Well, I'm sorry to report that without wireless internet, these blogs are going to be picture-less until future notice. This desktop at the hotel doesn't have an SD card slot. Don't worry, I'll give you such complex visual imagery, you won't even notice.
We can start with this morning. It was the wee hours of 4am, and I got up to pack before Abdalla came at 5:30 to drive Jessica and I to the airport. Tiptoeing around my room while my roommate was sleeping wasn't the easiest way to pack. I haven't forgotten anything crucial, though that camera adapter might have been nice, to get some pictures on here.
Well, guess "crucial" is subjective. When we were in the car, we realized the neither of us had printed out our hotel confirmation or its location, and we didn't remember its name. Both of us felt like it started with an "s" and was about 6 letters and was by the Union Station Metro.
If you could gather from the blog post yesterday and my early wake-up today, I didn't get much sleep last night. So once we got to the airport, I napped in the all-flights waiting area, I napped in the flydubai (our airline) waiting area, Jessica warned me not to nap standing up on the bus to the airplane, but then I napped right up until we were within sight of Dubai.
Then, I could see the sea become land, and the impressive Burj Khalifa came into view (which is still under maintenance, so we won't be able to go up it). Picture a slightly foggy skyline, with a few boat wakes visible right before the extensive set of breakers that protect the harbors of Dubai.
We had heard the visas were available upon arrival, we went to the "visa" desk, who told us to go to the "passport control" room, who told us to go straight through the "passport control" desks. We got quizzed a bit on where we were staying (which was a bit of a problem, since we couldn't remember the name) but stamped and let through. I thought we would've had to pay at least a little, but nope. I'm sure we'll spend enough here to make up for it.
We were hoping our puzzle of information would enable us to find the hotel without looking online, but our hopes were dashed when there was no information desk at our terminal.
Sadly, this information didn't get us as far as we wanted. We took a taxi to the Union Station Metro, found a map that showed where some hotels were, guessed at one, and started walking.
We were distracted by food. We popped into a cafeteria with breaded everything and had chicken sandwiches for lunch. As we were walking out, Jessica mentioned that we were the only women, only Caucasians, and only young people in the store; to be honest, none of that triggered for me. Maybe it was my tiredness still rearing its head.
So we attempted to find wireless, got pointed to a Starbucks, and turned on my computer. Half an hour of frustrating attempts to get my credit card to go through, I gave up and called Daedri (internationally, so a bit expensive), who found the e-mail and got us in the right direction... finally.
We can start with this morning. It was the wee hours of 4am, and I got up to pack before Abdalla came at 5:30 to drive Jessica and I to the airport. Tiptoeing around my room while my roommate was sleeping wasn't the easiest way to pack. I haven't forgotten anything crucial, though that camera adapter might have been nice, to get some pictures on here.
Well, guess "crucial" is subjective. When we were in the car, we realized the neither of us had printed out our hotel confirmation or its location, and we didn't remember its name. Both of us felt like it started with an "s" and was about 6 letters and was by the Union Station Metro.
If you could gather from the blog post yesterday and my early wake-up today, I didn't get much sleep last night. So once we got to the airport, I napped in the all-flights waiting area, I napped in the flydubai (our airline) waiting area, Jessica warned me not to nap standing up on the bus to the airplane, but then I napped right up until we were within sight of Dubai.
Then, I could see the sea become land, and the impressive Burj Khalifa came into view (which is still under maintenance, so we won't be able to go up it). Picture a slightly foggy skyline, with a few boat wakes visible right before the extensive set of breakers that protect the harbors of Dubai.
We had heard the visas were available upon arrival, we went to the "visa" desk, who told us to go to the "passport control" room, who told us to go straight through the "passport control" desks. We got quizzed a bit on where we were staying (which was a bit of a problem, since we couldn't remember the name) but stamped and let through. I thought we would've had to pay at least a little, but nope. I'm sure we'll spend enough here to make up for it.
We were hoping our puzzle of information would enable us to find the hotel without looking online, but our hopes were dashed when there was no information desk at our terminal.
Sadly, this information didn't get us as far as we wanted. We took a taxi to the Union Station Metro, found a map that showed where some hotels were, guessed at one, and started walking.
We were distracted by food. We popped into a cafeteria with breaded everything and had chicken sandwiches for lunch. As we were walking out, Jessica mentioned that we were the only women, only Caucasians, and only young people in the store; to be honest, none of that triggered for me. Maybe it was my tiredness still rearing its head.
So we attempted to find wireless, got pointed to a Starbucks, and turned on my computer. Half an hour of frustrating attempts to get my credit card to go through, I gave up and called Daedri (internationally, so a bit expensive), who found the e-mail and got us in the right direction... finally.
We got back to the hotel, and after a bit of brainstorming, we decided it was too hot to do anything, so I feel asleep. When I woke up, we made some plans... then I fell asleep again. By the third section of my nap, our plans had changed again.
The iterations were something like, go to the souks or go to the beach. When we realized there was a shuttle that took us to the beach from the hotel tomorrow, we started walking to "the creek."
Dubai Creek is this weird water feature that Jessica and I were debating on the naturalness of it. It looks like an inlet, is treated like a river, and is just superb to walk along. We attempted to find the souqs on the south side of the creek, but instead puttered around until sunset, when we hopped aboard an abra (water taxi) to see the Burj Dubai side.
We had a bit more success finding the souqs there; the textile souq was the closest. We went into a shop with bulk hair accessories, and one of the workers started chatting me up. His English was good, but his pace and accent made it hard for me to understand whether his children were studying in Canada, or wanted to study in Canada, or just liked Canada. He, like most people, recognized the power of money and talked about how it affected his life. I didn't want to leave without buying anything, but I think I ended up purchasing some of the samples on accident because I didn't need 30 little hair clips.
After the textile souq, we wandered past the Dubai Museum (which we will probably find our way back to it in the next two days) and the Birkani quarter (same, since it was all closed).
Jessica had been craving sugar all day, so she found a Baskin-Robbins to grab a chocolate cone. I wanted something a little more exotic, so a block later, I saw a bakery and we peeked in. I started pointing at the different Indian sweets, and the shopkeeper just had us take a seat and made us up a plate of a variety of different kinds. There was a gulab jamun, another two or three that were also honey-soaked deliciousness, and two that were some sort of flaky half-pastry-half-fudge consistency. All of them were sugary and all of them were delicious.
After sitting there for quite a while to let our stomaches settle, we decided to head back across the creek to see if we could find the souqs we passed up in the afternoon. The first was the spice souq, with brightly colored stalls. Then, the gold souq (where my favorite line by a storekeeper trying to get us to come in was "I have silver"). Then, the "covered" souq, which, if we were even in the right place, was a cross between a mall and a market. The result of all this was two pairs of shoes for me. I was very proud of my bargaining, but the worker did his job too. I have a bit of buyer's remorse, even though both pairs are lovely!
It was a full day, and a slightly frustrating one (especially when the walk home keep being blocked by construction work), but now I have figured out how to add pictures to the blog, since Jessica has the cable for her camera that works on these computers. This is one I stole from her, but a promise of more later this weekend (or when I get back to Doha).
No comments:
Post a Comment