Waking Up
I woke up around 8:30am. I wanted to sleep later, but I wanted to make the most of the day and I didn't want to stand up the Ukrainian. I checked my email and had a couple of messages of things the two were interested in doing - the first email was sent about an hour and a half earlier. I figured they had already begun, but I sent a message off asking if they were still around and head for the shower. Although I wanted to sleep more, I forced myself to get up and going since there was a small chance meeting them. The hotel they were staying at was directly across the street from the Mall of Emirates, a place I was going to start the day off anyway with coffee. I had indicated I would be at the Starbucks there around 9 if they were interested in meeting up. I'm not sure why they hadn't begun their day after a couple of hours of being awake, but I got an email back saying they'd find me at Starbucks.
Mall of Emirates
Finding parking in the mall was easy since it was early. Most stores were opening, but you could tell they were just starting for the day. The mall is staffed with attendants who speak perfect English. Since it was slow, one saw me looking at the big map outlining the mall and asked how she could help. After I mentioned Starbucks, she informed me there were three in the mall. This was not good news. l had thought the hotel the Ukrainians were staying at was in the mall, so I asked for the location closest to the hotel. The attendant directed me to a Starbucks near a department store, so I send off an email letting them know exactly which Starbucks I was heading towards. I was doubtful they would get the email because they did not have cellular service - they were dependent on WiFi and probably already left. I was pretty convinced they would head to the more central Starbucks, inside the mall, but since I sent an email I figured it would be best to wait. To my chagrin, this particular Starbucks did not offer WiFi - but I could still get emails on my phone via 3G. After getting coffee and a muffin the Ukrainians had arrived. I hadn't finished my coffee and they needed to convert currency so they went off to do that while I finished my muffin. A few minutes later he head to my fancy Kia.
Al Ain
When we spoke over email we discussed a couple of ideas - visiting a garden and a water park. It sounded like the Ukrainians liked to balance sightseeing with something fun. Dubai is home to a park called the Miracle Garden, the worlds largest garden. After confirming with the friend, the park of interest was in Al Ain - a town about an hour and a half south just steps from Oman. The Ukrainian asked if it was too far and I was ready to kick them both out of the car, but I really didn't have much else planned. I had another full day in Dubai and the only things left on my checklist were to ski and visit the Burj Khalifa. Both activities run pretty much all night, so visiting the garden and water park came with no opportunity cost. The English speaking Ukrainian did sit in the front next to me, but I figured she'd talk to her friend most of the way so I turned on the radio. Dubai's radio is completely westernized. Just as in Chicago, Dubai has a KISS FM affiliate. I figured driving throughout the desert would be pretty cool. I like driving and the foreign landscape provided something different to take in. After a couple of minutes the Ukrainian turned the radio down - I imagine she wanted to practice her English. She had told me the day before that she was a beautician - she worked for herself and did hair removal. I brought that up and asked how long she went to school, etc. She continues on saying she went to a technical institute and graduated with a degree in computer science. My response is very Borat esque. "You are typewriter operator?", waving my hands with fingers pointed downward as if I'm typing. She only found my humor slightly charming. "No, I studied programming. PHP, C++", I also developed web sites. Completely stealing a line from Borat, I return with "But you are woman. You have small brain (tapping on her head)". At this point she's still trying to determine if I'm joking, than I return with "Meooooooooow". She looses it. We continue to chat and every 15 minutes or so I check with the friend to make sure she's comfortable. After an hour and the third time checking, I can tell the friend is thrown off by something I'm doing. I ask and am told Russian men normally don't behave as I do - I guess the friend didn't realize i was not Russian.
