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Obligatory sunset night time pictures

Every vacation album needs a set. Unfortunately I didnt get a chance to take some late night desert pics or the Dubai-Abu Dhabi road (Sheikh Zaid Road, I believe), so you will have to settle for shots around the Sharajh Corniche area.

Here is it, your moment of zen.

Wild Wadi: Wedgie Wonderland

Wild Wadi is a water park in the same area as the Burj Al Arab and the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Which is right next to the beach.

http://www.wildwadi.com/

I didn’t have a waterproof camera on me so I couldn’t get any pictures of the inside. I couldn’t see much once I got inside anyway. I’m pretty blind without my glasses and I left them in the locker. No sense in losing them in the water.

Everything was pretty much a blur. They had some huge maps of the area describing the park attractions and I had to get to get to an inch of the map and squint really hard to see anything. To a point where people were thinking I was making out with one of the cartoony characters on the map. But since I couldn’t see anyone’s face anyway, it wasn’t a problem. The voices in my head typically make fun of me when I give them the visual indication that people are starting. Blurry moving talking heads don’t stare. They just fade away and become blurry dots that bob away.

As soon as I entered, I saw this tall tower with a slide attached to it (I could make out there was a slide by the blurry dots dropping from the side and not falling to their doom). There was about a 20 minute wait to the top. There were some warning signs along the way that I couldn’t close enough to, which freaked me out. Why are there warning signs? What are they trying to tell me? Why isn’t this print larger? Freaking son of a fish hook, WTF am I doing at the near top of a tower this tall? I would have probably probably left at that point, had it not been for the shirtless, hairy “wide” kid behind me who (along with his buddy) was blocking the way down. Somehow I convinced myself that going down a slide sticking out the side of a really tall tower was a lot safer then trying to slide (it was humid and sticky that way….I would have had to slide) between twiddle-dum and twiddle-dee. It was not a very hard decision to make.

Nobody warned me about this. I seriously doubt any of the warning signs mentioned the possibility of this ride giving you an atomic wedgie on the way down. It starts off well, I fell like I was going to get thrown off the slide and get hurled towards the pavement at a gazillion miles an hour. (Not exactly how I plan to go down, I have yet to decided how I plan to go down, BTW). But I didn’t get hurled anywhere. I was heading towards a pool of water, butt first probably at near terminal velocity. It’s at this point when water turned into a substance with the physical properties of sandpaper and a wall. By the time I came to a dead stop, my swimming trunks and I had bonded in ways that are not natural. Not to mention after the adrenaline had worn off, my ass was radiating heat like the sun and I was reminded of my days in school when teachers would still use the paddle.

Yes, I paid money and waited in line 20 minutes for this…

Atleast I went on the slide, before twiddle -dum and twiddle-dimmer. The last thing I want to see is a couple of large kids picking out bits of swimming trunks from their butt.

Oh wait, I can’t see anything anyway.

Nothing like a soaking in cool salt water to heal the ravaged gluteus maximus. Good thing they had a wave pool there that actually had ocean water. Imagine that. A wave pool. With ocean water. Right next to the beach. What a novel idea!

Next was a lazy river tubing ride. You come to realize that the river that shoots jets of water to push the tube up and down slopes isn’t that lazy. Ofcourse this didn’t really help with my butt. The trick here was to not let your butt go al the way thru the tube. This preventing scraping from the pipes and tubes that you would travel thru and the jets of water pushing you up the pipes didn’t feel as bad anymore.

Great ride though.

The place was closing so that was all we did. I could have made better use of the 120Dhs(US $32) entry free, but we got there late. Maybe next time.

Fujairah

Today was a day trip to the mountains of Fujairah

These mountains are hot and barren quite devoid of life. Except for little shanty towns where Afghanis sell their wares. The Afghans are the ones selling the carpets. I didnt want to leave the car to take pictures from the outside. Too hot.

And you come across really small towns which makes you wonder what is it people do there to survive. Kinda like most of the places in oklahoma. Only alot hotter. And dustier.

I did see some really old structures along the way. UAE is a man-made country. Everything here was built within the last 50 years. Not much old stuff here so when you do find something, it's a big deal. Like this old mosque we saw on the way.




