New Years 2017 – Days 6 – 7

Day 6 – We have some more interesting videos; however, we can’t download them from the ship so we will download them all when we reach Singapore.

We were picked up at 8:00am on Wednesday by our tour guide Mohammed for our drive to Abu Dhabi, a tour of Abu Dhabi and then to our ship.  Mohammed was a “George Clooney” type of person and at all of the tourists spots that we stopped at, people wanted to take pictures of him

Abu Dhabi is one of 7 states within the UAE and is the official capital.  Dubai is another state.  Each of the 7 states is ruled by a family whose head is the King.  In all 7 of these “states” the King is the absolute ruler.

While Abu Dhabi is the capital of UAE there are only a few sights there so that is why we flew into and stayed in Dubai.

Our first stop was the Formula One race track just outside of Abu Dhabi.  There is also a big Ferrari display there.  It is an amazing track with a luxury hotel built right in the infield.  There is also a 4 lane bridge right over the track to get to the infield. 

Our second stop was the largest mosque in the city and the second largest in the world.  For their Friday prayers, the mosque holds 41,000 people.

The main room holds the largest one piece carpet in the world.  It took 1,200 Iranian ladies working day and night for 2 years to complete it.

Then we went to their Heritage Village, a made for tourists replica village that was very interesting and they did a good job depicting the past.  We also had a buffet of local dishes for lunch there.

 We then visited the Emiratis Hotel, which is an exact duplicate of the King of Abu Dhabi’s palace except the color is different.  In the hotel, every room comes with its own butler.

We went inside the main lobby of the hotel, and it just “drips” of gold.  It was built in 2005 at a cost of 10 billion dollars.   The north wing of the Hotel is reserved for the King and anyone he wants to stay in the 552 room section.

Then it was to the cruise ship terminal where we boarded very quickly and went up to our room to unpack.  Before we had our carry on's unpacked our regular suitcases came so we were able to totally unpack very early.

We fell asleep and by the time we woke up, it was too late to have dinner in the dining room and see the show so we went to the buffet and ate and then just made it to the show.

The show was a singer and then a violin player and they were both good.

The casino was next.  Our Casino Host, Silva, was a host on our July 4^th trip so that was fun to see he again.  We only knew a couple of the dealers.

We played until 12:30am when we entered Dubai waters where gambling is not allowed.  At that time both of us were down just a little and totally tired.

Day 7 – We took our time getting up as there were only a couple of things that we had missed in Dubai that we wanted to see.  We took the free shuttle into town and then a taxi to see the home of the son of a Sheik built back in the 1940’s.  Basically, this was the King and his family’s first real home after moving in from the desert.  It was nice but not very elaborates like they have today.

Then we walked a ways and visited a market where we bought some must have stuff and then took a boat ride across the creek to the markets on that side.

We had viewed an Andrew Zimmer food show on Dubai and we got a cab to go to one of the restraurants that we thought would be very interesting and wow – were we ever right.

When we told the cab driver were we wanted to go, the first thing he said was “why do you want to go to that part of town – that is not for tourists.”  We said that is why we wanted to go there. 

We had dishes of salad, brain, mutton, chicken, rice, spinach and some great flat bread in various combinations of dishes and then sweet rice for desert.  We had invited our cab drive to eat with us so that we could hear about working conditions for the non-locals and also to make sure that we had a cab ride back to the ship when we were down eating. 

We met the owner as soon as we sat down as we were the only people in the restraurant not from Dubai.  He was a wonderful man and we truly enjoyed eating his food and the company of him and also the cab driver.

Basically, we had 4 or 5 courses for three people and our total cost was $10.  For the cab, we had control over the cab for about 3 hours and our cost was $27. 

As we leave Dubai, it is truly an amazing city to see.  If you want history, there is very little here.  If you want to see old buildings, there really aren’t any.  This is a 50 year old town whose goal is to have the biggest, the tallest, the largest, etc. of everything.   We, in the United States cannot even come close to comprehend how much money these Kings make from oil – the amount is staggering. 

We were in their tallest building in the world and they are building a much bigger one.  They have the largest man-made island and they are building a bigger one.

The Dubai Mall holds more stores that any other mall in the world and they are building a bigger one to be the largest in the number of stores, cubic feet and in every category, the biggest.  This new mall will be twice as big as the Mall of America.

They are building their one “Disney Style” theme park and it will be the largest in the world.

