Daily scenes from Bur Dubai & dumpster love

Here's my walk in Bur Dubai to work.

There's the cat that i'll miss seeing. He's really darty and is always in this alleyway where I walk to work. Someone must feed it food and water in the alley because i always see new bowls by this tree.....

i also always read this dumpster love note on my walk to work. good luck Raja & Sanyamaba! The concrete jungle of Dubai has treated me well. I got used to the stares from people on my walk every morning...and basically everywhere else I go. The staring is harmless, it can just be overwhelming and invasive sometimes when you are not in the mood to deal with it, but, I try to remind myself that its without malice.

I would definitely recommend the Savoy Crest if you are looking to stay in Bur Dubai. Its very clean and the staff is so helpful. They have definitely made me feel at home here!

Trip to Hatta and Oman

Getting out of the city is always refreshing so we went for a trip to Hatta, a mountain town in the UAE to visit the heritage village and swim in some riverbeds. The drive was about an hour and a half and we had great views of the Hajar mountains in the distance.

In order to get to Hatta, which is actually in the UAE, you do have to cross into the country of Oman to get there since Hatta is located on the border. We had to go through two passport checks and had some issues because the other people on our tour did NOT bring their actual passports, but photo copies. The army guard at the border would not let our car through and our guide got really upset and started to scold the people on our tour with the photocopies. it was....uncomfortable. Eventually, we were able to go through Oman and we got to go swimming!

Hatta is worth the trip, just dont forget your passport.....and it would be worthwhile to try and rent a car and drive yourself so you can spend more time swimming in the riverbeds. The one thing to expect and maybe this will deter you from going to Hatta, but expect that there will be tons of trash around. Unfortunately, the hot spots to visit in the desert have a lot of garbage since people picnic and just leave their food and trash behind. There is overall a lack of understanding in terms of waste and the environment in the desert. Apparently, there are weekly cleanups, but when we visited you would not think these cleanups exist. The mouth of the riverbed had paper plates, wrappers, newspapers, etc. Once we went in deeper though, it was really pretty and the water was crystal clear thank goodness!

Wish we could have stayed longer! But....our tour guide starting honking the horn like a crazy person so we had to go.....and then he didn't speak to us for awhile because he hated us.... I'd avoid a Hatta trip with Oasis Palm tours... Try Orient Tours - I did a desert safari with them and they were really organized and friendly. They also do Hatta trips but plan ahead as these are not daily trips.

Dune bashing & sandboarding

Before our day trip to the mountains, we went on a dune bashing session and went sandboarding.

Dune bashing is always fun in retrospect, but at the time, you really feel like your car is going to tumble down the side of a huge sand dune. So, i would say the experience is exciting and scary since half the time you are wondering if your driver has ever even done this before. Anyway, we survived! The sand was gorgeous and literally looked like glistening gold.

Then, we strapped on some sandboards and flew down the dunes. Sandboarding is fun because you go really fast, but if you fall, you tumble onto soft sand so it takes out that fear of possibly getting hurt. The only thing that sucks is because its a sand dune, its not like you can hop on any kind of lift to take you to the top again. you have to grab your board and haul ass up that hill, which really takes it out of you since the sand is so soft and you start sinking if you don't book it up to the top.

Definitely a great time though and I wish I could do it again :(

Freak out at Ski Dubai

So, I went, I saw, I tried, I failed.

I should have just taken the lesson.

Ski Dubai is super stressful. You arrive and the menu of different tickets you get is kind of overwhelming even if you've done the research beforehand. Then, we got this Ski Dubai sales rep girl who tried to help us....and then was trying to sell us her free ticket to going skiing. Which i guess is okay at a discount, but she was so irritating and while paying her she wanted to make sure we weren't on camera....i mean, she was so annoying I dont even know why we went through the trouble to save 5 bucks.

Then, you have to go buy ski gloves and of course you start getting distracting by all the cute ski wear so you have to run out of the store. Then, you go from table to table to get your boots, your skis, your ski outfits, which have no pockets, and then you have to get a locker card to put all your stuff in. Its easily 1.5 hours just to get ready. Let me also add that you are trying to do all of this while tons of children and families are around you.

I finally get inside, get pumped up to go and as Scott and I are sneaking into the beginner's bunny slope I get to the top and lose my nerve, throw away the poles and kick off the skis. Luckily this British lady came up and was like "oh, just go and fall, i've done it tons of times" and well, i put those ski's back on and went on down the hill. Its funny because this is not my first time skiing. All the people and my fear of crashing into them at full speed just freaked me out! So i went on the bunny hill a few times and then got outta there. Scott did really well (of course) and ski'd all over the freaking place and often commented on how "small" the "big" ski slope is. showoff.

A night at the Meydan horse races!

