Sand, Sunburn, and Snow, or Day 48 in Dubai

As the title implies, today was quite a diverse day, starting with our hotel's shuttle to Jumeira Beach Park at 9:15 this morning.

We ate breakfast at our hotel, Sadaf, then into the 16-passenger van (or something close to it). We paid 5 dirhams ($1.35) to get into the beach, but amenities were definitely not the sandy, wet, and gross standard at public beaches in the US, so the money was being put to good use.

Now, the second part of my title... sunburn. I'll rationalize it by saying that Jessica had a limited amount of sunscreen, and I didn't want to borrow too much from Jessica, who is a bit more susceptible to sunburn than I am. So my back and shoulders and face were covered. And now, pretty much everything else is a bit red. I’m slightly mad at myself, but that just makes the dichotomies of Dubai all the better.

We weren’t theoretically allowed to take pictures (according to the single sign I stopped to read), however, the beach was filled with tourists from the East, West, and in between, who all had to have their cameras out. So I avoided taking pictures of people and grabbed some shots of the turquoise water, the fine sand, and the palm trees between us and Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world, which is on our list for tomorrow).

I took a dip or two into the Arabian Sea; it was colder than I expected but refreshing after lying around in the upper-80s to lower-90s Fahrenheit weather (that’s about the low 30s for you Celsius people). Also scuttling around were these zebra fish, their stripes blending in with the striations in the sand. Jessica was convinced they were robot fish, put in the water by the Dubai government, so as not to alarm tourists with their advanced sampling equipment to warn of a possible salination attack by Qatar. All this we derived from the fact that they were apparently “following” her while she was wading.

We were planning on taking the afternoon shuttle to the Mall of the Emirates, but one thing led to another led to a delicious lunch at an Indian place (chili and palau chicken with naan… yum) led to us missing the shuttle and just taking the Metro instead.

I definitely miss public transportation in Doha. There is a single bus loop that I’ve been warned away from taking. Here, on the other hand, they are building a system that goes up and down the sprawling coast, and, while not completely open, it has already proved its usefulness to us.

The big draw at Mall of the Emirates is SkiDubai, an indoor ski slope and snow play area. For just $25, you too could have a day of fun in a few inches of powder! I mean, unless you can go outside and play in it for free.

I’m glad Jessica came along and convinced me to go in. It was really just spending money on an opposite experience to this morning’s sunshine and sea. So my sunburn was getting chafed by a snow jacket, and my gloves were in the same bag my swimsuit occupied this morning. What opposites…

Next on the list was heading to “The Walk at Jumeira Beach Resort,” a section along the sea with lots of glitz and glam.

Now, on the map, we only had about a mile walk to get to the Resort from a Metro stop. Getting off the Metro stop, there were these large power lines blocking the way to the sea, so, like a trooper, Jessica humored me as we started walking through a deserted area, which led to a maze of streets which never turned quite the right direction.

A long walk later, we finally arrived at “The Walk.” From our vantage, we could see a carnival and a row of well-lit road with restaurants and a diverse crowd. But our feet were complaining, so we each got a tall glass of frozen mint lemonade.

This is probably the third time I’ve had a mint drink over here, and each time I regret it a little bit. I like mint, but with chocolate, please. It is always good, but never quite what I want.

After enough of a lounge to give us energy to begin again, we wander and find the “Heritage Village.” The loud Arabic music tipped us off.

Inside the walls were different tents set-up with a tour company, a camel burger place, and miscellaneous traders. I quickly found the traditional food-makers, and began to wait for a khameer. And wait while two little Arab boys push in front of me. And wait while a mother in an abaya orders ahead of me too. And finally, after forcing my money on the maker, she made me the large dough bun covered in soft cheese.

It was cooked by being stuck to a pan, then the pan was flipped over some coals, then, when sufficiently risen, removed and covered in a cream-cheese-like sauce. Delicious, and worth it, I just wish there had been a little less racial bias on the cook’s part.


The rest of the evening (or night) was spent wandering the well-populated streets and watching the carnival. We decided against trying to get back to the Metro (and it was closed at that point, too), so took a long, slightly pricey cab ride back to the hotel.

I think we made a dent in our Dubai to-do list, which is good since tomorrow is our last day here!