Tour of Old Dubai and the Souks

This morning we gathered in the lobby at 8:15am to be transported to the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding for breakfast and a talk with a cultural advisor.

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.

(The crazy panoramic option on the iPhone if you can't keep the arrow centered bends the image, but its still pretty cool!).

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.

I took some photos of the architecture of the hotel and commented on how this is more what I was expecting and how beautiful it was.  Jay said - "Why take pictures of the fake architecture, this was just built to look like it belongs somewhere else, it's like going to Vegas and taking pictures of the pyramid and being like 'oh good, now I've seen a pyramid'"  Whatever, its still beautiful!

 And a view of the canal as well.

Inside of the buildings were stunning as well, the ceiling in the corridors was amazing.

After lunch it was time to head back to the hotel - we had about 10 minutes to mosey through the shops in the resort and we ended up buying the girls each a little bottle of sand art that we watched how it was made.  When I asked him, the artist said that it took him 3 to 4 years to learn how to make them.  We bought the smallest for them, but he had some huge pieces as well.


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.

Lazy pool day...

We had nothing to do today.  No responsibilities other than to be at my massage at 12:30 and make it to dinner for 8:00pm - it was so nice.  I can't remember the last vacation where we just had a chill out day - mostly because, if you read the blog, you know I like to be busy on vacation.  But the planning for this is out of my control and so a day by the pool it was!

I couldn't sleep last night.  I went to bed shortly after midnight and then went to sleep no problem until 2:00am.  Then, try as I might, I could not fall back to sleep - so I was up until about 5am...I tried my yoga relaxation stuff and nothing was working.  So when the alarm went off at 8:00am for us to get ready for breakfast (between 8:30am and 10:00am) I turned it off an immediately fell back to sleep until 9:30, at which point I woke up in a panic.  We were down to breakfast by 10am - but then also learned that no matter what we eat or drink and at what time of day or where we can charge it to our room and Manulife is picking up the bill...sweet!

After breakfast with Mark and Lorna we came back up to the room to get ready to go to the pool.  (I actually wrote 'to have a nap'..but that's not what we did, so I'm not sure why I wrote it - obviously was wishing I had had a nap today!).  The pool is beautiful and there are lots of chairs and lots of umbrellas.

We sat around the pool for a few hours, literally doing nothing but enjoying the peace and sunshine and heat (seriously, we did nothing - I hope you like those 2 photos - they're the only ones I took today!) and then it was time to head to the spa for my Thai Massage.

Oh. My. God.  At least once in your life you have to have a Thai Massage (it deserves capitals) from a teensy weensy Thai lady who is as strong as a power lifter and is, perhaps, verging on being a sociopath.  It was heaven.  She had me bending and stretching in ways that the human body shouldn't and it felt SO good.  Jay had a Thai Massage too, from a 'dude' and says it was the 'most incredible massage I've ever had'.  And its a good thing that he did have the Thai Massage, where they give you Thai style pants and a t-shirt to wear while they stretch you - because the other men who had regular massages were given the disposable underwear that you sometimes get if you're doing a scrub and had to wear them and a couple of them complained that their 'dude' was a little aggressive on his lines (meaning he was swerving into the 'don't like to be touched by a dude' territory).

After our treatments Jay and I met back down by the pool and had a chance to Facetime with the girls for a bit and wish my Mom a Happy Mothers Day.  Its only 8 hours difference, so they were just getting up.  Jay wanted to Facetime his Mom right after, but its 12 hours to Vancouver so it would be 4am...and as much as she loves him, I'm sure she doesn't want a call at 4am!

From the pool we went up to the room to get changed and I said to Jay I needed to see if they have a pharmacy for some feminine products, which I totally didn't plan for when I was coming here though I knew the timing would be right.  I ended up having to go to the concierge and get some tampons delivered from a pharmacy - I don't need them for a few days potentially, but there is no where close to get anything like that.  Each hotel is a resort compound with security and there are no neighbourhoods close by.  So the box themselves was 21 dirhams ($7) and then I had to pay a 20 dirham delivery fee...$14 isn't bad considering they were delivered from off-site right to my room!

Came up to the room and got changed for the cocktail reception before dinner and then headed down.  About 10 minutes after we arrived Mark and Lorna arrived...Mark said he was reading the blog and wanted to get down there before us so that he was first!  Lol.  It didn't happen though!  Even though the cocktail reception started at 7:00pm and went to 8:00pm and we said we would meet them at 7:30pm and got there right on time..they got there last.

At the cocktail reception we met Joel and Jana a couple from Halifax and they would be the youngest here.  They got married in August of last year, I would say Joel is 30ish?  It was nice though, they then came and sat with us (us being Jay and I, Mark and Lorna) at dinner and then we went out for a drink with them afterwards.   Dinner was in one of the restaurants in the hotel, a Lebonese place - I tried chicken liver, so that's something.

Now I'm just in bed and Jay went with Mark to a cigar lounge at the other end of the hotel to have a scotch.  Tomorrow is bright and early an 8:15am start in the lobby for a tour of Old Dubai and a spice and gold market - should be fun!

My Mom just texted me to ask me when school starts tomorrow.  I texted her back drop off and pick up times and she wrote back "I asked the girls when school starts and they said: 1 - About half an hour after we eat breakfast and 2 - when we are ready to go"  So funny!!

Travel day - Uxbridge to Dubai

First of all, I have to say - Way. To. Go. Jason.  Total score all day long, in every aspect of travel - and as a reward conference, he totally earned it!  If there is one sure way to make me happy, its to take me on vacation (3*+)...if there is one way to make Jay happy (despite having to go on vacation) its to take him 5*+ and that's how we've been treated all day.

We got picked up by our complimentary limousine at 5:45pm and transferred to Pearson Airport.  We got checked in to the business class section of Emirates airline and given complimentary passes to the Plaza Premium Lounge, so we made our way up there and had some dinner.  (Dinner was crappy buffet, cold pasta and a few other options but it was free - so we ate just enough to take the edge off and figured we'll eat on the airplane).  Mark, Jay's business partner, who also qualified for this conference, and Lorna met us in the Lounge after about an hour and we hung out until it was time to board the airplane.  They had free beer, wine, etc and although I didn't have any (because it was Crush Merlot and I'm a snob and wouldn't drink it even though its free - - WHAT on earth has happened to me Julia?!?!)

At 9:00pm our boarding was called and we made our way down to the gate.  They were already boarding, so we got into the business class line up and went down the boarding ramp...as we got down the ramp it split off to two entrances (this airplane is HUGE, there are two levels.  The lower level is for the economy passengers and the upper level holds about 20 first class passengers and 100 business class passengers).  Mark and Lorna were a few passengers behind us but we looked back and the ramp was empty - Jay wanted to switch the signs on Mark to have him go into the economy section instead of the business class section - which would have been so funny.

We got on the plane and immediately Jay started to grin.  There was SO much room!  I said to Jay after we had been in the seats only about 15 minutes "these seats make me happy".   This is Jay...grinning.  Wild man.

Beside you is a little ledge, and a space for a few drinks, and your own on-board iPad.

 The dinner menu looked great.

And tonnes of leg room.  (like my purple, fuzzy airplane socks? I take them on every flight and immediately strip off my shoes and socks and put them on...so comfy)

 Even for Jay!

It was about this time that Jay said "they totally know if it's your first time in business class because you're taking pictures of your seat".

And then your whole seat folded flat into a bed too and shifted forwards and back if you have short or long legs.  And it was super comfortable, but then a flight attendant came by and said "Would you like a mattress?"  Oh yeah, totally taking a mattress - just about 3/4" thick down mattress to smooth out the bumps in the seat..with the extra long blanket and puffy pillow it was awesome!

There is a partition that goes up between passengers for when you want privacy - so fun.

We had dinner shortly after take off - I had a spicy thai coconut curry rice and chicken dish and Jay had lamb chops that he really enjoyed.  Even Jay said half way through the flight "these seats make me happy too".

I managed to stay up until 2am watching movies and then slept between 2 and 6am.  Got up at 6 and watched another movie and then had breakfast, french toast - yum.  We were done sleeping and watching another movie and Jay saw the guy in front of him and said to me "He has a pillow!"  "Um..I have a pillow, it was on my seat when we sat down".  Jay slept just fine without a pillow.

When we arrived in Dubai (13 hours later) we were greeted at the gate and taken to another lounge while they picked up our luggage and then escorted us to a priority customs (though the airport was completely dead anyway).  But beautiful.

From the airport we took private shuttles to the hotel - there are probably 20 of us that came in on the same flight.  All in all there are 33 advisors here with their guests and 6 Manulife Sr. employees.

I thought that the hotel might be completely over the top and gaudy - and its borderline, but just the right side of tasteful and quite lovely.  This is a photo of the chandelier in the foyer from below that was used in the most recent Mission Impossible movie.

When we got into our room we had a welcome bottle of prosecco and a cheese tray which was a really nice treat!  Jay doesn't drink it so right after the photo I poured it all into one glass :)

And I made Jay stop and not drop a thing so I could take some photos of the room - because inevitably all of our crap is all over in 2 minutes and I never get a good picture of the room again!

And our bathroom - oh my goodness.  The tub is huge, and there is a window our room that has a blind to pull down and really cool shutters too.. you can see them closed in the first photo of the room from the outside and then open from the bathroom looking out.

And a creepy shot with Jay in it...

