Excuses, excuses

Sometimes we need to have a really good excuse in order to get something accomplished. For example when your pants feel a little loose, it's a good excuse to up your daily dessert quota. I recently had a really good excuse to play tourist in this fair city while I hosted a couple of friends who were here for brief visits. It was a huge blessing in so many ways: 1) even with my few church friends it is so easy to feel lonely and isolated and I needed to have friends and be a friend; and 2) I actually got to leave work early and play a little. Thanks to the added benefit of the use of Chef Aaron's car I got to drive around and know Dubai a whole lot better. For example, I can probably get to the airport with my eyes closed. Although I don't really recommend it because there are thousands of crazy drivers and one must be alert and aggressive. Thanks to a few driving adventures in the NYC I was fully prepared to honk, cut people off and gesture all at the same time.

With my first guest, Carlynne, I got to do the most exploring. She was game for anything, so I got to pick out our destinations:

Like Cafe Blanc, a chic-looking Lebanese restaurant in Dubai Mall. We ate hommous, pita, tabbouleh, kebbeh, and cleansed our palates with rose water tea in some fancy cups (see above). Lebanese food is the best Arabic food--don't let anyone convince you otherwise. I'm not saying that because of any bias, anyone here will tell you that.

The Dubai Mall is the largest mall in the world, and it is filled with some pretty fancy stores like Hermes and Jimmy Choo. I think there is a Gap, but it is tucked away in a far-to-reach corner. Like most largest-in-the-world shopping centers, Dubai Mall has other attractions like spectacular fountains, an ice-skating rink, amusement parks, and also has a pretty large aquarium (with a shark tank). Since I've been to this particular mall a few times on my own, I figured that having a guest meant that I needed to seek out a new place to see fish. Like the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah. The hotel and its aquarium tried to replicate what the lost city of Atlantis might be like--well at least what it might be like the minds of architects, engineers and designers. It was fancy and interesting.

While this particular venue perhaps wasn't as scientifically informative as, say, the Seattle Aquarium, it did have really large fish that liked to pose for the camera. Seriously, this one saw my camera and struck that menacing pose. This aquarium doesn't really need to be informative, I guess, when it is housed in a pretty spectacular hotel

on a pretty spectacularly man-made island the shape of a palm tree. Seriously, google it.

While Carlynne was here, the sun wasn't. Some dust storm in Saudi caused us to have murky overcast weather. It was not an excuse, to dampen our fun. So off we went to see a movie at the Gold Class Cinema. I've already blogged about sitting in recliners and being waited on while watching a movie, so you know it is an activity worth repeating. Dubai has a few other destinations worth repeating, like the Madinat Jumeirah. I went to the Madinat for the Keane concert in July, but I didn't explore the souks and canals because that obviously wasn't the purpose of the visit. Thanks to guests, I had an excuse to return. This is a newer resort area with lovely hotels, lots of restaurants, and a souk full of regional antiques and souvenirs. Despite the flagrant newness, the area is beautiful and incredibly peaceful. It also has impressive views of the Burj al Arab, the world's only 7-star hotel. (That would be the modern, pointy thing in the image below.)

Carlynne was not the only guest I took the Madinat, my former roommate Carrie was here for an eight-hour layover and we went to one of the bars for their tasty mocktails. (Due to the Arabic tradition of teetotal-ling, mocktails are served everywhere. I'm taking notes for my next mocktail party...when I get out and explore again.) Carrie's layover began at around 11pm and ended at 7am, so her visit was filled with nightlife-esque activities. We started at the Al Reef Lebanese 24-hour bakery for flat bread with cheese and/or zaatar, baklava, and flirting with attractive German fellows sitting by themselves. (Oh yes, we know how to have a good time.) Then we went in search of mocktails in fancy faux-ancient Arabic settings where we talked, giggled, reminisced and caught up over fruity beverages. Then we had to take naps. Her visit was a terribly good excuse to stay up all hours of the night and then leave work early the next day to "recuperate."
But there is still so much to do and see like dune bashing on a desert safari, camel races, a cricket match, waterparks... Some of y'all will just have to come out and visit me so I can do some of these things. No excuses...