Dubai

Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Rome has the Coliseum, Buenos Aires has the Obelisk and Dubai has the Burj! I’ve been dreaming about seeing this 7 star hotel for a long time, where they serve the gold-dusted cappuccino in a luxurious marble and gold setting.

The Burj Al Arab has the shape of a sail and viewed from above it looks like a boat sailing in the white sandy desert of the Emirates. The rooms have quite an obscene cost but, with plenty of advanced notice, it is possible to make an appointment and go there for tea time. The Burj has the helipad where Tiger Woods shot a few golf balls and Andre Agassi played a tennis match against Roger Federer, at over three hundred meters above ground, overlooking the waters of the Persian Gulf.

The Burj changes colors, yellow, pink, blue, green, purple and more. It is quite a show to see how it changes colors again and again while walking down the street or while having a drink at one of the many bars at the Madinat Jumeirah Souq.

We were able to visit Atlantis in “The Palm” island, with its hotel, amusement park, aquarium and so much more! This man-made island with the shape of a palm tree is where they claim that a lot of celebrities are purchasing condos and is the first of many that Dubai will soon have. The Palm is located to the left of “The world”, a group of man-made islands that each of them represents a real country. Another pretty amazing thing that only Dubai could have!

The Mall of the Emirates was one of many shopping malls that Dubai has. This one in particular has a pretty amazing indoor ski slope where you can not only ski but snowboard, sleigh ride, take the ski lift all the way to the top of the artificial hill or just plain have a great snowball fight! It’s amazing that all of this and so much more is within the walls of a shopping mall. Here you can find snow every day of the year, regardless of the season and temperature outside!!!

The Mall of the Emirates has a pretty amazing restaurant in particular, Almaz by Momo. My friend Reda and his girlfriend took us there for a spectacular Moroccan dinner, (probably the best Moroccan dinner we ever had!) since Morocco was our next destination and we could use an introduction to Moroccan cuisine. You can find any type of food in Dubai, and it was great that while there we got to eat all sorts of foods. We got to eat some that we were really missing, such as Thai food, Indian food and Mongolian BBQ.

Another amazing shopping mall was the Dubai Mall. This one has –among many incredible things- a huge Ice Rink. The rink is huge, Olympic size, and it can hold up to 1000 people ice skating at once. The Mall had only opened a few weeks before we got to Dubai, and unfortunately while we were there a huge storm hit the city for a few minutes and as a result the place flooded. The Mall has an amazing aquarium with thousands of types of fish and other sea creatures.

We did a little bit of everything while we were in Dubai, included a cruise through the Dubai Creek (a river to us) aboard a traditional wooden Arabic Dhow (boat). It was nice to be there right before the sunset and see the people taking the small boats going home after a long day of work.

It is impossible to list all the incredible things we saw while we were there, but I have to mention that we were able to observe the construction of the Burj Dubai, which in September 2009 will become the tallest skyscraper and the tallest man made structure in the world. Everything they do in Dubai has to be the best, and the Burj Dubai couldn’t be less than the best of the best, therefore Giorgio Armani is in charge of the interior decoration of the Armani Residences, on the first 37 floors of the building. The Burj Dubai is across the Dubai Mall, the gold souq, restaurants, shops and The Address. The Address is another amazing super luxurious hotel, with amazing restaurants, crystal curtains, impeccable marble and gold details everywhere. The Burj Dubai stands watch as cranes swing into action. The gentle murmur of the construction is almost drowned out by the water falls that are found in the gardens. The picture itself is not complete yet, the canal below is dry but will soon be filled with water to resemble the Madinat Jumeirah canals.

Dubai was an amazing experience, a unique world unlike anything we had ever seen, and something we really enjoyed and will never forget.

Gaby

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

We were so close and I had been wanting to visit Dubai for so long, that we decided to add a few days to our layover in Qatar and purchase a ticket that would take us from Doha to Abu Dhabi.

Almost ten years ago, I went on a solo trip to Spain and Greece. While in Spain I met two great guys that were living in England. Shane, originally from New Zealand and Reda, originally from Algeria but had lived in France since he was young. We’ve all stayed in touch through the years. At a certain point Reda moved to Dubai, and now we were heading there and we would be visiting him. It was so nice to see this old friend again! From the day Reda moved there I kept a close eye on what was going on in that remote part of the world. The fact that they would create such a luxurious destination in the middle of the desert always attracted me. It was one of the places I really wanted to visit but it was so far out of the way!

Dubai was everything we imagined and more. First impressions always last, and our first impression was of Ethihad airlines. First class service, first class quality, an amazing experience that cannot be found nowadays with the western airlines that are struggling to stay alive. From Abu Dhabi we drove into Dubai.

