I woke up early this morning! At about 4am I was so awake that even with my amazing sleeping ability there was no way I was ever going to fall back asleep! So, I got up and studied Econ! Gotta make use of those notes I brought! It was surprisingly enjoyable – I am so weird! It was neat being awake so early, however, because at 5am I heard the call to prayer! It was much more clear and nice sounding than the siren wail that it seemed to be in India! Definitely worth while being awake to hear! Once it was late enough, I took a cab down to Deira neighbour
hood where the Souqs are located. I wandered around the various neighbourhoods for a long time! I saw the gold souq, the textile souq, the spice souq, many mosques, and the Dubai museum. It was a lot of walking, but everything was interesting to see. I got some awesome people pictures too, which was great! I can’t get over how many different cultures/languages/religions are everywhere! It is sooooo cool to see (and try to figure out!). I took the wooden abra cruise (water taxi) to cross the Dubai creek. It was Dh1 and it cut off a lot of walking! Along the side of the river were these huge barge-like boats that looked as though they were going to fall apart any second. They were completely packed with boxes and bags of everything that you could think of – from computers to m
acadamia nuts to stuffed toys! I can’t decide if the boats are permanently there and the people that clearly live on them sell to the local stores or if they are actually transport boats from India or somewhere. I decided that I needed to start using the metro. I think Megan is pretty fond of the taxis here, and although they are convenient I don’t really like taking them. The prices do add up when I’m going downtown every day and there isn’t any interesting people watching when you’re in a cab alone!! I found one of the main bus depots across from the Gold Souq and managed, after many attempts, to figure out how to buy a plastic card and put money onto it. There was this guy following me around as I did this and he was driving me nuts. I couldn’t decide if he was trying to help me or if he wanted me to help him! I kept ignoring him, in any case – I don’t do so well with the creepy people!! Apart from the bus ticket experience, it went really well. I found the bus to take me to the metro and then took the metro all the way back to the Emirates Mall, which is then a 10 min walk from the apartment. It made me happy to figure it out – and there were definitely a lot more interesting people on the train than there were in the cab! Megan was a good enough sport to go skiing with me at the indoor ski hill at the mall this evening. Brandon is there every week because he takes a group of kids from school. What I thought was hilarious was that he is learning how to snowboard! In Dubai! So weird!! I was pretty impressed with the overall set-up, actually. You buy a pass, which you present to the boot counter and the ski counter. You are also given a snow-suit, because I don’t suppose many people own those here!! We got all organized and went up an elevator to get to the hill! Once inside we did a couple runs on the magic carpet on the bunny hill ‘cause Megan isn’t really comfortable skiing at all. I honestly just couldn’t stop laughing at the entire concept. But, I guess, it is just like us having a water park inside. Just opposite! I did 2 runs on the real lift – like actually, a real lift – the snow wasn’t the best, however (duh!). The best part was really looking at all the locals trying to ski! It was really interesting. They also charge people for a full ride of the chair (ie all the way up and all the way back down) for Dh50, if they don’t know how to ski. I tried so hard to get a picture of this muslem couple with their full gear on who were sitting on the chair lift! It was priceless to see the lady in her black covering with only her eyes showing and the man with his red head dealeo on! Made the trip to the ski hill even MORE awesome! All three of us went to this African restaurant for dinner. The food was great, but even better were the drinks. Brandon was explaining that because there isn’t any alcohol, they really do an awesome job of making fruit juice and other non-alcohocalic types of drinks. I had this awesome coffee-ice cream thing that made me happy! Early day tomorrow because I am off to Abu Dhabi! Night -Allison
hood where the Souqs are located. I wandered around the various neighbourhoods for a long time! I saw the gold souq, the textile souq, the spice souq, many mosques, and the Dubai museum. It was a lot of walking, but everything was interesting to see. I got some awesome people pictures too, which was great! I can’t get over how many different cultures/languages/religions are everywhere! It is sooooo cool to see (and try to figure out!). I took the wooden abra cruise (water taxi) to cross the Dubai creek. It was Dh1 and it cut off a lot of walking! Along the side of the river were these huge barge-like boats that looked as though they were going to fall apart any second. They were completely packed with boxes and bags of everything that you could think of – from computers to m
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