Ed woke up early and had breakfast and went to the gym to exercise.After that we went to the deck to get some
sun, but it really wasn’t out so we only stayed out for a little while.
Basically, we then just walked around looking at the ship,
talking to people and doing nothing all morning.
Lunch was grilled salmon in the Aqua Spa Café and then we
went to the casino.
There was a 2pm slot tournament and we both qualified for
the finals.Then Ed played in another
session of the blackjack qualifying tournament, but didn’t qualify.There is one more day to qualify.
After that, we both played a session in the casino and both
won nicely.We are ahead nicely;
however, this is only for 6 sessions and we have 17 potential sessions to
go!!Wish us luck.
At 4:00pm we had some snacks from the buffet and went back
to the room to relax before going out for the show and dinner.
The show was a Joe Crocker type singer from the United
Kingdom who while he was good, was also very loud.
Then we had dinner and this time met a delightful couple
from London and they are going to join us tomorrow for dinner also.
We had to hurry dinner as there was an invitation only slot
tournament and Barb was invited.It was
a free tournament and the winner received $300 in slot credits.Barb WON!!So, she received an instant $300.Ed played blackjack and lost just a little, so it was a positive night.
Tomorrow is the last of the 3 consecutive sea days before we
reach India and we are hoping for pure sun shine.
We woke up to partly cloudy skies and a wonderful day to be
on the ocean.Ed exercised and then we
stayed out on the deck until 12:30pm when we went to lunch in the Aqua Spa Café.We split a grilled tuna meal.
At 2:00pm we went to the slot tournament; however, they did
not have enough people to play so we played in the casino until 3:00pm when Ed
played in the blackjack tournament and he didn’t qualify.Since this was the first of three days of
qualifying, he will try again tomorrow.
Then we played a session in the casino where Barb broke even
and Ed had a huge win.
The show tonight was a Broadway type production by the cast
called iBroadway and they were singing songs from Broadway musicals and it was
quite good.
As we are eating in the Aqua Spa Restaurant called Blu, we
do not have an assigned table.Tonight
we sat at a table next to two guys from England and had a good time talking to
them.
Then we went to the casino where Barb won nicely and Ed was
up just a little.
Not much to report, just a great day on the sea, good food,
new friends and good sessions in the casino.
Tonight we are to set the clocks ahead by 1 ½ hours – We never
knew that could ever happen, but it did.
Tomorrow we will still be at sea and hopefully another great
day.
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 4th 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
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.
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
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!
