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[Concord]

I have a crazy friend coming to visit me in Dubai for the weekend. He is flying from New York arriving on Thursday around midnight and leaving around midnight on Saturday. So he will fly for 27 hours and be on the ground for 48 hours

I want to squeeze as many things in 48 hours (36 awake hours). He's never been to the middle east!

Suggestions?

[Bleakus]

i would say paintball, but that is too exhausting

ski dubai should be nice and the mall itself

[Concord]

ski dubai should be nice and the mall itself

On the list. He'll want to do a couple of runs at least! A mall is a mall...

[asc_26]

You both join the double decker bus ride along with the senior citizens for sight seeing. He will enjoy it with the sunny weather.

[^ian^]

Exactly how crazy is this friend?

[Concord]

You both join the double decker bus ride along with the senior citizens for sight seeing. He will enjoy it with the sunny weather.

A thought but my impression is that it goes from mall to mall and takes forever. I'll give him the SZR tour (from Jebel Ali to Garhoud bridge 6 minutes 32 seconds).

[Concord]

Exactly how crazy is this friend?

Must be getting better since he is getting that weekend off. I would ask but don't think I can say "exaclty how crazy are you". I will be a bit more diplomatic like: "what do your imaginary friends think of this place".

[^ian^]

Exactly how crazy is this friend?

Must be getting better since he is getting that weekend off. I would ask but don't think I can say "exaclty how crazy are you". I will be a bit more diplomatic like: "what do your imaginary friends think of this place".

OK, just remember it's St. Pat's day on Saturday and YES we do have something planned if you and your friend are interested in joining us.

[Concord]

Exactly how crazy is this friend?

Must be getting better since he is getting that weekend off. I would ask but don't think I can say "exaclty how crazy are you". I will be a bit more diplomatic like: "what do your imaginary friends think of this place".

OK, just remember it's St. Pat's day on Saturday and YES we do have something planned if you and your friend are interested in joining us.

He'll be here on 23 and 24! St. Pat's in the Big Apple- always a "controversy" - this time the firemen!

[xty]

These could be done in one day:
- Ride along the beach of Jumeira & Umm Suqeim up to Burj
- Visit Madinat Jumeirah
- Options: rent a quadbike at the big dunes on the way to Hatta, or do desert safari, or do skiing
- Cruising the creek at night

[Concord]

OK.

Dubai is a bit of a crazed fast-paced city and so we decided to put it to the test.

As mentioned above, my friend whom I’ll call Liam since that’s his name decided to fly from New York City for the weekend to check Dubai out. He visited and is on a plane heading back as I write this post. He arrived on Thursday at 8:00 pm and left at 2:00 am this Morning – a total of 54 hours in the UAE.

In case you have any crazy friends or relatives (more likely) here is a thought on what you could do:

Airport/Marina/Royal Mirage/Palm Jumeirah/Jumeirah Mosque/Iranian Mosque/Jumeirah Beach/Manzar Park/Sharjah/Old Souk/Ajman/Irish Village/Abu Dhabi/Al Ain/Palace Museum/Oasis/ Heritage Village/Sheesha/Camel Race Track/Dubai Museum/Textile Souk/Abra Ride/Burj Al Arab/ Beach/Ibn Battuta Mall/Ski Dubai/MOE/Gold Souk/Airport

Thursday:

8:00 PM. Airport. Met Liam at Airport. He was surprised that Mrs. Concord was in Dubai to greet him. As a joke she made up a sign with his name on it but written in a language that neither she nor he understand! The airport seemed empty but still took 1 hour for him to come out.

10:00 pm Marina. We arrived at Marina and walked around the restaurants. There were people walking around, eating and smoking sheesha. We got lucky with parking (parked on the “secret” area). We decided to eat at the “Point” because it has an upstairs view of the marina. The food was not that good. We had grilled prawns, Mozambique prawns and grilled halibut but it all looked and tasted the same.

11:30 pm Royal Mirage. We went to the lounge bar and terrace. It took a while to get to the valet (I thought there must have been some kind of “give-away” inside). We stayed up there for a couple of cocktails. Nice atmosphere – watery drinks.

1:30 am. Bedtime.

Friday.

7:30 am Breakfast at home

8:00 am Palm Jumeirah. Drove around for quick tour of Palm Jumeirah.

9:00 am Jumeirah and Iranian mosques. Walked around it and took pictures.

9:30am Jumeirah beach. Strolled around “boardwalk” and onto the people round-about that jets out onto the water. Saw a funny sign at a childrens playground at the beach. The sign reads “don’t feed the animals” – I kid you not.

