dubai, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a destination for someone from the US due to both the time to get here and the cost, unless it was a stopping off point on a longer journey somewhere else.  Amazing city, but it literally is built on the sand.  I wonder how long it will last.  How long will the foreign workers be able to sustain it?  Most of the building projects have either stopped halfway or are simply on long-term hold.  While Dubai is trying to built itself as a tourist destination, other cities (such as Abu Dhabi) are now building up to compete.  Dubai doesn’t really have anything to see other than the sand and ocean and the man-made structures, but that may be enough for some people.  I was glad we were able to see it on this trip.

The evening entertainment was Zach Winningham:

Tomorrow is sea day #1 of 2 on our way to Salalah, Oman on Monday.