It's about 9 am on Thursday, August 7th here in Dubai (1 am on the east coast).
After a long and sleepless flight from PHL to Doha, Qatar on Qatar Airways (which was surprisingly comfortable and accommodating), we had a 1 hour layover and then took a 35 minute flight across the Persian Gulf to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Doha airport was massive and brand new (Guinan says it's part of their capital spending plan to land the 2022 World Cup). The Dubai airport was like a massive shopping mall that also happened to land plans - and wasn't nearly as nice as Doha - although Guinan says there are two other airports in Dubai, both of which are nicer.
We met Guinan after immigration/customs (which was very fast and informal) and were hit by a wave of heat upon leaving the airport. The slender, now-bearded Guinan - looking more and more like a native - says you get used to it. We loaded our bags in his rental car and upon pulling out of our spot, watched a guy in a Volkswagen Beetle drive past us, then stop, start backing up, ignore Guinan's 4-5 honks, and then bump into our car, putting a noticeable dent in the front. Guinan and the guy exchanged information then we got back in our car and nearly watched the guy do it again! Bizarre.
We made our way to Guinan and Alexis's place, which is on the 27th floor of a residential building in the Dubai Marina area. There are tons of buildings here, all in four or five spaced out clusters. Each building would be the most architecturally significant building in Philadelphia if it were located there. They are all impressive - some with squares large enough to fly a plane through 80 stories up, others that look like buildings on top of buildings, others that are curved like sails, and one that looks like a giant hand grabbed it at the top and twisted it clockwise 90 degrees while the base was anchored.
Jen took a nap and Guinan and I went down to the mall attached to their building to get some sandwiches. The grocery store has a separate room called "Pork Products for Non-Muslims" that has more pork-based products than I've heard of.
After a bit, we took showers (having now been up for 24+ hours or so) and drove up to Burj Kalifa, which is the tallest building in the world (and is also attached to the largest mall in the world). Guinan bought tickets in advance for us to do the "From the Top" tour. At $35 a piece, I think they'll have the building paid off based on the number of people moving through there.
We went to the 124th floor, which takes just 58 seconds in their high tech elevator. The day was clear and the views of the city and the Persian Gulf were pretty spectacular.
From the ground, the surrounding buildings look like standard US skyscrapers. But from the Burj Kalifa, they look like toys. It really is amazing how tall this building is. Perhaps more amazing still, at the 124th floor, this is the view of the remainder of the building:
After the tour, we hung around the mall - which has a massive aquarium in the middle (just because) and every store you imagine - including a store that has just shoes and includes dozens (if not hundreds) of sub-stores of every shoe designer you can think of. We got some coffee and a snack, then walked around some more before heading to dinner with Alexis (who met us after work) at Abd el Wahad, a Lebanese restaurant at Souk al Bahar (which is another collection of shops near the Burj Kalifa mall, pictured below).
Dinner was awesome - and overlooked the Burj Kalifa and a massive fountain show that went off every hour to a variety of music (one was opera, another was Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You"). In terms of scale, this fountain was probably twice the size of the one at the Bellagio (Reminder, we are in the desert).
After dinner, we went home where (after checking some emails) I promptly passed out, having been up for 35 hours or so.
Now we are getting ready to head to Abu Dhabi - Alexis is already at work (Thursday is their Friday here, so after today's she'll be free) and Guinan is at the police station getting a report about the fender bender, having played phone tag with his Volkswagen assailant, Raji, for an our or so last night. (I think they may become besties).
After a long and sleepless flight from PHL to Doha, Qatar on Qatar Airways (which was surprisingly comfortable and accommodating), we had a 1 hour layover and then took a 35 minute flight across the Persian Gulf to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Doha airport was massive and brand new (Guinan says it's part of their capital spending plan to land the 2022 World Cup). The Dubai airport was like a massive shopping mall that also happened to land plans - and wasn't nearly as nice as Doha - although Guinan says there are two other airports in Dubai, both of which are nicer.
We met Guinan after immigration/customs (which was very fast and informal) and were hit by a wave of heat upon leaving the airport. The slender, now-bearded Guinan - looking more and more like a native - says you get used to it. We loaded our bags in his rental car and upon pulling out of our spot, watched a guy in a Volkswagen Beetle drive past us, then stop, start backing up, ignore Guinan's 4-5 honks, and then bump into our car, putting a noticeable dent in the front. Guinan and the guy exchanged information then we got back in our car and nearly watched the guy do it again! Bizarre.
We made our way to Guinan and Alexis's place, which is on the 27th floor of a residential building in the Dubai Marina area. There are tons of buildings here, all in four or five spaced out clusters. Each building would be the most architecturally significant building in Philadelphia if it were located there. They are all impressive - some with squares large enough to fly a plane through 80 stories up, others that look like buildings on top of buildings, others that are curved like sails, and one that looks like a giant hand grabbed it at the top and twisted it clockwise 90 degrees while the base was anchored.
Jen took a nap and Guinan and I went down to the mall attached to their building to get some sandwiches. The grocery store has a separate room called "Pork Products for Non-Muslims" that has more pork-based products than I've heard of.
After a bit, we took showers (having now been up for 24+ hours or so) and drove up to Burj Kalifa, which is the tallest building in the world (and is also attached to the largest mall in the world). Guinan bought tickets in advance for us to do the "From the Top" tour. At $35 a piece, I think they'll have the building paid off based on the number of people moving through there.
We went to the 124th floor, which takes just 58 seconds in their high tech elevator. The day was clear and the views of the city and the Persian Gulf were pretty spectacular.
From the ground, the surrounding buildings look like standard US skyscrapers. But from the Burj Kalifa, they look like toys. It really is amazing how tall this building is. Perhaps more amazing still, at the 124th floor, this is the view of the remainder of the building:
After the tour, we hung around the mall - which has a massive aquarium in the middle (just because) and every store you imagine - including a store that has just shoes and includes dozens (if not hundreds) of sub-stores of every shoe designer you can think of. We got some coffee and a snack, then walked around some more before heading to dinner with Alexis (who met us after work) at Abd el Wahad, a Lebanese restaurant at Souk al Bahar (which is another collection of shops near the Burj Kalifa mall, pictured below).
Dinner was awesome - and overlooked the Burj Kalifa and a massive fountain show that went off every hour to a variety of music (one was opera, another was Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You"). In terms of scale, this fountain was probably twice the size of the one at the Bellagio (Reminder, we are in the desert).
After dinner, we went home where (after checking some emails) I promptly passed out, having been up for 35 hours or so.
Now we are getting ready to head to Abu Dhabi - Alexis is already at work (Thursday is their Friday here, so after today's she'll be free) and Guinan is at the police station getting a report about the fender bender, having played phone tag with his Volkswagen assailant, Raji, for an our or so last night. (I think they may become besties).
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