7 Days in Dubai

Before my trip to Dubai was even halfway over, I was already thinking about how difficult it would be to articulate the experience. Even selecting which photos to use for this post was a struggle. The city is full of contradictions - it's old, but it's brand new; it's the Middle East, but Western culture is everywhere; the buildings are massive, yet seemly disproportional to the population. Dubai was such an amazing mix of touring and chillaxing - I think it's the most relaxed I have ever felt after a vacation (like most people, I usually complain about needing a vacation to recover from my vacation).

We were fortunate enough to have Struan's cousin and her boyfriend as our hosts during our trip. They live and work in Dubai (by way of London and Scotland) and are part of the growing expat community in the city. Staying with "locals" is such a great way to experience a new place and their recommendations and help (they set up a lot of what we did on the trip) really made our stay in Dubai the perfect week.

I've been asked to describe this trip by friends, family and coworkers - and it's hard! Here are some quick answers to the most ask questions:
1. Dress code - we were dressed more conservatively than a lot of the European tourists we saw. I erred on the side of caution and covered my shoulders and knees at all times in public. In the hotel restaurants you can pretty much wear whatever you want.
2. Alcohol - it's illegal, but you can drink there (one of the many contradictions I mentioned earlier). For residents you need an actual license to purchase and keep alcohol in your home (it's not difficult to obtain, just tedious). Restaurants are only allowed to serve alcohol if they are on hotel grounds of some sort. And as you can imagine, booze is pretty expensive. We drank every night if that tells you anything about the accessibility of alcohol.
3. Culture - although it's the Middle East, it's extremely Westernized. American chains are everywhere (but we rarely saw an American tourist or expat). I was in a bathroom at a nice restaurant on "ladies night" (woman drink free! contradiction alert) and I swear I could have just as easily been at Underground in Chicago by the way the women were dressed. Dubai is extremely safe, you can leave your purse on a table and no one will steal it. Most everyone we met was nice and friendly. 

Below are a few parts of our trip that are worth sharing. I also tried to provide a photo recap for each day we were in Dubai.  If you are interested in seeing more, my Instagram account actually provides the best play-by-play (@dsonni) with more details.

Day 1: "Dune Bashing" in the desert. The guides let some of the air pressure out of the tires and then drive around like madmen. Buckle up! But seriously, you need to wear your seat belt because you bounce around a ton. I should have worn a sports bra. The SUVs have roll bars in them so I felt pretty safe (even when we were driving horizontal along a dune). The sunset view against the sand was amazing.

After the dune bashing, the guides took all of the groups to a Middle Eastern-style BBQ in the desert. We took a few laps with the camel (you really need to hold on when it gets up/down!) and held a falcon (I was terrified). Apparently the falcon is a sacred bird and you can bring your pet falcon on flights with you (only on intra-Middle Eastern flights), you just put a little hood on its head so it thinks it's nighttime and doesn't bother anyone. WHAT?! I'll take snakes on a plane before birds.

Day 2-3: It ended up working out that we alternated "relax" days with touring days. Day two we spent at his cousin's building pool and hung out around the Marina (part of the city where a lot of expats live). Day three took us to the Burj Kahlifa, the tallest building in the world. It's INCREDIBLE. I expected to be like "oh, cool, a tall building" and that's it - but no, I was thoroughly impressed by its grandeur. It's almost twice as tall as the Willis Tower and you can see it from almost anywhere you go in Dubai. It's also built by a Chicago architect (same as Trump Tower) so of course we loved the hometown pride factor.

View from the 124th floor observation deck at the Burj. There's an open-air deck you can go out on and it's funny how just having that open component really adds to the intensity of the height. There wasn't a roof (duh, open air) and the side walls made of glass also had openings that you could stick your arms out of (or your head, as Struan did). The water you see in the picture surrounds the mall and restaurants (mall on left side). The mall is huge and there's a lot I could say about it, but the most unusual thing I saw was a Garrett's Chicago Popcorn store...what?! There's also light/water show (Bellagio style) each night in this area.

After spending the day at the Burj and the mall, we had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant (in the group of buildings in the water you can see from the Burj observation deck). Struan's cousin picked this restaurant because of the view (Burj light and water show) and because they served alcohol. Everything we ate during our stay was very, very good. I love Mediterranean food, but Dubai has also every type of cuisine (we had pretty good pizza and Mexican while we were there since Struan and I can only go a day or two without).

If you haven't noticed, we are kind of obsessed with the Burj. This picture looks superimposed (I swear it's not). The light/water show at night was fun to watch - especially since it was set to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You". Classic.

Day 4-5: Our next relaxation day was spent at Nasimi Beach at the Atlantis. We were waited on hand and foot all day at the beach. Enough said. Day five we ventured to Old Town Dubai for some local culture. We went to the museum and it was better than we expected, I would recommend it. We also stumbled upon the cutest boutique hotel/art gallery/cafe where we had some mint lemonade and dessert.

It costs about $1 to take one of these water taxis down the creek. You get what you pay for.

Day 6-7: For our last full day in Dubai, Struan's cousins took the day off work and we chartered a boat. What's not to love about warm weather and boating?! It actually reminded us a lot of summer in Chicago, the boat goes along the city so you have some great tourist views. The building on the right is the famed Burj Al Arab "7 star" super luxurious hotel. The one on the left is the Radisson Blu "wave" hotel. And those two losers in the middle are Struan and me having an obligatory Titanic moment. 

This is the one of the Sheik's private yachts that we passed by. This boat costs 40 million dollars just to maintain every year. Thought this was a good example of the extreme wealth you hear about in Dubai. 

Let me know if you are planning a trip to Dubai and want any recommendations!