Category Archives: dubai

Date Night – Dubai Style

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As today is Valentine’s Day, I feel it is appropriate to share my valentine’s last date night, which also happened to be in Dubai.  I have shared a few pictures of the “seven star” hotel, Berj Al Arab that was just off the coast from our hotel, including a failed attempt at a joke where it was my dinner date for a night when Melanie had a work function. https://teamfricke.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/my-dinner-companion/ I had heard marvelous things about the lobby of this hotel and the only way to visit it was to have tea, dinner, or drinks at their 27th floor bar.  Since I don’t drink tea, but I do like alcohol we chose to head up to the 27th floor for a lovely date night.

The kicker for having drinks is that you have a minimum per person set for what you have to spend that equates to around $200 total for the both us so we were expecting some really marvelous and fancy drinks as well as we fully expected to walk out of there feeling really good.  What we quickly discovered when we got there was that the minimum could be hit pretty easily given their pride in the drinks.  For example, a glass of champagne cost around $40 and an import beer was $30.  Fortunately our love has no cost so we marveled and chuckled at the prices and had a grand time.  We were even fortunately enough to get a table facing out to the ocean with a view to the downtown.  Unfortunately the inside is lit in such a way, think disco, that you really can’t get much of a view but it was still great to kick back and relax with the love of my life for an extravagant date night.  Something we seldom get here in Dallas.

As for the lobby that I had heard so much about, it was a bit underwhelming.  They do have two interesting fountains and some nice tile work, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by the beauty, aside from the one that was on my arm that evening.  Below are some pictures from our evening as well as a video of each fountain, including one that shows how high the fountain shoots up into the lobby.

Editor’s Note: The extra cheese in this email is prodded by my love for my wife and because it is Valentine’s Day.  I shall resort to less sap starting tomorrow.

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Another Mosque

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While gazing from the hallway windows walking back to our hotel room in Dubai, I noticed this mosque a few blocks away that had the tower lit up and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a walk and get in a few photographs.  As luck would have it, the call for prayer went out while we were snapping away.  I’ll be honest, when the call starts it’s a bit shocking and because this was pre education, I got a bit startled and we quickly walked back to our hotel.  Fortunately Melanie and I both thought to hit record on our phones and were able to capture the call.

http://youtu.be/HOwKsmKkCVs

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Our Mosque Visit

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The morning of our last day in Dubai we finally got around to visiting a local mosque and were given a brief introduction into the Muslim religion.  The tour is put on by a local organization in an effort to help educate those of us that have really never experienced the Muslim world.  Although I am somewhat exposed to the religion on an almost daily basis, as I work with Muslims locally and overseas, I will say that this experience was rather enlightening and one that I wish we had had the opportunity to do much earlier in the trip.

Prior to our visit, when I was around mosques and the traditionally dressed Muslims I found myself feeling uneasy and avoided eye contact.  One day when taking photos of a beautiful mosque just down the street from our hotel the call for prayer went out and I immediately felt intimidated and uneasy and tried not to look anyone in the eye as they entered for their prayer time.  Even as I type I now realize just how foolish this sounds.  The basis of religion aside, it is akin to feeling uneasy and not looking someone in the eye as they enter a Christian church for prayers.  Put this way, it sounds ludicrous and after our visit to the mosque, at least for our one remaining day, I sought out eye contact and it was often returned with a smile and welcoming look.  I now wonder if they feel the same when surrounded by Christians?  I wonder if, because a very small percentage of extremist Christians behave aside from what our bible tells us, they too feel uncomfortable around us?

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Went To The Mall And A Katy Perry Concert Broke Out

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On our final day in Dubai, Melanie and I headed to the mall where the indoor skiing was located.  Instead of skiing, we chose to go the movies.  However we needed to kill some time before the movies and so we wandered around the mall for awhile and during this wandering happened upon a Katy Perry concert.  Or should I say a Katy Perry wannabe concert.  It was rather entertaining to people watch so many people gathered around to watch.  It was especially entertaining to watch the three local men directly in front of us.

http://youtu.be/P4V3sdiin1k

http://youtu.be/J1EQv2nOtWU

Day 17 – Spent and Ready To Come Home

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Today, our last day in town, we started the day off with a visit to one of the local mosques where we were taught about the Muslim religion as well as some of their customs.  It was very enlightening and I have an entire post already written in my head to be shared, but I am just too tired to write something as insightful as I plan.  We then wandered around the Emirates Mall, no skiing today, and stumbled upon a Katy Perry concert (another post to be), before watching a movie and listening to everyone talk around us.  Lots to be told about everything, but it will all have to wait as I am still overdue on our dune drive, our trip to the market, boat ride up the Dubai “creek”,…and the list goes on.  For now I am exhausted and going to pack it in, get on the plane, and pass out for our flight to London, then enjoy a three hour layover before heading to New York AND another three hour layover before finally getting to Dallas and our boys.  I think we hit the maximum time away yesterday and are very much ready to get home and spend some time with our boys as well as kick back and enjoy the comforts of our home.

