Skiing in the Desert
Trip Start
Mar 24, 2009
1
5
Trip End
Apr 01, 2009
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
I haven't mentioned this yet, but traffic is always bad in Dubai. Take a million or so people who all come from different cultures add in construction at every corner, shake well and you have adventures in driving and horrible traffic. Today, our cab driver knew some short cuts and got us to the Mall of the Emirates in record time. He did this however by driving directly through construction sites. Do not enter meant nothing to our friend. We left the road quite a few times and popped out between a couple of billboards onto the access road for Sheik Zayed Road, the main highway through Dubai.
To say the least, Ali was super excited for Ski Dubai. I think she enjoys the sport a bit. You pay about $50 per person for 2 hours of ski time. That includes your skis, boots, poles and clothes (because who brings ski pants and jacket to the desert, right?). Here is the Americanization of Dubai at work, if you want gloves, that is extra, if you want a locker to store your warm weather clothes that you change out of, that is extra, oh, the card that serves as your lift ticket, there is an extra charge to have one of those also. All in your $50 turns into about $65 without you really realizing it. Pretty smart actually.
As it turns out, 2 hours in Ski Dubai is plenty. We got suited up and actually first tried snowboarding. I had not snowboarded before and learned that it isn't as easy as it looks and the snow at ski dubai tastes just fine when you are face down in it. So we switched to skis after one run. Thanks Ali.
There is one lift that lets you off at one of two points. There is a 'lodge' about half way up where you can get hot drinks (non alcoholic as this isn't a hotel) and water. You can ski down a short 100 yard or so hill from there. The lift continues on toward the left up another 150 yards or so to the top. The snow was actually just fine. Somewhat grainy, but it worked just fine for us to ski for about 90 minutes or so.
We met back up with Patrick, had some lunch with Brandon at an Italian restaurant at the Dubai Mall then headed down to the old part of town, the Dubai museum and the Bastikia.
You finally feel like you're in the middle east in Bur Dubai, the old part of town near the creek. To the south, where we'd spent the rest of our time in Dubai is very Americanized with all new buildings and every American restaurant you could ever want from KFC to Ruby Tuesday to Cold Stone Creamery. Bur Dubai felt finally like an international experience.
The Dubai Museum was actually pretty interesting. It was 3 Dirhams a piece to get in, which is a little less than one dollar. You enter at ground level to an old fort and see some displays about daily life in old Dubai. We thought that this was certainly worth $1 each. Then you find a circular ramp leading to the basement that takes you to the actual museum. The basement museum was really first quality and very informative. For a dollar, I recommend this to anyone who visits Dubai.
From there we followed the map through some winding streets and ended up at the Bastikia. Not sure that I'm spelling that correctly. This is touted as one of the top attractions in Dubai. Hmmmm. I think it may be some sort of elaborate social experiment instead. The Bastika consisted of a series of long, narrow, blank outdoor walkways between white buildings. I'm pretty sure we were in a rat maze. Not much to say about that.
We walked along Dubai creek past the grand Mosque in time to hear the call to prayer and ended up in the Bur Dubai Souk. We stumbled across the Souk after walking down an unmarked alley which in retrospect may not have been the best idea, but apparently Dubai is pretty safe.
That is when the deluge began. We visited a couple of shops when the sky opened up and torrential rain came down. It had rained every day of our visit. Apparently it followed us from Seattle. So we hailed the first taxi we could find and headed back to the Greens to meet up with Brandon.
That night is a bit of a blur. We recall having a drink at Brandon's, a Hello Kitty sock, an hour taxi ride to Trader Vics and not much beyond that.