10:00 – 12:00 noon. Manzar Park – Corniche, Sharjah, Ajman. Drove under the shindaga tunnel and all along the corniche. Stopped on the other side of the park where there is a nice beach and picked up a few shells, etc. Drove onto Sharjah and the old souk it was not yet open and just walked around it. Continued on along the corniche and onto Ajman past the “hole in the wall” (tempted but…).

12:30 pm Irish Village. Brunch at the Cellar restaurant. The foods is consistently good and the way they serve the brunch prevents you from over-indulging.

1:30 pm Drive to Abu Dhabi. Saw many camels on the road and miles and miles of ornate green fence. Every time I drive to Abu Dhabi I wonder how much this fence must have cost and why they installed that fence.

2:30 pm Abu Dhabi. Walked around corniche and marina section. Watched a Jet Ski race. We tried to figure out the difference between a wave runner and a jet ski. I thought you sit on a wave runner and stand on a jet ski. Liam thought the other way around…

5:00 pm Al Ain. Drove from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain. Liam an Mrs. Concord slept a lot of the way. Woke liam up to show him the sand dunes. Average speed 160 kmp!

5:30 pm Al Ain Oasis. Drove into the Oasis located next to the Palace Museum. The sign says no entry except for “members and tourists”. Actually I think it said “farmers” and “tourists” – I’ll check. We walked a bit in the Oasis (really dense area with date palms). Very interesting irrigation trenches with various dams to channel the flow. There was no water in the canals at this time (there was water the last time we visited).

6:00 pm Palace Museum. Interesting place with lots of photos and personal effects from Sheik Zayed.

7:30 pm Back to Dubai. Drove from Al Ain to Dubai on Rout 66. Luckily I had the presence of mind to remember that Shakira was in town so we cut across on rout 77 to join in with SZR and avoid 311. We could see the search lights from the autodrome as we drove across.

9:30 pm Dubai Heritage Villa and Creek. Drove to the Carefour parking lot and walked to the Heritage Villa. Most of the buildings were close except for one exhibit. Walked along the creek in that area looking for a place to eat. Settled for a place with lots of tables, local people and sheesha as Liam wanted to try it. It was your typical lebansese/Iranian/middle east fare. The food wasn’t particularly good but we sat at a table close to the water. Liam order sheesha (I forget the flavor). He was paying attention to how others were using the sheesha (do they inhale?... I was no help). Sheesha arrived and he could barely get smoke into his mouth. He thought everyone else around was getting billows of smoke out of their mouth effortlessly. Anyway the coals went out quickly – at least it seemed that way.

11:30 Back Home and sleep. Absolutely tired and went to bed at midnight.

Saturday:

6:30 am Camel Track. Mrs. Concord (smart as she is) decided not to join us. We went to the camel track (Nadl Al Sheba) to see camels running. There was no actual race (haven’t figure out how that works). Anyway we saw a few camels run in front of the grandstand. The grandstands were empty and based on the amount of sand on the seats no one had sat on them for a while. There were at least 100 cars in the inner part of the track and just as many camels. The camels we saw running had the robotic jockey but a couple were being ridden by people (not small guys).

7:30 am Breakfast at home.

8:30 am Dubai Museum. As traffic is often an nightmare in this section I parked the car at the Dusit and took a cab from there. I like this museum – small but well put together and tells the story.

10:00 am Souk/Abra/Deira. We walked along the textile souk, took abra trip acroos creek and walked along the working docks. Took Abra trip back to bur Dubai side of town. Abra trip now costs 1 dirham – it used to cost 50 fils until las year (a price that had not chanced in 30 years) – still one of the best deals in town. Liam bought something for his wife and kid.

12:30 pm Burj Al Arab. We had told Liam that only guests could go into the Burj or non-guests with reservations well in advance and since he had decided to come to Dubai at the last minute we would not be able to go. He was resigned to that. We had in fact made lunch reservations and he was surprised. He was wondering why we left the creek side to go home and change (from shorts, tee shirt and orange crocks in his case) to collared shirts, trousers and shoes. I told him someone had recommended a place with a “dress code”. We had a nice window table and the weather was clear so that the view was spectacular. The last time Mrs. Concord and I were there, we could not even see the water from up there as it was incredibly hazy. The food was good and everything was going great till the bill came. Holy sh!t

3:30 pm Marina Roof top. I used to live at a building in the Marina with a rootop deck and pool on the 36th floor. We went there to get a panoramic view of that part of town. The walls along the roof deck are made of glass. Liam advice us that he is afraid of heights (some survival camp story) so he stood 20 feet from the edge but got the view anyway. He did not mention this at the Burj!