After driving for an hour and a half we reached to the town. I couldn't locate an exact address, but I had read the garden was near the Museum - so that point was in my GPS. We did some searching, driving through the Al Ain Oasis. The oasis dates back thousands of years and features an irrigation system that would later be used by countries all over the world. It was pretty cool driving through the ruins. After cruising through the ruins we stopped at a shop and were the highlight of everyone's day. Everyone stared at us. In these parts few speak English, so getting directions was very difficult. After failing miserably with the directions given, we would later stop at a gas station and security booth only to find out the gardens are closed. Determined to find something of worth in the journey I head towards the mountains and found a park. The park was incredible. There was desert forever, but also swaps of greenery between. I hadn't seen anything like it before.
Ice Land Water Park
After spending an hour or so at the park we decide to head to the water park. They had wanted to go to the Ice Land Water Park back - the largest water park in the UAE. The water park is equidistant to Dubai from where we are at, but there would be about an hour drive from the water park back to Dubai. After about 40 minutes of driving the friend suggests we find a water park closer to Dubai. We settle on a large park called Wild Wadi. The park was featured on the Amazing Race 5 if you follow that program. We checked the park website and it was scheduled to close at 8pm, so we'd have about 3 hours to spend at the park once we got there. After arriving we noticed everyone leaving the park. We made our way to the ticket counter and discovered the park was closing early - in less than 30 minutes. Two destinations in a row that are misses? These Ukrainians are bad luck. We searched and found another park on the man made Palms Islands. After checking the hours I quickly find that the park will close soon...at sunset. Since the Dubai Miracle Garden was close, I suggest heading in that direction.
Settling for Dubai's Miracle Garden
We arrived at the Miracle Gardens about 30-45 minutes before sunset. I was concerned the Ukrainian were going to expect me to pick up their tickets - fortunately (for them) that did not occur. The park is setup to look like a theme park, with a fake coaster and space shuttle in the background. The Ukrainians are from the south. They live in a town called Sevastopol that has very close ties to Russia. Back in the 90s the Russia actually tried to take it back. I let the Ukrainian know the space shuttle in the background is American and that the Buran (Russian) shuttle was a blatant rip off the US shuttle. Before I could finish the the Ukrainian started to heckle me because I was enjoying myself. Since I had been fairly obnoxious I took it in stride. Some of the translations cracked me up.
"You are flower-man... Children, they love you, more than 1,000 Santa Clauses.".
Dinner
The Palms
I first heard about the UAE when I read about the creation of The Palms islands. The group of islands are entirely man made and form a palm. There are a number of hotels around the islands. The World and The Universe (not complete) are other man made groups of islands off the coast of Dubai. Noting I am not a guest, the upscale hotels on the islands and throughout the UAE have been incredibly kind. They appear to openly welcome guests to visit the premises. Never once had I paid for parking around a hotel - the staff always allowed me to double park. They also did not hit me up in any way for a tip.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow would be my last full day in Dubai. I had only a couple of things left to do, but I did not want to leave. Dubai is the perfect cross between Las Vegas (without Casinos) and New York and I was loving it. I had yet to Ski nor visit the Burj Khalife (world's tallest building), so tomorrow would be a busy but not crazy day. The Ukrainians had a desert safari booked the next day, so I'd be on my own!
I woke up around 8:30am. I wanted to sleep later, but I wanted to make the most of the day and I didn't want to stand up the Ukrainian. I checked my email and had a couple of messages of things the two were interested in doing - the first email was sent about an hour and a half earlier. I figured they had already begun, but I sent a message off asking if they were still around and head for the shower. Although I wanted to sleep more, I forced myself to get up and going since there was a small chance meeting them. The hotel they were staying at was directly across the street from the Mall of Emirates, a place I was going to start the day off anyway with coffee. I had indicated I would be at the Starbucks there around 9 if they were interested in meeting up. I'm not sure why they hadn't begun their day after a couple of hours of being awake, but I got an email back saying they'd find me at Starbucks.
