Dubai, Part III

We had a relaxing day today, spending all day at the beach. We even made some new friends, a few boys from Lebanon who now live in Dubai. Ariane played soccer with them and Kelly refereed from the comfort of her lounge chair. Needless to say, they were also okay to look at!





We stopped at the grocery store for a cheap lunch and saw this sign, warning Muslims away from the pork products section:



Happy New Year!!! After getting back from Medinat Jumeira, we hung out with the boys we are staying with for a bit and got ourselves all good-looking for a fabulous VIP night out at Club Peppermint.



We had a table and bottle service reserved in advance, so when we arrived we were whisked past the long line of people outside the club and let in the velvet rope VIP entrance. Would you expect anything less?

The club itself is housed in a hotel, as is common for most clubs in Dubai, because it's easier for hotels to get liquor licenses. The club had a DJ and party favors for us, including fun masks:


Pretend the 2 in 2008 isn't backwards:





We danced the night away and had a blast ringing in the New Year!

Tonight we had a dinner reservation at the 7 star Burj Al Arab, the most luxurious hotel in the world. We got all dressed up and indulged in an all-you-can-eat buffet (very Arab). There was so much food I couldn't even manage to try everything!








Trust me, I didn't clean my plate each time!

We also explored the hotel, something you can only do if you have a dinner reservation or are a guest of the hotel. We had to be checked off at the entrance just to gain admittance!







Right now we're hanging out with all of our new friends in the flat enjoying the remainder of our time together. We're leaving on a plane tomorrow to Qatar for the second leg of our journey!

Dubai, Part II

Sunday night we went with Samir and Hekmat to Arabian Nights for a fantastic traditional dinner. We ate ourselves silly eating baba ganouj (mashed eggplant dip), hommos (hummus), tabbouleh (bulgur, chopped mint and parsley, and spices), stuffed vine leaves, halloumi (cheese made from goat and sheep milk), kebobs, and more! There was so much food and it was delicious and healthy (mostly!). I loved that almost everything was vegetarian and Ariane decided her version of heaven would be filled with heaps of hummus. Since we had a crazy New Year's planned for last night we decided to keep things low key - ie: finishing dinner at about 12:30am.


A mint tea toast:
If you're really fancy, you pour mint tea like this:


Yesterday was a holiday, so almost everything was closed. In the morning, we checked out a high-end mall, Wafi that has the types of stores that make you feel as if they're too expensive to even window shop in!

We explored Memoires, a store set up like an old Victorian mansion with imported antiques from Europe. It was so elaborate it felt like we were touring a museum and all the employees were dressed in period costume. They even had a vampire, who kindly agreed to a picture with us (in the store entrance as photography inside was prohibited).


One of the stores was selling furniture covered entirely with Swarovski crystals.



We also shopped in Wafi Gourmet, which featured premium chocolates and cookies as well as baklava and some candy/taffy looking stuff that I don't even know how to describe. We made friends with one of the clerks and he hooked us up with a bunch of samples! We liked it so much we decided to pick out a mix for Emre and Emil, the two boys who have graciously been hosting us this whole time! We also got to see pita bread being made first hand, even though I still can't understand how they get the air pocket in it!


In the afternoon we returned to Medinat Jumeirah to take a few more pictures and explore further. We even managed to sneak into the ultra posh Medinat Jumeirah hotel to do a little exploring.


Medinat Jumeirah has a great view of Burj Al Arab, the seven star hotel where we're having dinner tonight!!

Dubai, Part I

It's gorgeous in Dubai! Even though it's technically winter, every day is 75-80 degrees and sunny. Yesterday, for our first day in the city we checked out the huge Mall of Emirates, the largest shopping center outside of the United States. It has over 450 stores and also houses Ski Dubai, the indoor ski place.



In the afternoon, we went to a hookah bar and smoked some shisha in true Middle Eastern style.
Dinner was at the Medinat Jumeira souk. Souks are traditional marketplaces that sell everything under the sun - pashminas, textiles, jewelry, spices, trinkets and more. The Medinat souk is a fake souk - it's very new and overpriced.

After dinner we went to a Cuban bar - Malecon - in Dubai Marine Club for drinks and a bit of dancing.

Today we shopped at the gold and spice souks in the morning which was amazing. Each of us bought a jewelry souvenir at the souk. Kelly bought a pretty sparkly white gold bracelet, Ariane got a white gold chain and I got an ornate gold link necklace.



Myrrh:

Frankincense:
Here Kelly is having a sample of dried and salted shrimp. It was a bit like Fear Factor, reaching into a bin of shrimp and eating one whole...sanitary I'm sure!


Some old men enjoying the Dubai sun:


The afternoon was spent at Jumeria beach, sunning ourselves and hanging out with the AIESECers we're staying with.


And having a bit of a photo shoot:


And yes, we did wear our bikinis at the beach, but it was a bit windy towards the end so we put our overclothes back on!

I'm loving Dubai and experiencing this completely different culture, although Ariane keeps reminding us that we're in for even more culture shock in Qatar, which is a much stricter Muslim country.

That's all for now, we're off to dinner at a really fabulous traditional Arab restaurant tonight!

Also the government blocks parts of the internet here due to its content being "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates."