Dubai - Day 2

Wiley and I woke up at 3:45am this morning and could not go back to sleep! We went to breakfast early and then decided that we would head for the beach. Our hotel is in Old Town Dubai...which is basically downtown. I have included several pictures of our hotel and hotel room below. Because our hotel is not on the water, there are other hotels in Dubai that will allow you to purchase a day pass to have access to thier pool and beach. We decided to do that since it is just too hot to do anything else outside and we didn't feel like walking around malls all day!



The pool at our hotel

Our hotel room
The hotel that we decided to go to was the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. It is right next to the Burj Al Arab hotel which is famous because of how exclusive and expensive it is.

Jumeirah Beach Resort

Burj Al Arab
You are not allowed to go in the Burj Al Arab unless you are a guest or you have a reservation at one of the restuarants. We thought about going to afternoon tea there so that we could see the inside of the hotel, but changed our minds once we realized how expensive it was. We decided that we were content with just seeing the outside of it!

Our set up on the beach
I wasn't sure what to expect when we arrived at the beach, but it was very nice. The sand was white but felt a little bit like clay. The water was clear and warm and very salty. Wiley and I both agreed that Destin is much better though:) I was worried about getting in a bathing suit because we are in a Muslim country and I wasn't sure what sort of beach attire would be accepted...but I quickly realized that I was comletely fine. I wore a tankini and I was the most conservative one there...we saw far too many thongs and speedos for one day!

Wiley excited to jump in the gulf....2 minutes later, he lost his sunglasses

The pool at Jumeirah Beach Resort

We stayed on the beach for a couple of hours and then moved to the pool. I think that we picked the perfect way to spend the day. It was so relaxing to just sit by the water and read our books. We ate a late lunch and then headed back to our hotel.
For dinner we decided to walk back to the Dubai Mall. It was amazing to see so many people by the water front. I don't think we saw one person walking around outside during the day, but once the sun set, there was such an ecclectic group of people surrounding the mall and Burj Kalifa area. Just as we arrived at the water, Celine Dion came blaring through the speakers and a water show began. It reminded me of the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas...except maybe better. We decided to eat outside so that we could continue to people watch. There are people here from so many different nationalities. It was so interesting to see all of the men and women in traditional Muslim dress. There were many women wearing Burkas and walking around with thier children and talking on thier blackberries. We are all the same and yet so different. Sitting by the water at that cafe was such a wonderful way to end the day. Tomorrow we leave for Africa. While I am definitely glad that we decided to stop in Dubai and have really enjoyed our stay here, I am ready to leave for Kenya and to see Tenwek. I know that it is going to be an adjustment to go to a place of such abundance to one that is in so much need. I will try to update the blog when we get there, depending on our access to internet.

Walking to the Dubai Mall

Eating dinner by the water in front of the Burj Kalifa and the Dubai Mall

The water show

On our Way - First Stop....Dubai

Well I have finally decided to post my first blog entry ever. I normally would not have considered creating a blog, but I figured this would be a great way to document our trip to Africa and to share pictures with family and friends while we are overseas. Wiley and I left Birmingham on Friday, June 25th to head for Bomet, Kenya so that Wiley can work at Tenwek hospital for 8 weeks this summer. I have to admit that I was nervous about the trip. I am not one for flying and I also find that I am irrationally fearful of things/places that I know nothing about. But I decided I would just have to get over any of my fears because 1) my reason for not doing something cannot be because I am afraid and 2) I have always wanted to go to Africa. We decided to fly to Kenya on Emirates airline. I have to say that it is the nicest airplane that I have ever been on. I had always heard great things about it, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. As I mentioned before, I am not the best flyer. Thanks to everyone for their prayers because I was not nervous at all on this flight. We had our own personal TVs in front of us with a wide variety of TV shows and movies to chose from on the flight which helped to pass the time. Wiley and I stayed up all night in JFK airport (which is a whole other story in itself!) in hopes that we would sleep a majority of the 13 hr plane ride to Dubai. Our plan failed because I only got about 5 or 6 hours on the flight. I kept waking up because of turbulence. I wasn't scared, it just kept waking me up....and that bascially equated to Wiley waking up - which he was not happy about!

JFK airport....trying to stay awake.

Pictures of our plane.

Anyway, we finally made it to Dubai around 8am and went through baggage claim, passport/visa control and customs rather quickly. Wiley was trying to push me along because I just kept staring at people expecting there to be more for us to have to do, but it was a fairly simple process. We got a taxi and headed to our hotel. First observations of Dubai - 1) it is hot! I thought that it would not be humid here, but I was wrong. You definitely want to stay inside during the day because of the heat. 2) There is a rather thick haze that covers the city. I asked the cab driver on the way to our hotel if it was fog, but he said it was the sand. He said that it only occurs in the summer months. Since we have been here, I have not seen blue sky or even clouds.....just a yellowish haze. 3) all of the facilities are top of the line. Every hotel, mall, public area that we have been to has been pristine. Even the overpasses are beatifully decorated. While there is a lot of construction going on, the buildings that are complete are beautiful 4) the people here are incredibly friendly. I am not sure what I expected, but I have been overwhelmed by hospitality of the people here - especially the hotel staff. 5) While everyone is nice, I have noticed that the taxi drivers do not like to make conversation. I have made this observation and yet, I keep attempting to ask them questions every time - where are you from?, how long have you lived here?, etc... I need to learn to get used to akward silences.
The first day we did not do a whole lot. We went to the Dubai Mall which is located across the street from our hotel. We walked around for a little while. All of the malls are extravagant. This particular one had an aquarium, an ice skating rink, a Sega world, and any and every shop that you can imagine. We didn't last long there because we were so exhausted. Because we wanted to go to bed early, we decided that we would just eat dinner at our hotel. Like I mentioned before, the hotel staff is extremely helpful and nice. We probably had 6 different people come up to us during dinner to ask us how we were enjoying our stay and to see if we needed anything. When we arrived, they allowed us to check in early and gave us a room with a balcony. I had not reserved a room that nice, but they upgraded us since it was our first time to be in Dubai. We have the best view of the Burj Kalifa - the tallest building in the world. I have included pictures of our view from our hotel balcony below.