Mall of Emirates
Finding parking in the mall was easy since it was early. Most stores were opening, but you could tell they were just starting for the day. The mall is staffed with attendants who speak perfect English. Since it was slow, one saw me looking at the big map outlining the mall and asked how she could help. After I mentioned Starbucks, she informed me there were three in the mall. This was not good news. l had thought the hotel the Ukrainians were staying at was in the mall, so I asked for the location closest to the hotel. The attendant directed me to a Starbucks near a department store, so I send off an email letting them know exactly which Starbucks I was heading towards. I was doubtful they would get the email because they did not have cellular service - they were dependent on WiFi and probably already left. I was pretty convinced they would head to the more central Starbucks, inside the mall, but since I sent an email I figured it would be best to wait. To my chagrin, this particular Starbucks did not offer WiFi - but I could still get emails on my phone via 3G. After getting coffee and a muffin the Ukrainians had arrived. I hadn't finished my coffee and they needed to convert currency so they went off to do that while I finished my muffin. A few minutes later he head to my fancy Kia.
Al Ain
When we spoke over email we discussed a couple of ideas - visiting a garden and a water park. It sounded like the Ukrainians liked to balance sightseeing with something fun. Dubai is home to a park called the Miracle Garden, the worlds largest garden. After confirming with the friend, the park of interest was in Al Ain - a town about an hour and a half south just steps from Oman. The Ukrainian asked if it was too far and I was ready to kick them both out of the car, but I really didn't have much else planned. I had another full day in Dubai and the only things left on my checklist were to ski and visit the Burj Khalifa. Both activities run pretty much all night, so visiting the garden and water park came with no opportunity cost. The English speaking Ukrainian did sit in the front next to me, but I figured she'd talk to her friend most of the way so I turned on the radio. Dubai's radio is completely westernized. Just as in Chicago, Dubai has a KISS FM affiliate. I figured driving throughout the desert would be pretty cool. I like driving and the foreign landscape provided something different to take in. After a couple of minutes the Ukrainian turned the radio down - I imagine she wanted to practice her English. She had told me the day before that she was a beautician - she worked for herself and did hair removal. I brought that up and asked how long she went to school, etc. She continues on saying she went to a technical institute and graduated with a degree in computer science. My response is very Borat esque. "You are typewriter operator?", waving my hands with fingers pointed downward as if I'm typing. She only found my humor slightly charming. "No, I studied programming. PHP, C++", I also developed web sites. Completely stealing a line from Borat, I return with "But you are woman. You have small brain (tapping on her head)". At this point she's still trying to determine if I'm joking, than I return with "Meooooooooow". She looses it. We continue to chat and every 15 minutes or so I check with the friend to make sure she's comfortable. After an hour and the third time checking, I can tell the friend is thrown off by something I'm doing. I ask and am told Russian men normally don't behave as I do - I guess the friend didn't realize i was not Russian.
After driving for an hour and a half we reached to the town. I couldn't locate an exact address, but I had read the garden was near the Museum - so that point was in my GPS. We did some searching, driving through the Al Ain Oasis. The oasis dates back thousands of years and features an irrigation system that would later be used by countries all over the world. It was pretty cool driving through the ruins. After cruising through the ruins we stopped at a shop and were the highlight of everyone's day. Everyone stared at us. In these parts few speak English, so getting directions was very difficult. After failing miserably with the directions given, we would later stop at a gas station and security booth only to find out the gardens are closed. Determined to find something of worth in the journey I head towards the mountains and found a park. The park was incredible. There was desert forever, but also swaps of greenery between. I hadn't seen anything like it before.
Park
Terrain with greenery
Spies - from either Russia or the Ukraine
The Ukrainian and me
Ice Land Water Park
After spending an hour or so at the park we decide to head to the water park. They had wanted to go to the Ice Land Water Park back - the largest water park in the UAE. The water park is equidistant to Dubai from where we are at, but there would be about an hour drive from the water park back to Dubai. After about 40 minutes of driving the friend suggests we find a water park closer to Dubai. We settle on a large park called Wild Wadi. The park was featured on the Amazing Race 5 if you follow that program. We checked the park website and it was scheduled to close at 8pm, so we'd have about 3 hours to spend at the park once we got there. After arriving we noticed everyone leaving the park. We made our way to the ticket counter and discovered the park was closing early - in less than 30 minutes. Two destinations in a row that are misses? These Ukrainians are bad luck. We searched and found another park on the man made Palms Islands. After checking the hours I quickly find that the park will close soon...at sunset. Since the Dubai Miracle Garden was close, I suggest heading in that direction.
