Welcome to Dubai

To Dubai, United Arab Emirate -- Day 1

We managed to get to the airport by 6:45 this morning. The inevitable panicking started as soon as we got into the check-in line and realized we couldn’t find the paper tickets.  That, however, was soon overshadowed by the fact that Meg didn’t have her phone and had apparently left it in the Uber taxi. Arrgh! Fortunately, the driver answered the phone, agreed to return it, and I was able to pick it up a few minutes later.  When I got back to the line, Dex, Kylie, and Meg had struck up a conversation with a South African woman on the same flight to Dubai. Once there, she would be starting a seven month cruise, though, unlike us, this would be for work and not leisure.  

The Emirates Air plane turned out to be super new and fancy. Dex and Kylie were really excited since everyone had USB ports, headphone jacks, a personal TV / touch screen, and a pop out game controller.  What’s more, there was 500 Mb of WiFi access during the flight for only one buck. That made Dad pretty excited. However, once we realized Finding Dory was available, that became the top priority.  We all synchronized our videos recordings and were fully occupied for the next 90 minutes. Dex declared it even better than the original.

Once in Dubai, we went through the usual activities when arriving in a new country -- waited in line at immigration, picked up our bags, made sure our phones were working, got money, and then focused on how to get to our hotel.  The money step, however, thwarted us this time as none of the ATMs we tried would hand over any money.  We eventually called our bank to find that a hold had been placed on the cards.  We had used them at the post office yesterday to pay for shipping, and apparently that had raised some red flags.  Fifteen minutes later, it was all taken care and we set out to find the Metro station. Unfortunately, Dex was intent on letting us know how thirsty he was and not very happy when the bills we got from the ATM were way too big to use in the vending machine. Soon thereafter, we gave up on the whole idea of using the Metro after criss crossing one particular building for the third time.  Uber it would have to be, but not before yet another panic session when, upon getting into the taxi, Dex realized he didn’t have Nipper!  Thank goodness, Kylie remembered seeing him outside the terminal.  Whew. Tragedy averted.

My first impressions of Dubai is that it's something like a Las Vegas on steroids (except no gambling).  Everything is giant sized and brand new.  There are huge groupings of amazing skyscrapers, each seemingly trying to outdo the other in terms of its design and scale.  We could just see the twinkling lights on the Burj Khalifa -- the world’s tallest building at 828 m (2715 ft), more than half a mile.  Oh, and it's hot.  Though well after dark, it was hovering around 90 degrees. Talking to the Pakistani driver on the way in, we learned the weather was pretty typical.  In fact, during the summer, temps can reach 45 to 48C (113 to 118F)!  

Apparently, the UAE (United Arab Emirates) is pretty accepting of other cultures -- dress, religion etc -- as there are huge numbers of expats living here.  In fact, the only way they’ve been able to build such an amazing infrastructure is through the labor of foreigners -- oh, and of course, with lots and lots of money from crude oil sales. Of the 9.2 million people here, only 1.4 are Emirati citizens while the remaining 7.8 million are from other countries.  I also learned on the plane that the UAE is comprised of 7 separate emirates, all of which are absolute monarchies.  Abu Dhabi, only fifty miles or so away from Dubai, is the capital.

The Abidos Apartment Hotel where we were staying is a nondescript high rise not far from the Emirates Mall and JBR Beach -- the beach near the iconic Jumeirah Beach Hotel shaped like a huge sail.  Although it was only a single bedroom apartment, there was a spacious living room with a couch that, with the help of a matching padded chair, would easily accommodate Dex and Kylie.  Not surprisingly, no one felt like going out for dinner, so I found a Quiznos on the map and trotted down the twelve flights in search of a couple ham and cheese sandwiches.  Although our track record with Google has been awfully good, in this case, there was no Quiznos to be found, nor the Subway shown just a block away.  Just on the ride from the airport, we spied McDonald’s, Hardee’s, and Five Guys with signage in both English and Arabic.  My backup plan for dinner was a stop at a corner market for cereal, milk, juice, and ramen noodles.  Not particularly fancy, but it would definitely do the job until morning.