Visitor Adventures: Eating!

One thing we all did plenty of during the visit was eat! And I thought those of you considering a visit might like to be assured of the fact that there is plenty of good food and most likely your favorite US fast food or restaurant as well. You can find Chili's, Applebees, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Baskin Robbins, Cinnabon ... (you get the picture - if you start to get homesick for something, we'll take you to the nearest food court and you'll be feeling better in just a few calories.)

So, let's talk about the more exotic dishes you'll have the pleasure of trying while here. And to put the picky eaters at ease, I am one and if my waistline is any indication, you'll be able to find something yummy - even if you can't pronounce it's name. Here are a few of our favorites.

Manakeesh
One of my favorites and found at most of the arabic bakeries scattered all over town. Basically a thin round piece of bread (think of a pita, but thinner and softer), covered with Halloumi cheese (think of a cross between Mozzarella and feta), baked in a stone oven and then folded in half for easy devouring. Ready faster than a Big Mac and costs about $2.

Schwarma
Schwarma is a bit like a gyro, but not as garlicky. Same thin pita-type bread as the Manakeesh and inside you'll have dill pickles, seasoned lamb or chicken, cilantro and a garlic yogurt sauce. The chicken schwarmas have the added yumminess of a few french fries. mmmmm, and again, only about $2. You can only get these in the evening after the meat has been slow roasting on a spit all day.

Mixed Grill
Mixed Grill is a specialty of the Lebanese restaurants and the best value for your dirham. A huge plate of slightly spicy seasoned chicken, kofta lamb kabobs, seasoned beef chunks and arayas, which is the kofta lamb grilled between arabic bread and served with the garlic yogurt sauce. When they bring the plate, you wonder how you'll eat it all and then suddenly you're wondering where it all went. A plate of mixed grill will set you back maybe $10, but easily feeds 2 people.
   
Humous
Humous is chickpeas pureed with oil, garlic, lemon, a little water, salt and tahini paste and is oh so good on just about anything. Traditional lebanese style, it's served with arabic bread, tomatoes, cucumber, mint, pickles, and arugula, but I've also used it as a sandwich spread, on crackers, carrots, celery and I'm sure some other veggies as well. YUM!

Arabic coffee
And, of course there are a few drinks to include in the list as well. The first is traditional arabic coffee, which is like espresso (really strong and served in small cups) with a hint of cardamom.

Milks
For fun one night, we tried all the different kinds of milks I could find at the grocery store. Camel milk - like a milder version of goat's milk, not as bad as we were expecting. Date milk - really yummy, sweetened with dates it was like a lighter version of chocolate milk. Cardamom milk - interesting and spicy - have had it since in coffee, which is pretty good. We had fun trying the different kinds.

Juices
I've written about the incredible freshly squeezed juices of UAE before, but it bears repeating. You can find almost anything and it's all fresh squeezed. My favorite is lemon mint, which is tart and refreshing and often blended with ice to make a kind of slushy. You can also find strawberry, orange, pineapple, watermelon, avocado, mango, lemon, and even sometimes dragonfruit and lychee. Pretty amazing. 

There's plenty more, but writing this post has made me hungry so I'm off to find a snack! :)

Dad's cucumber watermelon mojito from Friday brunch

Visitor Adventures: The Atlantis at the Palm

From the historical Cultural Centre to the sparkle of the Atlantis hotel on the Palm Jumeirah pretty much sums up the dichotomy that is Dubai. One minute we're taking pictures of traditional village housing and the next, we're inside one of the largest and most decadent hotels in the world. And to think, all this in only 40 years!

We visited the Atlantis just to take a look around (God knows we can't afford to eat there, let alone stay there for a night!) One of the attractions is a large aquarium which is built on the theme of the animated kid's movie, Atlantis (Disney? can't remember). Anyway, we had a coupon so decided to check it out. Photos below are of the hotel itself and our walk through the aquarium.

Visitor Adventures: Bastakiya Heritage Tour

Our next adventure in Dubai took us to the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding. Their motto, "open doors, open minds", which I love. They offer tours, talks, breakfasts and lunches to tourists with the goal of helping all visitors understand and appreciate Emirati culture and heritage. The centre and the tours take place in Bastakiya, which is a restored heritage village. The tours are given by UAE Nationals and the rule is "you can ask about ANYTHING". We had two tour guides and both were excellent, explaining about traditional housing, family life and a bit about Islam. Our second guide was a young university student who spent much of her life in South Carolina in the US - had she not been wearing Abaya, we would have assumed she was American. Both were informative and very open to all of our silly questions. Here are a few myths they dispelled during the tour:

Multiple Wives: The myth is that all Muslims are instructed by the Quaran to have up to 4 wives. Not true. The actual passage is something like, if you can promise to treat them equally, go for it, but one wife is best (clearly that's not a direct translation! :) What was more interesting was our guide's explanation for multiple wives. She told us that the practice started to help some of the war torn countries recover. When a country goes to war, many of the men are lost, which causes a steep imbalance of women to men in the country. So, the good Muslim, extends their family to provide an opportunity for more women to have stable family lives for the benefit of the community. And, she made it clear that the way it is supposed to work is that BOTH husband and 1st wife should agree to expand the family to include another wife. And then, both wives and their families MUST be treated equally. She explained it by saying, if you have two apples, you don't give one to one wife and one to the other, you cut both apples in half and give one half of each apple to each wife - that way, one wife can't say her apple wasn't as sweet. Jokingly, one of the male guides said that's exactly why he's planning to have only one wife! :)

Modest Dress: The myth is that women here are oppressed and forced to cover themselves by their husbands or by the rules of Islam. While this is probably true in some families, it's not a rule of the Quaran and certainly not the majority of the situations here. Most women choose to wear abayas and shayla and actually enjoy the freedom it provides. Think about it, under your abaya, you can wear your pajamas all day if you wish and still look elegant and put together. Under you shayla, your hair can be tied up out of your face - no blow drying, curling, hairspray.... Think of how quickly you could be out the door in the morning! :) "officially" women only need to cover their hair when entering a Mosque and are asked to dress "modestly", which most interpret as covered knees, shoulders and cleavage.

