I was actually pretty excited about Dubai, which is in the United Arab Emirates, since one of the hostel workers in Jordan had showed us a bunch of pictures of the city and its architecture back in March. Sure enough, when we got off the plane the first thing I noticed—other than the blessedly warm weather—was the spire of the world’s tallest building rising in the distance.
We took a cab to Jeremy’s building and called him. He was coming back from Abu Dhabi in an hour and a half, so we left our packs in the lobby and went to the mall adjacent to his building. Biggest mall in the world, turns out! And—where do I begin? Dubai is like Vegas on steroids. More lights. More fancy cars. Taller buildings, bigger malls, more recent technology—you name it! This mall was full of all the usual stores you’d find anywhere, plus an ice skating rink, a completely ENORMOUS fountain covering 2+ stories of walls, extremely fancy restaurants, and familiar not-so-fancy restaurants including Chilis, California Pizza Kitchen, Au Bon Pain… it would have taken all day to see this whole mall. One thing I saw there that I’d never seen before was 3D television. So it felt like this place was stop #1 for technology that hadn’t even made it to America yet, and it was all very mind-blowing.
Not one store was un-Western. Not one ad showed a person who looked un-Western (I mean, there were Asian looking people in the ads but wearing Western clothes, and there was a notable absence of anyone Arabic looking or wearing so much as a hijab. Carla pointed out how alienating it might feel to the local women to feel marginalized in this way in their own homeland.) Also, not one worker we saw looked un-Asian. By which I mean Indian/South Asian or East/Southeast Asian, aka not Middle Eastern (or white).
Honestly we could have been in Houston. The only difference were that some 10% of people were wearing outfits that would have been rare back home—either full black robes with only a slit for the eyes (women) or long gowns and white or checkered head coverings held on with a round rope (men).
After getting lost and finally making it out of the mall, we met Jeremy at his building, which is a combo fancy hotel and apartment building. It. Was. Fancy. His apartment was far nicer than ANY residence I’ve seen inhabited by anyone our age. And I guess it has elements of a hotel, in that it gets cleaned and stocked with mini-shampoos and stuff (Jeremy, it took tremendous restraint not to steal your roommate’s mini-shampoos). There were 2.5 baths to 2 bedrooms, and on either side balconies looked out onto the spectacular night lights of the uber-skyscraper, the mall, and a fountain which is the—wait for it—yep, the biggest in the world, which had incredible water-light-music shows every half hour.
We hung out and watched a few shows and chatted over some wine, then went out to an Asian fusion restaurant where Jeremy treated us to what was BY FAR the nicest meal we’ve had since our travels began. Other than one time when we each got our own kebab sandwich, we always share meals. Which is something I really love about traveling with Carla—it saves money and keeps me from stuffing my face, and food is never wasted; our plates are always scraped clean. But we ate everything we wanted at this place and the food was awesome. Another thing to point out is that you can apparently get absolutely any kind of food in Dubai.
So we had a nice relaxed dinner, the three of us, and Jeremy paid for us so then we took him out for ice cream. On the way back we dawdled, walking slowly and stopping to look at fancy cars. It struck me that the whole evening felt a lot like… a date. But a 2-on-1 date. Regardless, it was a really great evening, and I was left with a great impression of Dubai!
Our 2-on-1 date... Why isn't that a more standard practice? Actually, once I brought a friend along on a first date with someone I met online, and it was really awkward.
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