4:00 pm Ibn Battuta mall. If you come to Dubai I suppose you have to go to at least one mall. I parked at the Geant end and walked the entire mall to the China court and back. I think the thing that most impressed him was that smoking is allowed inside the mall!

5:00 pm Beach. Went to the “beach” – well the spot of beach behind the Jumeirah beach residence. Spent about ½ hour in the water. The water was cold compared to the other 2 times I’ve been to the beach in the 14 months I’ve been in Dubai.

6:00 pm Lounged a bit at home. No dinner – just snacks. We spent our food budget for the next couple of years at the Burj!

7:30 pm Ski Dubai – Mall of Emirates. Went to MOE to check out Ski Dubai (Liam had decided that he could skip it). Once there he thought to give it a couple of runs. However, for whatever reason he decided that he would go on the slope on street-clothes (trousers and long sleeved shirt). We asked and the person who took his money said it wasn’t a problem – it is only -4C (27F) degrees inside. He went on the slope and did one run. They would not let him go up on the second run without the jacket for ‘safety reasons”. He explained that he is an expert skier and was not cold but the person say “what if someone runs into you”? – as if the jacket would protect you from a broken rib, etc. Anyway he had to wait till they got him a jacket (no pants he insisted) and then did a few runs and came out.

9:00 pm Gold Suok. From MOE I drove to the Dusit and took a cab to the Gold Souk. Walked around a bit and just as we were about to leave he decides that he has to buy earrings for his wife. He had not mentioned that in the past two days although we knew he wanted to go to the Gold Souk. He did not buy them. I told him to buy them at the Duty Free shop at the airport (how will she know they did not come from the gold souk?).

11:00 pm. Back home - call cab for airport.

11:30 Airport taxi. He took a cab to the airport.

2:00 am. Fly to New York. I haven’t heard from him so presumably he is on a flight to New York as I write. It’s a 14 hour non-stop flight.

Anyway, it's a crazy thing to do: come to Dubai for 2 days all the way from New York. I think he saw more in 2 days what took me months to see.

So if you have any friends or relatives that want to come to Dubai for 2 days, here is my advice: tell them Paris is very nice!

I am fcking tired!

P.S. thanks for the suggestions.

PSS he took over 700 photos. Most of them "drive-by shooting"!

[xty]

Concord, that's crazy!
Trips to Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, Ajman surprised me. You must be sooo tired
I enjoyed reading your journal.

[MaaaD]

thats one hell of a weekend ... excellent post Concs

very smart decision on avoiding shakira traffic, that would have wasted 3 hours of your time ..

as for the fence on the AD-DXB road, this fence is actually around a area of the desert that Sheikh zayed wanted to be turned into green area, so he has a huge number of people and resources dedicated to planting trees and irrigating them. Also the majority of the highway is fenced because of the fact that camels used to come onto the highway and if you hit a camel there is a slim chance you will come out of it alive.

anyway i hope your friend liked dubai and will decide to come back for more than two days

[Concord]

Welcome back Maaad.

Thansk about the fence. I figure it might have to do with some sort of greening or conservation. I thought they went all out on the type of fence. I also noticed the other fences to keep the camels at bay - simple but effective fence.

Four people I know that went to the Shakira concert missed it Well, one got there to hear the last song (after 4 hours in traffic).

[dubaimisfit]

Mista Concord, you mad mf. That is an impressive story. I just did the same route last week with my friend visiting (AbuDhabi EmiratesPalace, Heritage Village, Hatte, AlAin, Jumeira, Marina) but it took us 4 days. Fact is we were pretty relaxed about it but your story rock!
But JAli to Garhoud on SZR in 6 minutes??? In a chopter maybe.
Cheers

[Concord]

Mista Concord, you mad mf. That is an impressive story. I just did the same route last week with my friend visiting (AbuDhabi EmiratesPalace, Heritage Village, Hatte, AlAin, Jumeira, Marina) but it took us 4 days. Fact is we were pretty relaxed about it but your story rock!
But JAli to Garhoud on SZR in 6 minutes??? In a chopter maybe.
Cheers

Tell me about it. Still haven't recovered.

You lost me on the "Jali to garhoud on szr in 6 minutes"

[dubaimisfit]

Guess it was you who posted a note about a ride from Jebel Ali to Garhoud bridge down SZR in 6 minutes 32 seconds, wasn't it?
Hmm. Nevermind.
Cheers

[thechole]

Wow. That was an amazing itinerary!

If you don't have a car, it's pretty hard to fit as much in as that. My friend is coming out with me for a few days and we are staying at the Marina. I think we will go for the open top bus, the Mall of Emirates, The Dubai Mall (for Aquarium and Ice-skating). Maybe the Burj for VERY expensive drinks or something, the Creek and... any other suggestions?