Entering a Mosque: The myth is that only Muslims can enter a Mosque. Our guide gave us some great guidance for entering a mosque (and also permission to enter any mosque we'd like). 1) dress modestly - covered knees, shoulders and cleavage; 2) women cover their head; 3) all - remove your shoes; 4) don't carry any bags, luggage, purses, etc. If you follow those guidelines, you can enter a mosque at any time. And after she described this, it totally makes sense. Think of a church back home - would we ever deny someone entrance? No, as long as they followed the rules - and what would our rules be? Enter quietly and respectfully; remain quiet and respectful while you're in there; be discreet if taking any photos; remove your hat? My favorite comment is when she said, "what does a Muslim look like? How would anyone know you weren't a Muslim anyway?" So true - might have to visit a Friday sermon some time before I left the sand box.

Here are a few photos from the visit.

Visitor Adventures: The Burj Khalifa

No trip to Dubai would be complete without a view from the top of the Burj Khalifa. Well, not actually the top, more like floor #135 or so, but close enough. The trick to a good visit to the Burj Khalifa is a combination of luck and planning. The planning is getting tickets online in advance, which are less than 1/2 the price and ensure you'll get in. The luck has to do with the weather. While we really don't have rain here in Dubai, we do have a lot of sand, that likes to hang out in the air, and ruin the view.

Another tip is to snag the slot about 30 minutes before sunset so you can see the view in the daylight and then later, the night lights of the city. The view overlooks the Dubai Mall fountains, which are a bit like the fountains at the Bellagio in Vegas and were designed by the same person. The light and water show from the top is pretty spectacular as you'll see in the video Brian shot below.

Other cool facts:

• you get to ride one of the fastest elevators in the world to get there - and it's the smoothest ride you can imagine
• you can buy some gold from the Gold ATM at the top and even get a small bar with the Burj Khalifa imprinted on it
• the observation deck is actually outside, so you feel a bit like Tom Cruise from the last Mission Impossible movie ... okay, only a tiny bit
• there are bathrooms at the top and we found ourselves wondering about how you would need to design such a system so the pressure of a flush didn't take down the whole building. ;)

 One of the gold bars you can buy from the ATM. I think this one was around $300.

 This shot is one of my favorites. Taken from the restaurant where we had dinner that same evening.

 A video Brian shot of the fountain show.

Visitor Adventures: The Wonder Bus

Groupon is dangerous. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Groupon is a discount website that offers 50% or more off all kinds of stuff - manicures, gym membership, hotel stays, and lots of recreational tourist stuff like ... the Wonder Bus.

I first saw the Groupon for the Wonder Bus and laughed out loud because it reminded me of the Ducks in the Wisconsin Dells. It's a bus/boat tour that promises to take you on a tour of the city and then a tour of the Deira Creek in Dubai. And because the price was 55% off, I couldn't resist, and maybe I should have.

After a mad dash through Hardees for some lunch, we found their ticket office and got our seat assignment tickets. The office was very small and a little run down, which already set the scene. It's amazing how quickly I've come to expect sparkly and new here. I'm sure the place looked just fine to the group of tourists getting ready to board, but to me it looked worn out and in need of some updating.

After a few minutes wait, the bus rumbled up. Oh boy ...

 We got on the bus and to our seats, which were a bit dirty and ripped but fine and settled in for the 'city tour'. It was once we got on the road that I realized I had made a mistake buying those Groupons. Our guide must have attended 'cheeseball tour guide camp' because he started out by asking everyone to introduce themselves and sing a song! WHAT? Already preparing to refuse, I relaxed when I saw that he was only picking on the kids to sing (and most of them refused, I might add). I think this whole show was designed to distract us from the fact that there really wasn't any city tour, just a drive through part of the city to get to the entrance to the creek.

To be fair, he did point out the Heritage Village, which is where we were headed the next morning, so that was helpful and a few other things, but all in all, the 'city tour' was a bust. For example, how can you call it a city tour of Dubai and not go past the Burj Khalifa?

In any case, we soon made it to the creek and with a cheesy 1-2-3, we splashed in. I think this was supposed to be the highlight of the tour - miraculously morphing from bus to boat ... it wasn't that cool, but I might just be cranky this morning. :)

The tour of the Deira creek was a bit more interesting. This is one of the few areas of Dubai that seems to have some history to it. Not everything is brand new, huge, expensive and plated with gold. The Dhows (old fishing and trade boats) are the same as they were 50 years ago and bring some culture to the creek that you don't find everywhere else. Then, these are juxtaposed with the streamlined Transit boat that's used to shuttle people back and forth across the creek. The first photo below is the Transit boat and the second, a traditional Dhow. Most the Dhows are now used as dinner cruise boats. You can sign up for lunch or dinner and a float along the creek (a better idea than the Wonder Bus for our next visitors).

 And just as we're enjoying the scenery and thinking, "okay, this isn't so bad", we're passed by another Wonder Bus and reminded of just how silly we all look out here.

But we survived the trip and got to see a fair amount of the creek, which was the intent. Not sure I'll do it again, but a fun story to share at least. :) And another reminder to stay away from Groupons!