Dubai

My impressions of Dubai are greatly influenced by the fact that I’ve been living in a dirty, smelly city with poor infrastructure and terrible logistics for the past 3 months. But, also having grown up in Irvine, a planned community that is meticulously maintained, it takes a lot to impress me. Having said that, Dubai is immaculate. It’s clean, well laid out, there are all the major international brands at your fingertips, and the buildings are beautiful. It’s growing like crazy, so there is construction at every corner, but it’s not disruptive. Even the hotel we stayed at, which is the lowest level in the Starwood property ladder, was cleaner and had more comfortable beds than any of the “five star” hotels we’ve been staying at in India. Just like when I was in the Maldives, I’m asking myself, do I really have to go back [to India]?

The Dubai trip almost didn’t happen because of our laziness in booking the trip, and round trip prices around the $600 USD mark. We finally booked on Air Arabia for half the price, an airline I’ve never heard of before, but they are cheeky enough to have South Park-imitation Arab cartoon characters on their web site, so they must be all right – or it’s a hoax. http://www.airarabia.com. The only odd thing about the flight was the Muslim prayer blasting through the speakers before take off in a deep voice that sounded like it was in a cave.

We left Mumbai without a problem, and upon arrival in Sharjah, an adjacent city to Dubai, we were whooshed through the immigration process, complete with retina scan. I’m not sure what they’ll do with this information, but I wanted to get in the country, so I didn’t argue. The cab ride to the hotel was a mere 20 minutes on smooth roads (and on the RIGHT side of the road). We stayed at a hotel where I have plenty of points to redeem for free nights, and as it turns out, it’s in one of the best locations possible for the mission of our trip—shopping!

The irony of this trip is that I am traveling with two guys who are more excited about shopping than I am. Admittedly, their mission is to buy loads of electronics, since we heard that Dubai has cheaper prices than almost anywhere else, and there is no sales tax. Saturday we walked down the road in one direction to a large indoor mall called the BurJaman. This mall is complete with Banana Republic, Zara, Versace, Kenneth Cole, you name it! It’s similar to, but nicer than, the South Coast Plaza Mall where I grew up in Orange County, and that’s a nice mall—when I was growing up, tour busses would show up to South Coast and dump out loads of overseas shoppers.

The first challenge of the day was finding breakfast…during Ramadan. For any of you who aren’t familiar with it, Ramadan is the Muslim holiday where they fast for one month around October between sunrise and sunset. This a complete fast—no water, nothing. Obviously, not everyone in Dubai is Muslim, but it’s the reigning religion and culture, so its rules are followed.

At first, we thought all the restaurants were closed, until we found a Subway that had just opened. So we ordered our breakfast sandwiches to find out that we can’t eat the food in the food court, or anywhere else in the mall, or in public at all. Basically, we are expected to only eat in our hotel or in a private car. Hm. So we eat outside the mall behind a pillar, at this point oblivious to the fact that we could get in trouble by the police. Later on in the day for a snack, we scored cookies at a Mrs. Field’s and we snuck down to the basement parking garage and gobbled it down crouching behind a car. When Sean’s phone beeped because he received a text message, he actually jumped. We all felt like we were doing something bad, when all we wanted to do was eat! And most of you know how grumpy I get if I don’t eat at regular intervals…

We spent several hours shopping before getting some take out sushi and cabbing it back to the hotel to eat our lunch in peace and privacy. The only reason we really left was because the shops were closing mid-afternoon (Ramadan again). BUT, we were told about another mall that, when complete, will be the largest mall in the entire world. It’s called the mall of the Emirates, and it rocks! It doesn’t close at all between 10am and midnight because it’s geared to tourists (unlike the other malls that close during certain prayer times), and the part of it that’s open has only been in operation since my birthday at the end of September (of THIS year). It’s brand spanking new, and it even has an indoor ski slope!

We spent several more hours of shopping bliss here. I discovered so many stores (many of them UK brands) that I wasn’t aware of, but there were even surprising American stores that I wouldn’t think of as international brands, such as Forever 21. I controlled myself and my credit cards, but it was so nice to have such a selection of well-styled, excellent quality clothes and products in a clean environment at your fingertips (all of which India lacks, in my opinion). I escaped the afternoon with just a pair of flip-flops, some costume jewelry, two purses, a shawl, a top, and skirt. Ok, writing this out makes it sound like a fair amount, but compared to what I tried on…I was well-behaved.

By 7pm, I was exhausted and ready to stop spending, so I came back to the hotel to rest, and the boys took off to complete their retail therapy with what was supposed to be an electronics shopping spree. Disappointingly, the prices in Dubai were not as low as they expected, so they didn’t buy everything on their list. John bought me a belated birthday present however – an amazing set of small travel computer/mp3 speakers, complete with a light and portable subwoofer. Exactly what I had been looking for at home, but couldn’t find anything with the right combination of quality, lightness, and price. They are perfect!

Saturday night we got dressed to impress and headed out to a club. Most clubs are closed during Ramadan, but we were told that wasn’t the case for the 5 star hotels. This made sense to us, because we’ve experienced a similar situation in India on “dry” days where alcohol is only served in five stars, and only to non-Indian residents. However, Dubai was more strict on this rule, and no clubs were open. We ended up eating a late dinner at a “Mexican” restaurant at 1am of lamb kebabs a few coronas, and that was our big night out – bummer.

Sunday was more of the same—scavenging for food, last minute shopping—and then heading to the airport for our flight in the afternoon. Our flight was not only delayed leaving Sharjah, but then we were rerouted to another airport relatively close to Mumbai because Mumbai airport had such heavy traffic that we couldn’t land for a few hours. Apparently, it was raining really hard in Hydrabad, so those flights were rerouted to Mumbai all day, causing delays. We landed in Ahmedabad and sat in the plane on the tarmac for 2 hours before taking off again and landing in Mumbai at 1am, 4 hours past our original planned arrival.

The plane passengers were amusing to watch. Either out of ignorance or lack of respect for rules and regulations, passengers would get up while the plane was still on the runway, or try to go to the bathroom just before we landed, or my favorite, the guy who was smoking in the lavatory and got caught – twice! The stewardesses were much nicer than the ones I’m used to in the states where they act like they own the plane. These people were just told “not to” and that was it. By the time we landed, and got through immigration (and were given the wrong forms on the plan, causing us more delays in filling out the right ones), baggage claim, customs, and getting the taxi back to the hotel, it was past 2:30am. It was a lot of travel time for such a quick weekend trip, but well worth the experience and the shopping.

I would definitely go back to Dubai if I am in this part of the world again. Not just for shopping, but to do some of the other touristy things – desert safari day trips, watching a camel race (they have a proper camel racing track and arena!), and maybe eating something more traditional to the area, not the American fast food I was stuck with this time. But next time, I’ll make sure it’s not during Ramadan.