Our flight from Dubai was our 9th flight of the trip, and the longest one yet- 14 hours! Fortunately, Emirates Airlines is niiiice. We had individual screens with hundreds of TV and movie choices, and the food was very tasty. They also have in-flight calling and text-ing and emailing capability, so we called our families at midnight PST and EST to say "Happy New Year! I am in a plane and it's $5 a minute so I can't talk, but I love you!" Another super neat feature of Emirates, is that they have cameras mounted on the front and bottom of the plane, so you can watch the views. Juan napped some, but I didn't manage to, so after 4 movies, 4 TV episodes, and 3 in flight meals, I was very ready to disembark.
Tired, poorer, huddled, and yearning to breathe free, we arrived in New York City, NY, USA. We are staying at my aunt Amy's in Brooklyn Heights, and it is enough of a taste of home that I was ecstatically happy to arrive despite complete exhaustion. We dropped our luggage of and went straight to eat the best welcome back meal we could ask for- pizza at the famous Grimaldi's. The walk along the promenade was chilly but beautiful with the sunset and the NY skyline, although we were too out of it to take pictures. The pizza was everything Juan had promised it would be, and well worth the hour long wait in 40 degree weather. After 11 or 12 very much needed ours of sleep and some very much needed cleaning of our laundry, we are ready to go out and explore the city.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Do Buy in Dubai?
So after a long flight we arrived in Dubai, worn out, grumpy, and finally really sick of each other. There are some cool buildings, but we decided pretty quickly that our willingness to pay for a day in NY instead of a day in Dubai was high enough that we changed our flight to a day earlier. The city looked like it would be a cool city, once it's finished, but at least half of it is still under construction. By some accounts, literally a quarter of the world's cranes are in Dubai.
A typical view:
The future tallest building in the world, under construction of course:
That first day in Dubai, before we crashed hard, we went to the Mall of the Emirates, a gi-normous shopping mall of epic proportions with hundreds of stores, an arcade with carnival rides, a bowling alley, and of course- ski slopes. Dubai is a city of contrasts, of burkas and bowling, and Mc Arabia.
Mc Arabia- mmmm:
After a good night's sleep things looked a lot better and we even got along again, so we decided to make the most of our one day in Dubai. Since the amphibious Wonder-Bus tour was booked, we took the cheaper "Juan Matute Hop-On Hop-Off" tour of the city, which involved walking through a lot of construction sites (Dubai is by far the least pedestrian friendly city I have ever been to- and I grew up in LA!). We saw camels, did an Abra ride on Dubai Creek, wandered through the souks, watched the sunset on the Burj Al Arab hotel, and went skiing (fun!), before finding ourselves down by the creek to bring in the New Year watching the boats and a very unimpressive 5 minute fireworks display and heading to bed exhausted for a couple hours sleep before our early morning flight to New York.
The camels were friendly:
Abra on Dubai Creek:
One of the souks (open air markets):
The Burj Al-arab at night:
New Years on Dubai Creek:
A typical view:
The future tallest building in the world, under construction of course:
That first day in Dubai, before we crashed hard, we went to the Mall of the Emirates, a gi-normous shopping mall of epic proportions with hundreds of stores, an arcade with carnival rides, a bowling alley, and of course- ski slopes. Dubai is a city of contrasts, of burkas and bowling, and Mc Arabia.
Mc Arabia- mmmm:
After a good night's sleep things looked a lot better and we even got along again, so we decided to make the most of our one day in Dubai. Since the amphibious Wonder-Bus tour was booked, we took the cheaper "Juan Matute Hop-On Hop-Off" tour of the city, which involved walking through a lot of construction sites (Dubai is by far the least pedestrian friendly city I have ever been to- and I grew up in LA!). We saw camels, did an Abra ride on Dubai Creek, wandered through the souks, watched the sunset on the Burj Al Arab hotel, and went skiing (fun!), before finding ourselves down by the creek to bring in the New Year watching the boats and a very unimpressive 5 minute fireworks display and heading to bed exhausted for a couple hours sleep before our early morning flight to New York.
The camels were friendly:
Abra on Dubai Creek:
One of the souks (open air markets):
The Burj Al-arab at night:
New Years on Dubai Creek:
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