Dubai

We just got back from a vacation in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. We stayed at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, which might have been the nicest hotel we've stayed at yet! After the six hour flight, we were super excited for the warm weather (We left Zurich on Easter Sunday, and it was snowing!).

The view from our hotel room!

On Monday we went to the Palm, a man-made island shaped like a palm tree, and swam with dolphins. It was an amazing experience - we got to touch, hug, kiss, and even dance with the dolphins! The Dolphin Bay is located adjacent to the Atlantis hotel - an amazing hotel with an aquarium, lots of shops and a waterpark.  The waterpark was too crowded that day, so we went back to our hotel to check out our own waterpark - Wild Wadi - which was amazing! That evening we went to the Souk Madinat Jumeirah (an old-fashioned Arabic marketplace) near our hotel and ate dinner there.

Yes, it's an ATM for gold!

We soon realized that whatever was built in Dubai had to make some sort of world record. On Tuesday we met up with Sabrina, the sister of our friend Julienna in Zurich, who lives in Dubai and went shopping in the world's biggest mall, the Dubai Mall, went up the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa (although the tower had 200+ floors, we only got to go up to the observation deck on the 124th floor - as they said if you go much higher, the view just looks like the view from an airplane - everything is tiny!), and ate dinner in front of the world's biggest--and probably most spectacular--fountain show, which came on every 30 minutes (we even saw an extra show to Michael Jackson's "Thriller"!).

Just in case you need some gold when you're 124 floors up!

Of course there's a massive waterfall in the Dubai Mall.

...and an ice-skating rink.

On Wednesday morning Dave and I did a workout class in the morning (while the kids slept - they never really adjusted to the 2 hour time change).  After breakfast we all went swimming in one of the pools at our hotel.  Nate and Will have made great progress with their swimming in the last month, and they had a great time. We then went to the Wild Wadi waterpark again!  This was the best waterpark ever - for kids and adults!  There is a big lazy river, and you could go in either single or double tubes.  Then there are a couple of places along the route where you can get out and go on the slides.  But you don't climb up stairs, you just sit on the tube bursts of water push you up!  Apparently it's called a water roller coaster, and it is so cool!  So you go riding around, being pushed up for a while, then curving down slides, then up again, etc., until you finally come out at another part of the lazy river.  It is so fun!  There are 2 other slides where you do walk up the stairs and take a 4-person tube.  These are called Burj Surj and Tantrum Alley and were also a lot of fun!

We also got to try the fish spa at Wild Wadi.  You literally stick your feet into a tank where tons of fish are swimming, and they exfoliate your skin!  It feels crazy when you first put your feet in, but it's quite fun!

Wednesday afternoon we went on our Desert Safari with Arabian Adventures.  This was absolutely incredible!  Our driver, Sayed, picked us up at our hotel in a 4x4 and we drove about an hour out to the desert preserve.  Sayed is Egyptian and had lived in Dubai since he was a year old.  He told us a lot about the Emirates throughout the trip.  The first thing we did before going into the sand was to stop and let some of the air out of the tires.  This is apparently important for driving through the dunes.  First we drove to an oasis in the desert where we saw a falcon show.  Then we started the "dune bashing"!  This involves driving up and down the dunes like a roller coaster.  We thought Meredith might not like it, but she LOVED it!  She was yelling, "faster, faster!".  This really was a lot of fun for all of us!  At one point we came upon another truck in our group that had gotten stuck - bottomed out at the top of a sand hill.  Our driver, Sayed, was the one who pulled the truck off the dune.  We drove a bit further before stopping to see the sunset in the dessert.  Then we drove on to the camp.

Once we got to the camp, we got to ride camels - what fun!  We then went into the camp for a great Arabic meal.  There were lots of good things to try - but never any pork (which they don't eat there).  Nate and Will got their sand art (amazing sand pictures made real-time with their names and desert scenes in a bottle) and Elise and Mom got henna (Will and Dad got henna later in the evening as well).  There was a belly dancing show, and then they turned all the lights out in the camp for 5 minutes so we could gaze at the stars.  It really was amazing how many more stars we could see from the desert - away from any other lights!  We ended up being the last ones at the camp, since we were looking at the photos they had taken of our family throughout the trip and choosing some of them.  All of the people there were so kind to the kids - it really is a very child-friendly country!

After a stop, Elise took a turn in the front seat, and Dave in the back!

Thursday we went to the Jumeira Mosque where we attended a presentation by the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding.  It was great - two women spoke about Islam and answered questions about the religion.  So interesting to hear their explanation and perspective and learn more about this religion and culture.  As we came outside after the presentation, there was a dust storm!  It was pretty crazy, as it had been sunny and hot when we went inside, and now it was raining and blowing sand.  It soon subsided, and we went on to the next activity.

The times for the 5 prayers each day.

After the mosque, we went to the Deira, which is the old part of town.  We visited the Copy Market (you can get a good deal on a fake anything!), the gold souk (real gold) and the spice souk.  We had fun in a shop in the spick souk, tried a few things and bought a few as well.  Sabrina met us here as well, and took us on a Dhow (boat) to cross the river.  We had some ice cream downtown, then headed back to the hotel.  On our way there, the dust storm started up again, so we decided it was time to go to the mall, since we wouldn't be going to the beach.  The taxi took us to the Mall of the Emirates, just about 10 minutes from our hotel.  This is the mall that has the ski resort inside!

Friday morning William and Meredith wanted to go to the Kids' Club at our resort again (they had painted shirts there the day before and loved it.  So Nate, Elise, Dave and Nancy went to Wild Wadi at opening time and went straight to the top of the big slides - with no line.  We had a lot of fun at the waterpark that morning.

With Mer and Will at the kids' club, Nathan and Elise ordered room service for lunch (which they thought was very cool) while Dave and Nancy went to the Burj al Arab for tea!  Burj al Arab is the only 7-star hotel in the world.  It's near our hotel (also owned by Jumeirah) and you catch a ride in one of the golf carts over to it (we rode around on the golf carts all the time!).  Well, this is British tea, so it's not just a drink, it's a meal.  We had sparkling fig juice, many mini-sandwiches, turkey and potatoes, sorbet, tea, and lots of desserts and chocolates (7 courses).  After tea, we went to look around a bit and were surprised to be able to go right to the top floor on the elevator.  We got out where there was a bar and restaurant, and took the glass elevator down (looking directly out over the ocean).  Apparently the rate for the very cheapest room there is 2500 CHF per night (approx. $2750)!

Burj al Arab.  Notice the disc sticking out near the top - that's a helipad (we saw a helicopter landing there one afternoon).  The Sheikh and his family and all celebrities stay here (and anyone else who wants to pay for it!).

We spent some time at the beach that afternoon, renting kayaks and the kids had a ball building in the sand.  Elise and Mom got a pedicure, we had dinner, then Elise and Mom went to the Mall of the Emirates at 9pm for some shopping (it's open until midnight, and we stayed almost that long!).  They had almost every shop there - quite different from Switzerland shopping.

Saturday morning we had a bit of time to spend at the beach, Meredith got her hair braided and Nathan got a henna painting.  Then we were off to the airport for our flight back to Zurich.  What a great vacation - we easily could have stayed twice as long!  It was such an interesting place for sightseeing, but our hotel resort was the kind of place you could stay for a week just doing all the activities and relaxing at the beach!  This may just have to be a city that we visit again!