Settling for Dubai's Miracle Garden
We arrived at the Miracle Gardens about 30-45 minutes before sunset. I was concerned the Ukrainian were going to expect me to pick up their tickets - fortunately (for them) that did not occur. The park is setup to look like a theme park, with a fake coaster and space shuttle in the background. The Ukrainians are from the south. They live in a town called Sevastopol that has very close ties to Russia. Back in the 90s the Russia actually tried to take it back. I let the Ukrainian know the space shuttle in the background is American and that the Buran (Russian) shuttle was a blatant rip off the US shuttle. Before I could finish the the Ukrainian started to heckle me because I was enjoying myself. Since I had been fairly obnoxious I took it in stride. Some of the translations cracked me up.
"You are flower-man... Children, they love you, more than 1,000 Santa Clauses.".
Miracle Garden Entrance - Take on Exit
Crazy Bird - note it is not angry
Me, next to a frog vomiting flowers
3 continents of Pyramids!
Asia, Africa, and North America
Group Shot
We made our way back to the Mall of Emirates, immediately adjacent to their hotel. I was expecting to drop them off and call it a night, but they suggested we get dinner together. They said it was one stop down on Dubai's Red Line train. The train runs down the major 10 lane highway and it was something I wanted to ride. The tickets are paper without a bar code. When I got to the turnstile it took me a few seconds to realize it contained some sort of RF strip inside. Like the Chicago CTA, trains run frequently. There are 3 different types of cars within the train. The first car is "Gold Class", which requires a special ticket, the last car is only for women and children, and the other cars are for anyone. We were following the direction of the friend who had us queued up with the women and children car. I'm uncertain if she was simply trying to get rid of me or something more drastic...like have me killed or arrested. Fortunately the Ukrainian caught it and got us to another car.
The restaurant was a simple diner. I think it had an Asian twist, but they had pretty much everything on the menu. I ordered grilled chicken and it was pretty tasty. I expected to get stuck with the bill, but once it came the Ukrainians grabbed it and put in what they owed. They noticed an error as well - one of the items they ordered never came and they got a credit. I put in a little over what I owed since I did not have exact change. When the change came the Ukrainian handed me all of it. I was owed the equivalent of something like 60 cents so I handed it all back. I think she knew I was testing her honesty. Either that or she thought I was an extremely cheap American. My meal was something like $10, these Ukrainians know how to eat cheap. I asked how she knew about the place and she said it was a well known Russian secret. It could be true, because the Indian server did speak a bit of Russian.
Red Line
(not my photo)
Inside the train
Golden Fork - dinner time
I first heard about the UAE when I read about the creation of The Palms islands. The group of islands are entirely man made and form a palm. There are a number of hotels around the islands. The World and The Universe (not complete) are other man made groups of islands off the coast of Dubai. Noting I am not a guest, the upscale hotels on the islands and throughout the UAE have been incredibly kind. They appear to openly welcome guests to visit the premises. Never once had I paid for parking around a hotel - the staff always allowed me to double park. They also did not hit me up in any way for a tip.
Google Maps is awesome on The Palms islands
The Atlantis hotel on The Palms islands
Inside Atlantis
Skyline from The Palms
Taking in the skyline.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow would be my last full day in Dubai. I had only a couple of things left to do, but I did not want to leave. Dubai is the perfect cross between Las Vegas (without Casinos) and New York and I was loving it. I had yet to Ski nor visit the Burj Khalife (world's tallest building), so tomorrow would be a busy but not crazy day. The Ukrainians had a desert safari booked the next day, so I'd be on my own!
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