As our guide said, the only thing that was here was sand and dates and if they don’t build it bigger, better and fancier, no one will come.  Everything that they do, they want to be the biggest and the best so people will come to Dubai.   There is also no income tax; however, housing is very expensive.

They also build fast; a 70 story building is built in a year.  They built a 40 mile local city railroad with 40 stops, 20 of them underground in 4 years.  In the US, we can’t even finish the environmental study in 4 years.

Lots more to tell but we will save that for later.

The show was a singer from England who was very good.

Dinner was our first in the restaurant Blu and while the food was good, we had to wait a 1/2 for a table.

After dinner we of course went to the casino where Barb won a little and Ed lost a little.

Tomorrow is a day at sea ad finally a day to just relax on the deck.

Night

Lunch

The Lobby of the Emiratis Hotel

The front of the center section only of the Emiratis Hotel

Showing Barb how to wear the scarf

Part of the main prayer hall of the Mosque

Found another scarf!!

Lunch in Dubai

In front of the second largest Mosque in the world

New Years 2017 – Day 5

We slept in a little today as we did not have any tour scheduled.  After eating, we took a taxi to the third and final section of the city, the old town area. 

Our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong spot (probably not his fault, but my bad directions) but since it was noon, we proceeded onto the place we had picked out for lunch.  This was a famous place called Al Ustad Special Kabab.  The owner had come to Dubai 80 years ago from Iran when there were only 5,000 people in town and opened up this restraurant.  His speiality is chicken or mutton cooked over an open grill on skewers.  His “secret” is that he marinades the meat in a special yougart before cooking them.  We found out about this restraurant from the Andrew Zimmer food show.  We ordered a plate of chicken and a plate of mutton skewers and wow, were they really good.  We were the only tourists in the restraurant.

After eating, we headed for the river water front and accidently found the market that we had been looking for before lunch.  The market was fun and we didn’t buy anything. 

Then we had to cross the river to go to the markets on the other side.  At this point in the river, the only way to get across is by a boat they call a Dubai Abras.  These boats are small motorized very old wooden boats and they only cost the equivalent of 27 cents for the ride.  They call it the Dubai Creek, but it is more like a river than a creek.

Once on the other side, we went to the Textile Market, the Spice Market and the Gold Market.  These are huge areas and we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping.   They expect you to haggle and everything we bought we paid ½ of what they originally asked.  It was fun haggling.

When we took the boat back over the Dubai Creek, we hired to boat to take us on a 1 hour trip down and back on the river for only $29.  It was a fun trip on this old rickety boat driven by a young kid from Pakistan – what fun.

By the time we arrived back at the hotel, the lounge had food out so we ate for free there and did not go out anymore.  We just went back to our room and packed as we are to be picked up to go the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi tomorrow morning at 8:00pm and then board the Celebrity Constellation at 3:30pm.

Night from Dubai.  

Crossing the Dubai Creek

The Gold Market in Dubai

On a Abra boat ride on Dubai Creek

Lunch

Lunch

Lunch

The boat take us to the other side

On the boat

A new friend - Barb bought his scarves!!

In the Spice Market

Another Market

Are own boat ride

The motor on the boat

The boat driver

Our hotel, we are on the 21st floor.

Look at the "twisted" building to the left.

The Desert Safari - Dubai

Here is the video from our Desert Safari last night - what a fun adventure.

New Years 2017 – Day 4

After we had breakfast, we took a taxi to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.  It has 52 elevators including the fastest in the world.  It goes from floor 1 to 128 in less than a minute.

It is 3 times the height as the Eiffel Tower and twice as tall as the Empire State Building and they call it the world’s first vertical city.

To get on the elevator to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa you actually have to go inside the mall that surrounds it, the Dubai Mall, which is the world’s largest and most visited retail and entertainment destination.  They had 80 million visitors in 2014, that’s almost 220,000 people each and every day.

There is also a fountain at the bottom outside the mall that is the world’s largest fountain and later we went to see the fountain show and it was very impressive. 

The mall also houses an aquarium and underwater zoo which contains 85 species and 30,000 fish.  The highlight of the Aquarium is a 270 degree acrylic walkthrough tunnel for an incredible close encounter experience with the fish, including sharks and sting rays.   It also holds an Olympic size ice rink.  It is also the largest shopping mall in the world by gross leasable area and it has 1,200 shops and a huge food court.

