After saying goodbye to us in Borneo, my parents headed east around the world to hit Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Beijing in China before returning home to Seattle. Meanwhile, Rorie and I continued west around the world and left Asia, our home for the past seven-ish months. Our destination was Dubai, our first stop in the Middle East and home to some of Rorie’s good friends from college, Matt and Donna, that we would be staying with. We only planned a few days in Dubai to see them and to give me my first visit to the city (Rorie had been to visit them before, which means this was also the first time on our trip that we went anywhere that one of us had already been). [Editor’s note: Our short time in Dubai had less to do with my having been there before, and was instead more rooted in the fact that 3 days is about all you need for Dubai. It’s a spectacle for sure, but it lacks the depth to warrant more time. With that said, I was glad to go back a second time (my first time there was excellent) mostly to visit my friends while in that part of the world, since I’m not there often.]
For our first full day in Dubai we went to a delicious brunch spot with our friends and learned that Dubai is something like 80-90% expats and westerners. Except for the oppressive dry heat outside as we walked from the car to the restaurant, I could have been in a trendy new spot in Brooklyn or LA (and with the prices to match – we are definitely not in Asia anymore!). I was struck by the improbability of the city rising out of the desert – even driving around just a little bit, we’d see huge modern skyscrapers next to completely empty lots of sand and open desert – there’s not much in between. Having traveled through so much of Asia and having stayed out of the big cities for the most part, seeing huge glass-walled buildings was a bit of a culture shock in and of itself, let alone with the dry sandy environment around us. [Editor’s note: My first day in Dubai was slightly different. We arrived around 2am and weren’t in a position to go to bed until around 3am. My Jazz had a playoff basketball game at around 3:30am Dubai time and the NFL Draft was on at around 6am Dubai time, so I just decided to stay up all night (aside from a 30 minute nap) to watch both. Clearly this was an inspired idea, since this overnight viewing session coupled with my jet lag to wreck me for several days. Still, I think it was well worth it!).]
Hello, Dubai! Skyscrapers & desert & ocean as far as the eye can see.
Later that day, the four of us went to the Dubai Miracle Gardens, which was a spot Matt and Donna had always wanted to go and hadn’t in almost ten years of living in Dubai. This is a Disney-esque creation where enormous sculptures and structures are completely covered in living flowers and plants, and we wandered around as long as we could stand the heat to look at it all. There were giant animals, entire castles, and the world’s largest living plant arrangement (apparently), a life-size jumbo jet made entirely out of flowers. [Editor’s note: Something like this is a perfect introduction to what Dubai does – they focus on a single, inconsequential item and try to do it in a manner and scale that is ridiculous, infeasible and bemusing to behold. I was real glad that this was Jess’s first introduction to the “Dubai-ness” of the city.]
Jess, Donna, and Matt in front of a huge flower Mickey Mouse.
<3
Here’s that floral jumbo jet we mentioned.
A selfie in front of the world’s largest flower sculpture, or however the Guinness World Record was worded.
The next day Rorie and I were on our own to do the tourist thing in Dubai, which means: Malls, Malls, and more Malls. Basically all of the culture in the city happens within huge, ornate, air-conditioned malls. Matt and Donna lived within walking distance to the “mall that has the ski slope in it”, so that was our first stop. It was only about a ten-minute walk, but we quickly discovered why no one walks in Dubai when we managed to get caught in a brief but sudden sandstorm on our way. [Editor’s note: Sandstorms are not a common occurrence in the major metropolitan cities I’ve lived in and visited before. Really surreal.] In the first mall, we got a look at said ski area, completely enclosed and kept below freezing temperatures, though we did not partake in a run down the slopes – they lend you parkas when you go in and there’s an entire ski lift to get you to the top! Nuts.
A view of the indoor ski slope, complete with ski lift!
We also satisfied a long-held craving by eating a burger at Shake Shack in a nod to our past New York lives. After that, we took Dubai’s metro system (very clean, fast, and easy) to the other main attraction – the mall next to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. This mall, not to be outdone by a ski slope, contained among other things an enormous aquarium inside it. [Editor’s note: Jess isn’t doing this justice. It had full-sized sharks and rays inside, along with men in scuba suits cleaning the inside. It is a ridiculous feature in every sense. Note also that it is located across from the largest candy store in the world, which is where we headed and spent an inordinate amount of time gawking at the candy and whining that we couldn’t buy it all.]
A security guard in a suit in front of the giant aquarium in the mall.
Then it was time to head up to the top of the Burj Khalifa! I was pretty excited for this even though Rorie had done it on his last visit. We went up to the visitor deck on the 125th floor (there actually is one higher than that, but it cost some ridiculous amount of money and at that point, you’re already pretty high up so what’s the difference, right?) via an incredibly fast elevator that only took a couple of minutes. From the top, there were two levels of both indoor and outdoor viewing decks with insane views out in all directions of the city, the ocean, and the desert stretching out below us. It was a really cool experience and I’m glad we did it, even though it’s just about the most touristy thing one can do in the city. [Editor’s note: The other cool thing about being up that high is that you can see the spastic development of the city, which was done in fits and starts in various places. You’d look in one direction and see a bunch of sky scrapers, then turn a few degrees in the other direction and be confronted with patchwork development and huge swaths of desert. So interesting. Also, we went with my friends to see the world’s largest water show (set to Arabic music), which is far more impressive and awesome than it sounds. Jess also played on a seesaw with my friend Donna, so that’s another source of joy for her in this world.]
The outdoor viewing deck at the Burj Khalifa.
The shadow of the Burj, as seen from the Burj.
Posing at the top. Not a bad view, huh?
The musical water show
And of course, playing on the light-up see-saw.
At this point, we were originally scheduled to go to Egypt to continue our travels. However, we got a call about a family emergency on Rorie’s side and made the decision to buy a last-minute flight home to Salt Lake City. (Thankfully, the emergency has resolved itself for the better and everything is ok now.) While a bit of a shock to our plans and our systems to go from Dubai to Utah with very little warning, it worked out about as well as it could have – because we don’t book our travels very far in advance, the only thing we needed to cancel was the single flight to Egypt. Otherwise, there was no harm done. We ended up spending about a month in the USA, catching up with family and friends, taking some time to scout out Austin, Texas, and managing to hit my 10-year college reunion in New York City before heading back out to continue our travels in the Middle East where we left off. I’m thankful we were able to take that time to see friends and family, as well as to recharge socially a bit, and I’m also so thankful we were able to make the call to come back out and continue our journey. We’ll skip our month in the USA as far as this blog goes and resume with the next post in our next (current!) country, Jordan! [Editor’s note: It was a scary and stressful time for us, but we’re so glad we got back in time and that the reason for our return to the U.S. ended up improving dramatically. With that resolved, we were fortunate to be able to accomplish a lot of “life things” that needed to get done and to be able to recharge our travel batteries. It gave us a cleaner life slate and more energy to tackle the remaining leg of our travels, which is valuable because I was starting to get pretty exhausted from our non-stop travel schedule in Asia!]
A pretty umbrella display at the Miracle Gardens.
