We took a coach bus off the palm and learned all sorts of interesting facts. For instance, the palm can be seen from space because each lamp post has a small blue light on the top which lights up at night and lights the palm. (I didn't actually know this until I just tried to google the palm at night, but there is actually more than one palm island in Dubai! We are on Palm Jumeirah, which was the first and is the smallest). The breakwater around the palm required 7 million tonnes of stones which were each precision placed with divers and GPS. And, the island required as much sand be dumped as you could create a 3 ft high wall and circumnavigate the globe 23 times.
I also got some photos from the bus of some of the more modern architecture.
We arrived at the Cultural Center and had the opportunity to have a traditional bedouin breakfast.
There were chick peas and then a vermacilli noodle with eggs, then a dried and then roasted chicken with vegetables, then a pancake of sorts that was more like a small, soft pita served with date syrup and a type of cream cheese that was the consistency of greek yogurt and then fried honey and dough balls called loukoumades (which we've had before from the Danforth when Dwayne and Leanne or Shane and Anna have brought them up - they're litle honey puffs of exploding goodness).
After breakfast we had a very open and candid talk with an Emerati host who gave his opinions on our opinions of the middle east and their culture. He asked for a female volunteer to wear the hijab and I volunteered, so as he was advising me what to put on he would talk about the hijab and its significance culturally. I'll get some photos from Mark and Lorna later, but Jay didn't take any with my phone, so I don't have them now to post.
The Cultural Centre was my favourite part of the day - its too bad that I can't remember all of the interesting things that the host said - but it was very cool to see his perspective on his perspective on our perspective (yes, I meant to say that) and why there is so much confusion and political spin. Their slogan is Open Doors. Open Minds.
After our visit at the Cultural Centre we went to the spice souk (market). We took a water taxi across the 'creek' to get there.
And the sides of the 'creek' were lined with ships like this: (I don't know their purpose, but they were all similar style)
We had 20 minutes to explore on our own or stay with the group. We decided to explore on our own and were immediately accosted by vendors trying to sell you 'original duplicate' rolex watches and Louis Vuitton bags. After about 10 minutes we came across a few people from our group with the guide, they were on their way to a perfume place where they sell traditional Emerati perfume, which is scented oil with no alcohol in it. The scent of the first perfume I tried was really light and sweet, so I bought 4 little bottles of it - one for each of the girls and 2 for good friends of theirs, Avery and Myah. The 4 little bottles were 30 dirham, which is $10 for all 4 and something fun and unique to bring them home from Dubai.
From the spice market we went to the gold market - at this point it is not just hot, it is freakin' hot. Since we aren't in the market for any gold Jay and I decided to just sit on a bench and watch the world go by for the 20 minutes that we had to spend there.
Once we were done at the gold market we walked back to the bus and went to a sister Jumeirah property for lunch called Madinat Jumeirah. The inside of this resort complex was enormous and beautiful - it is nicknamed Little Venice because of the intricate series of canals on the property.
This is a view from the entrance of Madinat looking at the sail hotel, the Burj al Arab which sits on its own man made island as well. Though you can't tell from this photo that its out on an island in the middle of the water.
Inside of the buildings were stunning as well, the ceiling in the corridors was amazing.
We got back to the hotel - still stinkin', sticky hot and went straight out to the pool for the next couple of hours before we had to get ready for dinner.
Tonight's dinner was a dine-around and we were assigned the Vietnamese restaurant in the hotel called Voi. It was interesting, and all the food was good - but everyone is so hot from the day out in the humidity and so tired that we all just wanted to go to bed and our whole table left immediately after dinner was finished.
Now Jay's asleep - he woke up at 3am last night and didn't get back to sleep at all, and its nearly midnight and I'm off to bed too.
Tomorrow is another lay by the pool day, unless we want to go to the mall in the afternoon, which seems like it would be kind of cool - the worlds largest aquarium is apparently in the mall...so maybe. There are shuttles there from the hotel. Or, we'll hang out by the pool. Jay decided after the heat of today (and it is really humid now) that he won't do the golf activity, so he is either going to switch and do the 4x4/ATV desert adventure with me or just stay on his own at the hotel. Tomorrow morning I have free, but Jay has to go to a business planning meeting from 9:30 - 12:00pm.
Oh, and we received this cool gift from Manulife last night in our rooms..its our names written in aramaic.
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