In the land of sand & shawarmas

*** please note that due to a lack of a laptop or desktop I'm blogging via email so I have no idea how the pictures are going to pan out - sorry in advance if all I do is confuse you!!! ***

My trip to the UAE has surprisingly been a relaxed one! That's probably due to the fact that we're not staying Dubai but another one of the Emirates (Ajman to be precise) so I've had some time to lounge around. But for the last two days Dad and I have been making trips to explore the city which was once very familiar to me.

We started off in the Mall of the Emirates (MOE). I enjoying shopping so I was looking forward to it immensely (especially after spending so much time in Ajman - the people we were staying with were amazing hosts but sadly the same could not be said for the Emirate).
Upon arriving at the mall and glancing at the directory, I was filled with the realization that over 75% of these stores were 'luxury retailers' (translation: things I can't afford on a random shopping trip - these purchases would require lots of planning and saving). So instead of shopping we settled for mall walking (/hopelessly wishing I had set aside much more spending money for this trip!) The mall walking was a nice change of pace from all the eating we'd been doing (yep, my jeans are definitely more snug..sigh).

Since the motto of the UAE is 'bigger is always better'(...okay so maybe it isn't, but it should be) in the mall there is a..theme park (for lack of a better description) called Ski Dubai. Yes, that's ski, as in on snow. Yep, they created a mini snow park within a mall in the desert. See my motto totally fits. Also! Right beside Ski Dubai is a vending machine, but this (of course) is no ordinary vending machine, this is a gold vending machine (not gold as in its made of gold - although it is painted gold - but this machine sells you gold!)

The next day we decided to visit the Burj Khalifa (the tallest tower in ze world!!) and the Dubai Mall. The isn't much to say about the Burj Khalifa (which always makes me think of Wiz Khalifa!) except for the fact that its huge-mun-gous!! I couldn't get a picture of the whole building on my phone so here is the top portion of it

Its so big that it casts a shadow in the sky!!! I also learned that Saudi is planning on building a tower that is taller than the Burj Khalifa! It will be 1001 m tall! All these stories make me think of when Mr Burns tried to block out the sun!!!

Anyways, back to my 3D memories. Dad said that the Dubai Mall is smaller than MOE so I thought maybe I can do some actual shopping here!! Yeah, not the case. Within these two malls I'm fairly sure that you can find every luxury brand you can think of! So my wallet remained safely tucked away in my bag. The most exciting part of the mall was the aquarium! Its huge!

After staring at the fish for a while and roaming through the mall, we went out for a bite and a stroll. Dad thought it would be a fun experience to take a boat over the creek instead of the metro so 60 cents (!!!) later we on a boat (m*****f******!). ...don't ask, it just felt necessary, instead look at some pictures! (Also this now means that I have traveled by air, land and water!! The travel trifecta!)

It takes about an hour on the bus to get to Dubai from Ajman so it gave me some time to take in some sights and sounds. In my opinion, Dubai has become a city juxtaposed against itself; so many buildings in the skyline reek of opulence and excess yet they are all half empty. Also beside these 'should be palaces' are half built sky scrapers in which the owners decided their wallets could no longer harbour the burden! From the looks of it, this is not the Dubai I remember at all! But after closer inspection (after running around the streets for a while) I realize that the Dubai I knew still alive; after the recession hit, a lot of the nations floating population left, leaving behind the handful of people who have always known this Emirate as home (well, they also left behind multitudes of empty shop fronts!). Leaving Dubai on our way to Ajman, the sense of familiarity that I had been waiting for had finally arrived :)

All in all, it was a good trip. I definitely want to come back to city on my next trip to India (even if its just for the shawarmas!). But next time I'll be better prepared for the shopping experiences!! For now, I'm off to get some rest before we fly off to Dublin (one the best perks of traveling with my Dad is the access to the airport lounges-this I could get used to!).

Until next time,
-Arlene

p.s. look what I found on our first day in Dubai (they also have Second Cup here as well!)

p.p.s on the topic of coffee, how is it that Dubai & Sri Lanka have 'The Coffee Bean' but Toronto doesn't?! What the poop?!

Kevin Bacon, wherefore art thou?!

