Our First Stop: Dubai

For the backpackers we claim to be, the trip started off pretty lavishly! In Dubai, we had expected to crash at a family friend’s apartment. Instead, we discovered that he put us up in a swanky Sheraton and gave us full access to his chauffeur and Mercedes to boot. Yeah, tough life, we know! If we got this treatment everywhere, we’d “backpack” forever!

Driving into the city, we could see Dubai’s developing skyline. Each skyscraper had a unique architectural theme, and with all the construction projects we felt that nearly all of the world’s cranes had descended there. It was easy to tell which pockets of the city had been opened to foreign investment (massive skyscrapers and heavy construction), and the few parts of the city that were completed were pretty impressive. Every car in Dubai seemed to be white in color, as if the government had passed a law that every car be white – the locals we talked to were impressed by our observation and told us this is mainly due to the hot desert environment. Apparently, white even has a higher resale value over there! Not surprisingly, gas was under $2 a gallon and this was definitely reflected in the number of SUVs on the road.

We spent our few days in Dubai walking the souqs (old markets) and exploring the city. Some of the highlights:

• Mall of the Emirates and Ski Dubai (indoor): Only in Dubai can you see Muslim women shopping for uber-expensive revealing dresses that they never wear in the outside world. And definitely only in Dubai can you see a -3°C ski slope complete with chair lifts inside the mall in the middle of the sweltering desert heat. Suffice to say that they had thought of everything unique you could ever see in a US mall and put it all in one place.
• Sitting by the Dubai Creek at sunset, watching the abras (boats), doing hookah, eating amazing Lebanese food… need we say more? Very chill.
• Afternoon Tea at the Burj-al-Arab: Kelli had made reservations to celebrate our one year anniversary with “tea” at the Skyview Bar at the seven star Burj-al-Arab hotel, which is shaped like a sail. You have to have some sort of reservation to even get on the property, so half the fun was people-watching and taking pictures. From the bar, we had a birds-eye view of the palm-shaped islands and the 300 islands that make up The World taking shape. Rutvik expected a cup of tea, literally, but along with his tea they brought out a seemingly endless number of yummy sandwiches, pastries, and chocolates. Good times.
• Tour of the Jumeirah Mosque: This is the only mosque in the UAE that non-Muslims are allowed into and they had a very interesting talk and Q&A session about Muslim culture that dispelled some of the prejudices that many people have against Islam.

Overall, Dubai seems to be a modern melting pot of nationalities with an embarrassment of riches. People are extremely friendly and between English and Hindi, it was pretty easy to get around (well, that and the chauffeur!). Lots of one-of-a-kind things to see and do, especially if you have money to blow... we'll be back someday!

Obviously we are quite late in posting this and are catching up as quickly as possible! We have been busy :) We'll post about India soon!