On Monday, 7/7, we flew out of JFK to Dubai. I highly encourage you all to google Dubai and check it out. Dubai is in the Arab Emerite (Arabia, basically). The flight was 15 hours direct... we flew out at 11:15 pm ET, so Lauren was asleep before we even began to taxi down the runway. We flew business class on Emerites Airline, which was LUXURY. The seats relined to a full bed at the touch of a button. We each had a 17 inch flat screen at our seats with movies, TV, music, video games and even internet service!! The kids slept all night and Andrew ate until they cried, "Uncle"... They gave Lauren an entire box of Godiva chocolates!. I'd give them an A+ for the plane ride. The plane was completely full, and we were they only people with kids on the entire flight!
When we landed in Dubai, we instantly stood out... standing in line at immigration I glanced around and realized we were pretty much the only non-Arabian family in the airport. I was surprised to see how the kids were completely unfazed by the entire Arabian "scene". Although we do see a variety of nationalities in the U.S., the sight of an airport full of Arabians, in full garb, I thought might intrigue them. But it did not at all! I think they might have thought they were in Epcot Center, and all these people were just dressed up performers.
On the ride to the hotel, I was enamoured by the ridiculous oppulance of the city of Dubai. It was like nothing I could have imagined, really. If you can dream it, they have the money to build it.
A picture inside the Mall in Dubai...
We got a good night's sleep and got set for a full day on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, we got up and headed over to the Mall of Emerites, where they have an indoor ski area!! It was a relief from the 110 degree heat outside. They suited us all up with snow gear and we hit the hills! The kids tubed and luged for about 2 hours. It was a blast!
Then we headed back to catch our car for the desert safari.
The safari tour was terrific. Our driver, Gul, was from Pakistan. He was a great guy and gave us tons of info on Dubai. He is pictured here in the blog letting the air out of our tires before the sand dune "bashing".
Had we known how harrowing the tour would be, we never would have taken 3 kids (especially poor Lauren, who was scared to death but gutted it out) on it. It was a poor parental decision, but now that we are all safe, we are glad we did it!! The desert tour was awesome. They basically take you out in a caravan of Land Cruisers, through the desert and out to an Arabian "camp" where you get to see a camel farm, ride a camel, get henna tattoos, smoke the "sheesha", watch the sun set over the desert dunes and have an Arabic barbeque. Taylor and Lauren especially liked the belly dancer. They were happy to get up and wiggle their bellies in front of the whole crowd!
The following day, things really heated up... it was 117 degrees with 90 percent humidity!! We went to an indoor (air conditioned) marketplace... snacked on some of the local fare and window shopped mostly. We stepped outside briefly a few times and it was so hot that my camera would not even function!!
This city of Dubai is growing so fast... there is construction going on everywhere. One interesting thing to see is that each member of a construction "team" wears identical coveralls. They ride to and from their jobsites on the same bus in an organized fashion. And they are always busy. They work at an amazing pace... I never once saw a guy standing around! Another interesting fact is that they do not have an underground sewage system. So all of the waste water from the entire city needs to be drained and trucked to the waste water plant. There is always a crazy long line of tankers full of sewage sitting on the shoulder of the highway waiting to unload. It is a bizarre sight in this all so sparkling city... but I guess just a sign of how rapidly this city has grown in the past 5 years.
Then it was on to India!! The flight was just a short hop of 4 hours. We arrived in Bangalore at 3:15am local time, and checked into our hotel at 5:00 a.m. We barely got to sleep before the sun rose on Friday!
I woke the kids up at 1:30 pm and we headed out to the pool. By 1:35, Taylor's heat seeking missle had already landed a friend, Mira, 8 yrs old. Her brother, Millens, followed soon behind...they swam off and I never saw them again until Pat arrived from work at 6:30pm! I spent the afternoon meeting many ex-pat spouses, some new comers and many who have been here for 1, 2 and even 3 years!
That is it through day 1 in India. I promise to update tomorrow with addtional photos and video!!
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