Skiing…In The Desert

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On Wednesday, while Melanie was wrapping up her work, I headed to the slopes.  That’s right, there is snow skiing in Dubai.  It’s indoor, but still it was a ski slope completely with snow, chair lifts, penguins, and screaming kids.  I was told it was one of the biggest indoor slopes, if not the biggest, in the world but despite it being a bunch of fun it was a bit overwhelming.  All I could think was that if this was the biggest, then those others out there must really be small and pointless.  I’m not a very good skier, having been only twice in my life, including the trip we took almost a year ago for spring break, but after about an hour of getting off at the first stop of the lift I found myself zipping down from the top.  It took longer to ride the lift to the top than it did to get to the bottom and get back on the lift.  Unlike golf I had a few people to talk to on the ride up as well as be encouraged and goaded into going to the top.  A couple of times I rode with a nice Asian woman that was zipping down the hill confidently on her snow board and she gave me positive encouragement and advice on improving my skiing.  The other encouragement, goading, I received was from a 12 year old Russian boy that kept telling me in his broken English “You go to the top!”.  I would receive waves as he zipped past me and sighs if he was on the lift with me when I would get off at the half way point.  He had quite the proud look when he finally saw me riding to the top.  All in all I went up and down almost nonstop for about four hours and I am still paying for it in soreness.  Today is our last day and as we search for things to do to eat away our time I am hoping Melanie will want to ski so I can show off my ability to ski from the top like a big boy.  Full disclosure: even from the top the slopes are a green.

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Golf Is The Loneliest Sport

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At least it is when you play alone.  On Tuesday, while Melanie was working, I took off to the Montgomery golf club for a round of golf.  On the way I found this impala roaming the streets of Dubai.

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When I arrived I was very happy to find myself playing alone as after a couple of months off I was a bit self-conscious of my game.  It turned out to be a very good thing that I was alone as I was also playing with rental clubs and despite popular opinion a good craftsman can blame his tools.  I quickly discovered how much I love my own clubs and after finding myself talking to myself and then answering, out loud, I realized that I also miss playing with my buddies.

I am happy to say that I broke 90, so all in all it was a good round.  More importantly I got to take in some spectacular views while playing a game I love and having a great conversation with the funniest guy I know…me.

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Another Dancing Fountain

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We were in another area of Dubai tonight, called the Marina area.  It was beautiful and relaxing and enjoyable to just wander up and down the river.  Near the end we stumbled upon another dancing fountain.  I couldn’t pass up the chance to record and share.

http://youtu.be/koJWVv-uBUs

Since my last joke, the dinner companion, fell flat I wanted to be clear that this video was intended as a joke.  It was just a fountain that we came across and I thought it would be funny to include.  I’m hoping to regain my faith in you, the audience, to understand my jokes.  Until then I will raise my hand when I am being sarcastic.

Day 14 – Berj Khalifa

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Another building that I have become fascinated, borderline obsessed, with during our visit is the Berj Khalifa.  It is the tallest building in the world, standing tall at 160 stories and more than 2700 feet.  When standing at the base, it is nearly impossible to get the entire tower in the frame…although we have tried and thanks to technology succeeded a few times.  Today I took some photos from the window outside of our room and you can see that it dwarfs the others standing around it.  In fact it looks as if it is doubling it in size.

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Tonight, after risking our lives for in the market (a story for later), for some purse shopping we headed back down to the Dubai Mall that is next to the beauty where the fountain show occurs to see the show and naturally we started taking more photos.  I do believe it is even more beautiful at night.

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And finally, I have a video from the dancing fountain show.  I posted one from the show during the day a couple of posts ago.  I think this one blows it away.  Very cool seeing it at night.  I’m glad we survived our near death experiencing shopping for purses.

http://youtu.be/-J_-yM-ZCgI

Tomorrow begins Melanie’s portion of the vacation as her work conference is over.  We will be heading to the dunes for some “dune bashing”.  Here’s to hoping for no car sickness.