Here is a panaromaic shot of the area around the mosque above.


We stopped by the Hilton for lunch.

The place was packed with german tourists. Large buses packed with them. Fujairah has some nice scuba diving around and tourists usually buy packages that take them for desert safaris (driving on the dunes in the evening and settling down to dinner and a belly dancing show), scuba diving (diving in the reefs around Fujairah in the day and settling down in the evening with good eats and a belly dancing show) or just dinner and belly dancing.

Along the way, you would also see these little pockets of trees along the way. Little patches of green in this hot rugged terrain. They mostly grow dates, some mangoes. There used to be lots of strawberry farms along the way, but they slowly started closing down. I didn't see any along the way this time. Not sure what happened.

The Fish Market and "Axis of Evil" alley

I was looking around for a hookah (aka shisha/hubble bubble) and one of the sales person at the Sharjah Souk(aka the Gold Souk) told us that I could get a better deal at the Irani (Iranian?) market.




It's not in the big tall building. It's just a series of shops on the side down below next to the parking lot. Nothing too glamourous here. This is Sharjah, the city/state neighbouring Dubai. Nothing exciting ever happens here. These guys don't have the tall building stuff going for them. Everyone goes to Dubai for a good time. But I digress.

This market is basically a series of shops on the side of the street opposite the Sharjah creek where the boats load their cargo.

It's not really an alley, I know. But "Axis of Evil " market sounds too verbose and doesnt realy roll off the tongue as well.

Mum went into action again of course and proceeded to make the lives of the agha’s (“agha” is how the Irani refer to their elders in farsi) miserable.

It was interesting to see mum pull this off. I think she probably gets away with it because shes a woman and the guys here are just more patient in general with women. She tries everything from "this looks cheap", "I got a better deal at the store next door", "he'll probably throw it away after using it once" to "it's too hot in this store", "I'm old and tired, don't give me a hard time","I used all my change at the parking meter".

You get the idea.

Haggling is a way of life here. They expect it and if you pay the first quoted price, you’ve been officially ripped off. Only tourists pay the full price. We must have shaved off at least 30 bucks from the original price in about 15 min.


Needless to say, we got a pretty good deal on the hookah, the fruit-flavoured tobacco and the coal for the hookah.


Since we were close to the fish market, we decided to stop there for some king fish. I have yet to see an open-air fish market in US where the fish is so fresh; it’s still breathing (My apologies to any vegetarians out there). You pick the fish and they slice it up for you as you like it. Nothing wakes you up like the “scent” of an open-air fish market. It’s like getting slapped in the face…with a wet trout.





OK, I think I' really done with shopping this time.

Really...
No more...

Please guvnor, can I have some caviar? And lobster? And those little red round thingies? and...

I went to the Burj Al Arab yesterday for brunch.

If you're not familiar with the place, it's one of the most expensive hotels in the world (I think about $8000 a night). They charge you Dhs 250 (US $ 69) just to take a tour of the place. It's built on an island they created off the coast of Dubai. It looks like a sail, awesome looking structure.

This is one of those "gotta try it once" dealies. They do Friday only brunches at some "I can only do this once" rates.

We had to make a reservation a week in advance since the place tends to get full. We got a confirmation email and it included a bunch of rules that you had to follow at the place.

I’ve never really had to dress up for a brunch before. I wasn’t really sure what smart casual was, but I definitely wasn’t overdressed when I got there.

This is the hotel from the beach. Notice the white sandy beaches. Typical of Dubai ( and most of UAE beaches).
It's next to the Jumariah hotel (2nd most expensive hotel). What a bargain. Got left out of rich grand fathers will? It's ok, the Burj Al Arab might not take you, but then there is always the Jumariah hotel. But I digress...




Before you can get into the hotel grounds, the guy at the door will confirm your reservation. No idle strolling into the hotel. A security checkpoint for a hotel. Talk about feeling exclusive. I don't like this whole joining exclusive club thing. As the marx brother(I say brother because it was one of them that said, not all three), I would'nt want to join any club that would have me as a member.

Some views of the hotel...
This is the lobby area.




Here is where I had brunch.



Which explains the views below. The beaches look much nicer from here.


