A bucket of tears leaving the family in Cape Town and a 9-hour flight later, we were in Dubai.  We chose to stop in Dubai for a few days because it was a connection spot between South Africa and Thailand, so why not.  I must admit, as a woman, I had reservations.  (This is Linda now, but I hope you figured that out on your own.) After reading about women being jailed because they kissed a man (maybe their husband) or displayed some type of affection to a man in public, I was apprehensive.  I mean, I’m not the PDA type, but what if I give Greg a peck without thinking about it? Ugh. Then, on the other hand we’ve heard it is an architecturally impressive place, has fabulous food and is sunny vacation paradise…so who knows.  As we boarded the plane we spoke about how we will need to check ourselves and be respectful of their culture…ok…I’ll shut my mouth and won’t paw on Greg.  I mean, Greg is adorable, but it’s not like he is as cute and mushy as Wiley and Taz (our Pug and Himalayan that we’ve left with the best peeps EVER!!

Nothing beats a $2 wedding ring

Now back to the opulence.  To start with, a lady checking in to our flight had on the largest diamond wedding ring we had ever seen.  No joke, I’m talking a 100 ct golf ball on a platinum setting. As she glanced my way, I giggled when I realized that my current wedding ring was a white plastic rose flower glued to a metal band that my 4 & 6-year-old nieces gave me when we were at a market in South Africa.  I like my ring better!  Any-who, do you think my bright blue backpack is as highbrow as the $10,000 Channel bag that the golf ball ring lady was carrying?  Hee hee.  Maybe not, but certainly more useful. 🙂 The plane (Emirates airlines) was gorgeous with birds eye maple covering every nook and cranny and the flight attendants collectively spoke over 15 languages.  Also, bright freshly cut flowers in the cabin and bathrooms…and that’s a first for us on a flight.

If you want to keep score than Dubai is your place.

I didn’t even know a hotel could have 7 stars

They have the highest building and largest mall in the world and two seven star hotels.  The Dubai Mall boasts 1,200 stores; a waterfall, ice skating rink, a crazy huge aquarium and a pamphlet that addresses the dress code…keep your knees and shoulders covered.  I was glad I opted for the short sleeve shirt vs my sleeveless.  However, about 20% of the people were breaking the dress code guidelines. Tisk, tisk…when in Rome…

If the largest buildings don’t impress you this tiny country of 6 million people is building their own islands.  Most of the country’s coastline is desert without any buildings on it, so the question begs…”Why build an island?”  I guess because you can.  Their palm shaped island is cool, and the newest island under way is really a bunch of little islands in the shape of a world map.   Now that takes imagination

Yes, we did all the tourist stuff like; rode camels, did the sunset in the desert, dune bashing in a 4X4, went to the mall and went to the top of the worlds highest building.  Everything is basically new and glimmering!  There are more exotic cars than the 6 million residences can simultaneously drive and more watches on display than the billion Chinese could wear.  However the culture still puzzles us; of the 1,200 stores at the Dubai Mall 1,195 are western brands but many of the locals wear the traditional Arabic clothing and burkas.  Where do the locals shop? We guessed the local Souks, but we expected are larger representation of the local garb.

Only in Dubai will you see a wine rack on display with $15,000 bottles of 1966 Dom Perignon. And when I say rack I estimate there were over 50 of these bottles at a random restaurant, not a world famous restaurant like were went to dinner at the Jumeriah Burj Al Arab, a 7 star hotel, the least expensive bottle of wine we could find on the list was $350 dollars.

Linda is still working out hard

In summary Dubai is like Vegas, an adult playground, but without the gambling, with a lesser party scene plus they have camel racing. Camels can run 40 kmp and the longest race is 15k, yes a 10 mile camel race.  And on top of this the camels train like a racehorse. No crazy stories from us, but not for lack of trying.  We did go to the hottest nightclub around, but apparently Saturday nights aren’t the best night to go out in Dubai.  The weather was perfect and zero humidity allows one to walk at night without sweating. With the ocean having no waves it was like swimming in a lake, of course the typical Dubai vacationer wouldn’t want to have rough seas.  Lots of sugar daddies running around with young Russian woman on their arms.  Did I say it was like Vegas or South Beach??? One last piece to add since we are in the airport leaving.  You don’t need to leave the airport if shopping is your thing, I was confused for a minute and thought I was back at the worlds biggest mall, except of course for the indoor ski resort. 🙂

Off to Bangkok and we are really flying by the seat of our pants (origin–An early aviation expression meaning ‘to act based on instinct and perceptions rather than following a planned course of action; to make things up as one goes) since we only have a hotel booked for three nights and no scheduled tours.  And we have booked nothing past the first three days; air, hotel or tours for the rest of the trip so this should get interesting.

Dubai Pictures