Yes, that is in reference to Kevin Bacon the actor. Why am I in search for him you may ask? There seems to be a problem of epic Hollywood proportions which I believe he can solve! But more on that later.

My time in India has come to an end and what an end it was! I was completely knackered (I like this word!) for my last few days in the country because of all the traveling! But for all of the reunions I experienced, it was definitely worth it. And just a heads up, this entry is a wee bit long!!

Last week I went back to my Mom's hometown and had the chance to see most of my cousins! All of them are now married with kids!! I am the only one on my Mom's side who is single; having said that, I am also the youngest one of my cousins so it makes sense.

Apparently in my part of Kerala the big tourist thing to do is go down to Jew Street (yes you read that right and yes it is real) and visit an ancient Synagogue. Now, I didn't know that there were people of the Jewish faith in that part of India but lone behold I was proven wrong. So off in the rain we went only to discover that the Synagogue is closed on Fridays & Saturdays :( I guess it will just have to wait for my next trip to Kerala!

We were thinking of spending a night on a house boat but I decided against it because of the thought of the number of bugs that would be lurking around the waters *shudder* that experience will have to wait for my next trip (where I will be wearing every sort of insect repellent known to man!!). Apart for catching up with cousins, I did a lot of eating!! Its rare that I get to eat this food so I indulged! Maybe a bit too much though, my jeans are starting to feel a bit snug!!!

Anyways, after Kerala we spent a few days back home in Ooty and then we were off to Bangalore for the weekend! We arrived in the wee hours of the morning but thankfully we were able to check into our guest house (which I later found out is run by my friend's boy friend's aunt & uncle-small world eh?!). After a quick nap, my Dad and I went for a quick stroll to the pubs! We had two pitchers (of very average Indian beer) and a side dish for only $10! I forgot how much I loved the conversion rates! :) For dinner, I met up with one of my closest friends from high school and we reminisced about all the crazy things we used to do!

The next day, my Dad and I met one of my 'cousins' (not by blood but there is no better way to explain how we know each other) for a drink and a bite. We went to a micro-brewery for some beer (which was really good!) and then went to a restaurant called Touche for lunch. Touche was awesome because, not only was the food delicious, but you order everything through a touch screen menu embedded into your dining table! There are also games you can play on the screen while you wait for your food to arrive! It was definitely more high tech than I had expected from Bangalore but I guess since it is an IT hub of India I should have given it more credit!

In tribute to our high school days my friend and I decided that we would go out on Saturday night and have some fun (and if it was anything like high school we'd spend a lot of Sunday regretting that fun!). Another one of our old friends met up with us and we headed to Shiro's. Now this lounge is located on the top floor of a high end complex of apartments, stores and other things so I knew it was going to be a much classier version of our high school nights, what I didn't expect was to be spending $20 (USD!) on a double gin & tonic! But the crowd was much nicer than what I was used to and the view was gorgeous so it was worth it.

Anyhoo, as I'm blabbing on about what I ate and drank you must still be wondering 'what the heck does any of this have to do with Kevin Bacon?!'. Well here it is. As I expected, Bangalore had changed. Most of it was for the better (it was much more modern) but then I found out about these two rules which completely baffle me; (1) bars & clubs cannot stay open past 11 30 pm and (2) you can no longer dance in bars, clubs, or restaurants. I swear I felt as it they were filming Footloose in the entire city(now do you get the Kevin Bacon reference?)!! And here I thought that making a remake of the movie was so dumb since a ban on dancing would never happen in our modern world! There was a girl who was doing a very simple two step, nothing outrageous at all, when she was approached by the bouncer and asked to stop! So Kevin Bacon, if you are reading this (which I highly doubt but would be pleasantly surprised if you were) please come to Banaglore and help them find their dancing shoes again!!

Nevertheless, even though I wasn't able to break out the jazz hands, it was great to be back in the city and catch up with old friends. Another trip is a must (and hopefully it won't take me another six and a half years!) But for now, I'm focused on what I'll be doing in the next few days! I am in UAE right now enjoying the heat and the shawarmas so I will update you again in the next few days.

Be safe and have fun! Miss you lots!

Love,
Arlene
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network