In the one above, you can see the almost complete Jumairah palm project, which is a series of man-made islands.


The view from our table (above).










This is the Jumariah Beach hotel I was talking about earlier


More inside shots...

The amount of luxury at that place was ridiculous. Got some really nice shots of the place from the top of the place. The restaurant was at the top of the hotel and you could see the ocean for miles from our table.

And then there was the food. So much food. From all over the place. From Lobster , clams, shrimp, sushi (alas no eel), 10 different imported cheeses, 10 local cheeses, lamb, roast beef, fois gras(never really did like the enlarged liver of a goose force-fed too much seed, too mushy and icky), caviar and the list goes on and on. Then there was a whole section dedicated for just desert. We must have sat there for 4 hours just eating.

Even though the place said no cameras, we saw a couple of folks walking about with video cameras taking in the view. I didn’t feel as bad about sneaking in with one anymore. So I would eat, let the food settle, roam the place to get some shots and then eat again.

That's some good brunching...

Bilal Durrani : Mall Rat Extraordinaire (Part 2)

Waiter asks me a question after I settle the lunch bill at this place in a mall

Waiter: Do you know what the difference is between a canoe and yourself?
Me: What?
Waiter: Canoes tip more often

Ok, so this didnt really happen. But I have noticed that I'm not tipping as often as I would in Austin. Instead of 15% min, I max out around 10%. Not many people seem to tip around here. I guess it's just one of those things. When you have cheap labor like you do here, you don't get perks like a tip. When you fill up gas at a station, the attendant actually cleans the back and front windshield while filling up the tank for you.

Finally got the postcards mailed as well.

Also met up with an old friend that I haven’t met up for 6 years. Interestingly enough, I forgot to take pictures of him and his fiancé. This is pretty retarded considering I’ve been taking pictures of menus that spelt cappuccino incorrectly.

I went to the Ibn Battuta shopping mall yesterday (I know, I’ve turned into a mall rat). This one was inspired by the muslim traveler of the same name who traveled all the way from Morocco to China in the 1300’s. The mall was broken down into 4 themes. There was Persia, India, Turkey and China. It was almost like Vegas only instead of having to go to different hotels, everything was in one big mall.

The food was great. We settled for a Irani place that had some excellent grill lamb and beef. Those axis of evil guys really have their food straight.

And then there was the Mall of the Emirates, the spot that made so much news becuase of it's indoor ski slope. I didn't bother taking any pictures of the shops because it has all the same stores that I found in every other mall.
Well, it's a big ski slope alright. Looked really nice from the outside. Very fancy.







Yeah...I think I'm done with the malls for now.

Bilal Durrani : Mall Rat Extraordinaire

I’ve turned into a mall rat since I came here. Monday was at another mall. This was called Bur Juman. All the shops there were very classy (read as too expensive for me to bother going in). And perhaps it’s because it was a Monday (the weekend here is just Thursday, although they are planning to change this to Friday-Saturday in September). But that place was dead!!

A handful of window shoppers. Barely any ninja clusters. I must have been in that place for only 40 minutes.

Then I spent about 3 hours trying to get back home. I think I would gotten home faster if I had hopped on one leg with one eye tied behind my back. The good thing about the lack of driving etiquette means that you can drive like a bastard and you won’t be the only one. And of course, always serve out generous helpings of the car horn.

[5/23/2006 1:39 PM ] A Phillipino woman was selling pirated DVDs door to door for 10 Dhs ($2.8) I wasn’t really sure about the quality of them so I didn’t really get any. She wasn' comfy with me taking a picture of her. Wonder why....

It’s not very interesting talking about being stuck in traffic for 3 hours so I’ll just skip that. That pretty much wrapped up the day….

The next day, I decided to go to the Sharjah Souk instead to get some shopping done. This is one of those places that has not been bulldozed and replaced by a mall. My sister wanted some trinkets and stuff, we we decided to check it out from here.










Here are what some of shops had in stock.



Let the haggling commence...
Poor fella in the pic above didnt stand a chance against mum. It was interesting how my mother's seemingly random series of statements actually had a difference on the price. I didnt know if it was because it was the slow season and the guy was desperate or maybe he just wanted her to leave and stop bothering him, she got some good deals out of him.