After about 30 minutes we went down to the lobby to meet Mark and Lorna and go to a very informal group networking in the lounge.  We spent an hour and a half down there meeting all sorts of new people (much to Jay's chagrin) and drinking cocktails on Manulife (thank you Manulife)..I tried something called a Honey Bee - which is rum, lime juice and honey - tastes like a Margarita without the tequila - delish.  Mark never showed down there - now, you have to know Mark to know that this is not a surprise to me at all, and it doesn't bother me because I'm not expecting him to be on time anyway!  In fact, its now just before midnight and we've been back up in the room for about an hour and Mark just called to see if we were going to go down to the lobby for a drink.  Yeah, no.  Jay is asleep - so is everyone else because we've all slept 4 hours in the last 35 hours.  But that's Mark!  All night Jay has been saying "we should wait for Mark" "we should wait for Mark" and I finally said "but why does he always have to be last?!?"  Jay said it's a form of control and I said "why should we feed into his need to be last when I have my own need to be first!"...Mark was left in the dust, and I think he's ok with that, he's probably thinking "why should I feed into her need to be first when I have my own need to be last!"  We have an unspoken understanding.

Anyway - so far the trip has exceeded my expectations.

Incidentally, there is an 8 hour time difference.  We're ahead.  So its midnight here and 4pm at home!

Fun filled day in London!

Today was full, full, full and, as my Mom would say, fun, fun, fun!

We got up and had breakfast at the apartment and then headed out for a day in the city.  The underground transit had a strike that started today, so not all services and stops are running and there are delays throughout the system, so instead we hop back onto the tourist bus, which we have access to until 10:45 with our 24 hour ticket.  There is a stop (number 40 of 44 before the loop starts again) right at the bottom of our street and stop 13 is at the Aquarium, which is where we are headed.  Because of the tube strike the traffic is crazy!  I think that there are more buses on the road and definitely more cars - so the trip to the Aquarium takes over an hour...but we're on the open top of the bus with a commentary on different things we see along the way, so I don't mind.  There is a combination of commentary and classical music, so the girls keep taking their earplugs out and putting them in saying "is there talking now?  Now?  Now?"

Plus we got to see more of beautiful London!

 The Aquarium was really cool, and set up nicely so that it wasn't too crowded.  In fact, Jay didn't say "Oh my God, get me out of here" even once!  Lol, Paige was a little nervous of the shark tank!

After the Aquarium Paige really wanted to go on the London Eye, which was totally shocking to us since she hates rides and professed on this trip that she doesn't like heights..but whatever, I said to Jay "If she wants to go on the Eye, I'll take her on the Eye.  I mean we're in London, when will we be here again?"  He said "They're going to go to school here"...he REALLY likes London!

Clearly the height didn't bother her.

I didn't get a photo of Buckingham Palace, which we could see from the Eye, but while Paige and I were up there Jay and Sophie walked to Buckingham Palace and I texted Jay from my phone to the phone that we got with our rental and told him we were almost to the top.  He said - "we're right by the monument and Sophie is waving" So we waved back and then Jay texted back and said "She says she can see you!"  Weird kid.

I can tell from my photos that I have a weird obsession with the Parliament buildings.

Once we got off the Eye I texted Jay and he said that he and Sophie were heading over the Regent Street, the shopping area.  So Paige and I headed over to the 'double bunker bus' stop and found a bus heading in that direction.  Traffic was bad again so Jay made it there before us and waited with Sophie until the bus arrived and met us at Piccadilly Circus.  (Circus means circle, as in roundabout - though most of the Circus' no longer are roundabouts but regular intersections - Piccadilly is still a circus with about 8 exits so when I got there and Jay tried to tell me to meet him on Regent and there are 2 exits for Regent we had a mini text domestic before we met!)

Jay really wants to go into Burberry and get the girls jackets - he's nuts!  I won't allow it anyway, but I humour him.  We walk in.  We walk out.  Maybe The Gap.  Gram sent me a text this morning that said to buy the girls sweaters while in London for their birthday and to spare no expense...pretty sure she didn't mean Burberry either!

Sophie got a super cute denim jacket from The Gap :)  Here she is modelling it like only she can.

 On the way home, because of the strike, we could only get to either a few stops before or after our stop on the tube we took the bus to Marble Arch and then walked through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to get back.  Now Jay and Sophie had walked from the Eye to Buckingham Palace, from Buckingham Palace to Regent Street and now from Marble Arch to Ossington Street.

Jay needed a nap.  Sophie came to the park and played for 2 more hours with Paige and a new friend they made, named Ava.  Ava said at one point "I need to go ask my Nanny if I can go over there"..the girls said to her later "did you want to ask your Nana?"  - they don't know what a nanny is.
 

Here is them playing on the pirate ship!

After playing at the park we went out to dinner to an Italian restaurant called Zizzi that was awesome!
Then back to the apartment, put the girls to bed, we packed to get ready for flying home tomorrow and hit the sack!

Only 9 days until Dubai!