The Dubai Racing Club at Meydan just opened on January 28th so we decided to get some seats for the International Horse Racing Carnival. The facility is massive and it is completely brand new with small parts still under construction. We got premium seats at the finish-line and learned some fun tidbits about the Pick Seven and how to read horse profiles and predict winners. Horse names are the best, our favorites included: Bikini Babe, Escape Route, Two Step Salsa, and Snow Runner (scott's pick which obviously lost since we are in the desert).

The highlight of our evening was a surprise appearance by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid. His photos are all over billboards around Dubai and you are constantly reading about him in every newspaper. It was very exciting to see him in the flesh! UAE male nationals usually wear white kanduras. Sheikh Mo is known for his iconic colored kanduras and today he appeared in mustard! Here you'll see my photo of him....it looks like he's staring right at my camera :)

Desert quad biking

Finally! I got to go quad biking. It's super fun and I want to do it again already. I do have to admit, it's scary at first because the bikes just feel really unsafe and well, if you tumble over you have these images of being crushed by the heavy metal.....or....maybe that's just me? And its not like they give you any kind of instructions or helmet or safety warnings here, they just point at the gas pedal and the brake and off you go! Either way, after a few times of getting stuck in the sand, you realize that you need to go faster to gain control of your bike. Eventually, I was whizzing around the desert like Scott...who seemed to have no issues at all. He didn't need the quad bike team to come out and rescue him out of the sand 3 times...But whatever, he got the bigger and cooler bike. sigh.

Carting around Zabeel Park

Zabeel Park is on Sheikh Zayed road near Bur Dubai. It's a huge park with a technology theme. There's a small roller coaster inside, an amphitheater, BBQ's and a little space maze you can ride carts in. Its open late until 11:30pm and there's lot of people in the evenings. Its a really great park for people and their families.....or me and scott who wanted explore some greenery in Dubai!

Camel Trekking!

Scott and I went camel trekking. Most desert tours offer a 5 minute ride on a camel, but Scott was adamant about wanting a real camel trek so after some research we found that Net Tours offers a one hour trek through the desert to camp. We thought we were joining a caravan of camels but when we arrived and saw only two...we learned it was just me and scott and our guide taking us through the desert. We were so excited for the trip that it didn't really matter that our guide didn't speak to us or introduce himself or even look at us once actually.....we still had a great time climbing aboard our "ships of the desert" and held on for dear life. You'll see a picture of a knob - that is what we had to hold onto in the front and back of us to stay on top of the camel the whole time. When the camel gets up and down you really have to hold on or you will literally tumble off and break your neck. it was freaking scary getting up but since we also found it so hilarious, it was ok.

the desert during sunset was beautiful to see. The only thing that is still surprising is how much trash and debris is in the desert. There are many spots along the way where you just see tons of cigarette boxes, cans, and just bits of garbage flying about. There needs to be a big desert cleanup because other than that, the golden sand dunes are a really amazing sight! It was a good trek and definitely tiring on our arms and thighs since you have to hold yourself in that position for so long.

We had a great day with our camels even though at first, Scott's camel was moaning and groaning so much I thought he was going to bite our faces off. But, then he calmed down:)

Cheap Delicious Eats: Bu Qtair Cafeteria & Al Ismaily Cafe

Bu Qtair is a fish shack in Umm Sequiem, which is a beach area near the Burj Al Arab. This area is considered an expensive area with luxury hotels and beautiful beach residences. Here across the beach though you'll find a trailer called the Bu Qtair Cafeteria across from a bunch of fishermen's boats. Here its all about the catch of the day! They fried us up fish and shrimp and it was super tasty and cheap:)

If you go, dont be intimidated! Get in there, get a seat and order the fish of the day and the shrimp. It may take you awhile to get a table and/or get the attention of the waiter, but its well worth it for the experience and the food. They fry it up and its delicious and salty. I am already craving the shrimp. Where else can you get fried seafood like this? Give it a try!

(Please note, this place is very casual - again, it is a fish shack across from the beach!) Enjoy!

Al Ismaily Cafeteria: Its a little cafeteria attached to a gas station in Bur Dubai. All the cops and taxi drivers go here. They have delicious 1 AED cups of milk tea and 3 AED chicken burgers. its still my favorite! Scott also became obsessed with the tea and he drank it every day while in Dubai.

Shisha & Cocktails @ the Atlantis

Scott arrived! Hurray! It was a big night to celebrate not only Scott's arrival but Mobeen's work award. We all got dolled up and headed out to Palm Island.

Me and the gang took Scott to the Atlantis to have cocktails and smoke shisha at Levantine.

Levantine is a lounge located on a huge terrace overlooking views of downtown Dubai. We introduced Scott to the grape mint shisha flavor and spent the evening roaming the hallways and aquarium.