We ate at the mall at one of the restaurants recommended by Andrew Zimmer’s food show and it wasn’t as good as we thought it would be – but very different.

After that we took a taxi back to the hotel and changed into clothes for our next experience, the Desert Safari.  We were picked up at the hotel at 2:30pm and drove to another hotel and picked up two couples who were father/son and their spouses from Germany.  They were very nice and we got to know them on the 2 hour drive out into the desert to the camp.  There we changed to Land Rovers for the trip into the desert.  We actually were able to get within a ½ mile of an estate of one of the Cousins to the King and it was pretty impressive.

The Land Rovers were vintage 1059’s Land Rovers and what fun we had as they drove us across the desert.  Our first stop was to watch a Falcon demonstration and it was very interesting to hear the trainer talk about her Falcons.  Then she let one loose and we watched it make several passes at a dead quail the trainer was trying to keep away from the Falcon.  It only took a couple of passes and the Falcon caught the lure.

Then we got back into our Land Rover for more desert driving until we came to a recreation of a Royal desert retreat.  There Barb got a Henna tattoo, which will last for a couple of weeks, we watched and ate the bread they made, drank Arabic coffee and had a wonderful meal.  The meal consisted of salads, breads, pork, lamb, chicken and camel meats.  They also had a couple of dancers perform for us. 

All-in-all we spent about 3 hours at the camp eating, eating some more, watching the performances and talking with the people from Germany, who were very nice.  Then it was time to drive back in town and we arrived at about 10:00pm so it was a long day.

Breakfast at the Marriott

At the Dubai Aquarium

                                                             At the Dubai Mall Fountains

Ready to leave in the morning

It looks like a toy city from the top of the tallest building in the world

Lunch

The tallest building in the world

Ready to go with our Land Rover

Out and about

Ed on his camel with his guide

Barb with the Falcon

Ed with the Falcon

At the camp

Barb on her camel

Getting a Henna

The view from the to

New Years 2017 1 – 3

We left Bloomington for Atlanta right on time and it was a good flight.

When we got to Atlanta, we had 7 hours to wait so we ate in the center of the terminal and sat in some great comfortable chairs to people watch.  With a couple of hours to go, we decided to go down to the gate to charge Ed’s phone and wait until the plane was ready to board. 

As we were approaching the gate we realized that they were boarding and then Ed realized that his phone had not reset to the Atlanta time and he was still one hour behind!  Well we made it on but wow, was that close to missing the plane.

The flight to Paris was an 8 hour flight; however, we sat at the gate for two hours because of de-icing problems.  As a result, we were an 1 ½ late getting into Paris which meant we had only an hour to get off the plane, go down the concourse, switch to another concourse and go thru security.  Again, we made it to the plane just as they were boarding – but at least we made the plane.

We were 30 minutes early in arriving in Dubai and by the time we got our luggage it was after midnight.  Our driver was waiting for us and we were in the room and going to sleep by 2:00am. 

We were upgraded and wow what a room.  We were on a high floor (21) with an ocean view and a balcony.  It is probably $200 more a night upgrade – thanks Marriott.

We woke up at 6:45am as we had to get up, have breakfast and meet out tour guide at 9:00am for a tour of the city.  The tour was by bus with a group of about 25 people and it gave us a good general idea of the size of the city and some background.  We arrived back to the hotel at 3:00pm and rested for awhile before going out.    One of the places we drove to was Palm Island, the largest man-made island in the world and they are building 2 more. Not only are there a lot of places to live on the island, there are over 3beach-front hotels just on this island.  The island is build like a palm tree with the trunk connecting the mainland and each branch holding places to live, work and play.   The shore line is 320 miles long on this island and it was only competed in 2014 all built on reclaimed land from the sea.  It is an amazing sight to see.

We also saw the world only 7 star hotel, the Burj Al Arab Hotel, built like a big sail on a ship.  The rooms start at $2,000 a night.

We walked a few blocks from the hotel after we got back to a 4 ½ mile river walk that is on both sides of the river had over 200 restaurants!

We did not walk all of the way, but about a third and then took an evening sightseeing boat along this beautiful man-made river.  We actually went out into the ocean for a little bit before re-entering the river.

After the cruise we ate in a very good Kabobs place and shared a wonderful meal.  Then we walked over a bridge and walked back on the other side of the river.

Some interesting things we have found out.