After crossing the desert from Abu Dhabi and as we were driving into the city of Dubai, we could see the amazing amount of skyscrapers being built. There were cranes everywhere moving steadily while hundreds of workers, most of them Indians, work around them. The temperatures were still pretty high and we were reminded of the fact that they barely have something that could be called winter. Temperatures here can escalate to mid 50s Celsius in the summer, when workers have to work on 20 minutes period and rest for the next 10 to keep themselves hydrated and away from the scorching sun.

Dubai continues to grow steadily and not at a slow speed. Everyday there are changes in the horizon with new shopping malls or office space being built. They work at an amazing speed!

While going down the streets, it is perfectly normal to be surrounded by cars like Ferraris, Austin Martins, Bentleys and Lamborghinis. The amount of luxury products and disposable income that are available in Dubai far exceeds any experience we’ve ever had, and it was a shocker even to us coming from Napa Valley which is one of the luxury destinations on earth!

Reda and his girlfriend made a world of a difference and made sure that our stay was amazing. They even cooked for us a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner for us for Thanksgiving! Delicious turkey, potatoes, gravy, chutney et all!!!

Dubai is definitively something out of this world that is worth experiencing and we are certainly very glad that we made the decision to go.

Gaby

Doha, Qatar

Our rule on this trip has been to stay extra time and get to know everywhere we have a layover. For the Cairo to Casablanca (Morocco) flight we had a layover in Doha, Qatar. A co-worker at my job in Napa had alerted me to the fact that she had family living in Doha and got me in touch with them. After talking a couple of times with them we ended up staying at their place.

Lauren and Kevin are part of the large expat community which is helping to build Doha from a small town to a large, modern city. Funded primarily from the large reserves of natural gas in the country Doha is booming and the whole city is literally under construction.

We left Cairo tired, dirty and burnt out from 3 months of hard traveling. We craved a nice situation where we could get clean, rested and enjoy some amenities from home. In Doha we got that and much more. Lauren and Kevin picked us up from the airport and were wonderful hosts for us while we were in Doha. We ate home made (American) food, rested a lot, met up with their friends for dinner and I got to work out at the gym at their place. We forgot about the trip for a couple of days.

Doha was full of American restaurant chains, big American cars and Americanesque suburbs. Although it is an Islamic country it is very modern and westernized. Nothing like what we had come from. Lauren took us to a shopping mall with a Venice theme (motorized gondolas) and the ceiling pained like the sky a la Vegas. One area of the mall was devoted exclusively to ultra luxury brands and had all the latest from Prada and Gucci. People here had lots of money to burn.

Another day we walked around the market in the old downtown (which was more similar to what we had already seen during the trip) and the Corniche which ran along the waterfront. But the old shops were watched over by a skyline of skyscrapers all in the process of being built.

Doha is a trip. It is a devoutly Islamic country but it has the highest per capita GDP in the world according to our sources. The gleaming new buildings and expensive cars testified to the local’s wealth. Meanwhile immigrants from all over the world have left their families to work in the huge construction projects there. 80% of the population is non-Qatari and because of the laws they will never get the chance to become Qatari citizens. Once they stop working they must leave the country.

Doha was unlike anything we had ever seen. And because of the hospitality of our hosts we were able to have an insiders view on the place and enjoy the comforts of home while there.

Steve

Egyptian Food

Egyptians say "Why pay hard earned money when mama does it better"? Therefore there is a rather disappointing dining-out scene throughout the country. It seems that Egyptian cooking always seems to be very labor intensive.

Most of the Egyptian cuisine is formed by Lebanese and Turkish dishes, some of them with minor variations.

Breakfasts mostly consists of an egg, bread, cheese, jam and a few olives. After a few days of this, we decided to shop ourselves and keep a stash of fresh fruits and yoghurt's when possible.

Just like in any other Arab country, we drank loads of shai (tea). Since the temperatures where still on the warm side, the "shai na na" (mint tea) was refreshing and very welcomed. They drink both their shai and coffee very sweet so we had to remember to ask for little or no sugar.

Like in the other previously visited countries, we had our good share of "Baba Ghanough" (aubergine puree), "Kofta", "Felafels", "Shwarma" and "Kebabs". "Fuul" (Small fava beans, soaked overnight then boiled and mashed) and "Ta´amiyya" (mashed deep fried fava beans) are two of the most popular dishes. And then Steve was introduced to Kushari and found heaven!

Kushari is a mix of black lentils, rice and noodles, topped with fried onions and tomato sauce. It is all mixed together and you can put different salsas on top. Luckily there are small Kushari restaurants everywhere and they stay opened until late!

We definitely enjoyed walking down the streets of the souqs with their saffron, cumin, nutmeg and cardamom aromas.

Egypt wasn´t a culinary paradise for us but as everywhere in the world, we were able to find many things that we enjoyed.

Gaby