DUBAI

Please note that I am writing this at 5am and I've been up for an hour. My boy Ethan decided to get up at 4:15am wailing and asking where SnuffleUffleGus (no clue how to spell that....elephant from Sesame Street) went. Obviously it's difficult to try and talk common sense into a 2 1/2 year old - you can't really shake him and say "DAMNIT MAN - IT'S NOT REAL!". Especially at 4:30am - so we decided to look for him and now we're both up. Perfect.

I've never been to Dubai and never really done any research on it (I knew how to spell it - that's about it) but from what I have heard they say that 1/3 of the world's cranes are in Dubai. No doubt - I probably saw over 100 cranes and I was only there for the day.

Below are two pics - they are about 10 minutes apart - you go from HOT desert - to well...ok - the HOT city. But green grass - we hadn't seen that in about a week or so so we were loving Dubai already.



We went to the Dubai Marina & Beach Resort - paid $50 and we got all-day access to the beach. The first thing every single person did was....go get a beer. No beer allowed on the base - and with the heat in Dubai and the water right in front of us - beer was mandatory.

I bought my beer and gave $10 US - the gentleman took the money and put it in the till. I stood there waiting for another minute and he said "your bill is done sir". I guess it was a $10 beer. Well....won't be having too many of those.

I went into the water and I've never felt warmer sea water in my life. Usually there is a chill when you go into the ocean - this was just warm - almost like a hot tub.

Pic on the right is with Edwin from Crash Karma.

Pic on the left is with Wendy from Virgin Radio and on the right is Dave from Crash Karma. He's a replacement for the band and typically plays in Thornley but filled-in for this trip.

We had a fabulous time on the beach and then we decided to hit the market.

One thing to note - you can NOT be drunk or even smell like beer in Dubai in public. Them's the rules. If you are and you're caught - it's a public lashing. So.....we watched our beer VERY carefully as the last people you want to get mad are the UAE Army. They are already not really happy with Canada right now.

The market was nuts - you barter everywhere so you just need to find out how low you can go. The owner of one said $50 and one of our guys replied back, "$1". And the price immediately got dropped to $30. I didn't think that would be the best strategy but it worked.

I bought one pair of shoes. They were too small for me but I really couldn't tell the guy they weren't great. We spent the whole time bartering. I got him down to $20 US so I needed to go to the bank machine. He asked if he could follow me to the bank machine. I thought it was odd so I said "sure". Why not, eh? We got to the bank and none of our bank cards would work - I'm not sure what it was but I was with a few other people and none worked. So I turned to the guy and said sorry - couldn't buy them. He asked if I had ANY money on me. I had $15 Canadian. He took it. SO THAT'S HOW YOU BARTER. Just walk around with very little cash - give a frowny face and say "that's all I have".

Below is a pic of the tallest building in the world. I really should have thought about it before taking the pic as it doesn't look very tall from that angle. The light post in front looks taller.



For dinner we went to the Irish Village - or better known as the White People Hangout. Everyone there was white - it was very odd to see right in Dubai. There were probably a couple thousand people at the Village.



After dinner we headed back to where we were sleeping - and of course before that we had to stand outside while someone from the UAE Army inspects all of us and our passport. You know - the usual.