Right away, the people are very friendly and very helpful.  As we arrived at the airport and had to go through customs, they had people to lift yor suitcases up and off the conveyor belts even. 

80% of the people are from other countries and only 20% are from Dubai.  Of the 80%, ½ are from India.

The only people who can own property are the 20% of the population who are native born.  Everyone else must lease their property.  Even businesses cannot buy their property if their owner is not native born.  Everything is controlled by the King.

There is very little crime and the city is very, very clean and of course, it is very rich – extremely so as they discovered oil here in the early 60’s.  Before that, they supported by fishing and trading.  Today the revenue sources are #1 oil and #2 tourists.

Everything seems new and they talk about how this and that are the biggest in the world.  It seems like they have the biggest in the world in about everything.

Dubai is actually a state and one of seven states in the United Arab Emirates.  Each of the seven states is controlled by a family with King at the head.  So, this is a monarchy and it is very impressive. 

Gas is 43 cents a gallon.

Time to say good night from Dubai.

                          Our Room at the Habtoor Grand Resort Autograph Collection Marriott Dubai

                                                             The view from our balcony

Breakfast on the outdoor dining area of the Executive Lounge

The 7 star hotel

Time for a snack

We saw this yacht in Europe a couple of years ago - owned by a Russian

A snack delivered to our room

Snacks at night in the Executive Lounge - on the left, Smoked Salmon nd on the right Smoked Duck with Quail Egg

Dinner

The trunk of Palm Island

The entire island - this island has a shore line of 320 miles!

The river walk and sky line

New Years - 2017 - Our trip around the world!!

         Here are the ports of call for our 2017 New Years Cruise on the Celebrity Constellation.

We leave for Dubai on Friday, January 6, 2017 from Bloomington, IL on Delta Airlines at 11:42am and arrive in Atlanta at 2:27pm.  

Then we board an Air France plane at 8:50pm and arrive in Paris at 10:50am Paris time.  It will be an 8 hour flight.  Then at 1:25pm we will depart Paris on another Air France flight to Dubai, landing in Dubai at 11:20pm.  This flight will be a 6 hour 55 minute flight.   Dubai is 10 hours ahead of our time at home!!

We will be met at the airport by a transfer service and driven to the Marriott Habtoor Grand Resort, Autograph Collection Hotel in Dubai.

The next morning, we will have a tour beginning at 9:00am.  Hopefully by the end of day on Sunday, January 8, I will fill in the blog.

We will travel from Dubai by car to Abu Dhabi and board the Celebrity Constellation on Wednesday, January 11.  This is the same ship that we took the family on in 2015 and we were also on it in Turkey, Croatia and the Greek Islands.

From Abu Dhabi, we will sail to Mumbai, India, Goa, India, New Mangalore, India and then to Cochin, India.  The next stops will be Colombo, Sri Lanka and Phuket, Thailand before ending our 15 night cruise in Singapore.

In Singapore, we will stay for several days before flying home on Sunday, January 29 from Singapore to Tokyo, to Atlanta and finally to Bloomington arriving at 10:20pm, still on Sunday – now that’s a long day!

Enjoy our trip with us.

Asia - 2017 - Videos from the trip

Temple Street Night Market - Tokyo

                                   The Marriott Executive Lounge for breakfast in Hong Kong

                                                         Eating snake soup in Hong Kong

                                                          On the streets of Hanoi

                                                          At the water puppet show in Hanoi

                                             Waking up in Hanoi from our hotel window

                                                    At a local market in Bangkok

                                    Riding elephants 3 hours west of Bangkok - 10 miles from Burma

                                                    Taking a bath with the elephant

                                                             Our room in Bangkok

                                                   At a Hawker Food Center in Singapore

                                                   The Marriott Tang Plaza in Singapore

                                 The view from the largest public housing building in Singapore

                                                         The Royal Palace in Bangkok

                                                          The Royal Palace - part 2

                                                                Lunch in Singapore

                                               What we ordered for lunch in Singapore

                                                      At a Buddhist Temple in Singapore

                                                      The flight from Tokyo to Chicago

                                         Mai's Noodles in Hong Kong

                                     Water Puppets music show in Hanoi

                                             Pedal cab in Danang

                                                      At a Hanoi food market

                                          At The Cloud Forest exhibit in Singapore

                                   At The Cloud Forest exhibit in Singapore - part 2

                          At the salted egg lunch stand in Singapore for another lunch

                                              At the Flower Forest in Singapore