Dubai - January 2, by Garth and Kate

During our Christmas vacation we went to three countries:  Dubai, Jordan, and Israel.  We had to enter and leave Israel (our main destination) through Jordan, and to get to and from Jordan we had to go through Dubai.  So technically we went to both Jordan and Dubai twice.  On the way to Jordan,  we had an eight hour layover in Dubai where we saw the Burj Khalifa (world's tallest building) and the Dubai Mall (world's largest mall by total area). On our way back to Malaysia we spent the last two nights of our Christmas vacation in Dubai and we spent more time looking around then. We started our first day with a city tour and then finished off the day with camel trekking and a cultural show.

Replica of a local hut from the 1700's - Dubai Museum

Outside of the hut - Dubai Museum

"Air conditioning unit" for the hut. This is in the hut looking up toward the sky.  It is a tall shaft made of burlap, like a chimney, that would vent out the hot air and make a bit of cool breeze to keep the hut cooler below.  Underneath that shaft it really was a cooler temperature compared to the rest of the hut

Model of housing from the 1700's. The rectangular part sticking up was the tall shaft for "air conditioning"

Another part of the living area in the hut

Dhow boat used for fishing and transportation

Jumeirah Mosque

Eileen and some of the girls near the Mosque. The Mosque had an adjacent building that was open for people to come in for refreshments and also read literature about Islam. There were also free courses offered about Islam.  The books they are looking at are storybooks meant for children that are about Moses and Abraham and Adam and other biblical characters but the stories are told from the Muslim perspective, for example Ishmael was the (almost) sacrifice, not Isaac

The girls standing with our tour guide outside the mosque

Beach in Dubai, on the Persian Gulf

Girls on the beach

Another picture of the girls on the beach

Garth walking away from the beach toward the mosque

Picture of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai. It is a "seven star" hotel.  Nobody could get closer than this to the hotel unless you showed identification that you were staying there

Atlantis Hotel, another famous hotel on Palm Island.  It was so beautiful - the pictures don't do it justice!

Written by Kate: After we finished our city tour, we went on an evening camel trekking safari. After the safari there was a Dubai cultural show with dinner and desert.  We were picked up at our hotel and we went on a long drive to a rest stop.  We had to wait awhile because the driver had to take the air out of his car tires (so it goes over sand dunes easier) and so while we were waiting we went into a shop that was there.  People kept on coming up to Daddy and showing how to put a cloth on his head and how to wrap it specifically.  It made Daddy look like an Arab man.  The people were trying to get us to buy the cloth but we didn't.  There were also binoculars there and so we took turns looking through them.  Soon we continued on our way.  We soon started to reach the desert which was sort of like a bare wasteland.  The driver decided to give us a little experience of what it is like to dune bash and so he drove over the dunes.  One dune was so sharply downwards that it felt like we were going straight down.  Soon we got to the place where the camels were.  The person in charge of the camels instructed us on where we were sitting.  I ended up on the front of the line of camels with Elizabeth.  Then the camels started up.  

This is the man who was showing us how to put on the cloth for Dad

This is what the desert (Arabian Desert) looked like outside the car window

You can sort of see the tracks that other cars left coming probably to camel trekking and dune bashing  

This is where they kept the camels while people were not using them.  This is where we got on the camels. The place in the background is where we had the cultural show later

This is before we went on the camels. It was in the late afternoon as the sun was getting ready to set

This is the guy who was leading the camels and Elizabeth and I on the camel

Getting on the camel

Ready to go on top of the camels

All of the camels had this thing on their mouth.  I do not know why they had it

The camels were connected with a rope between them and our guide led us on the trek

Coming down to get off was really hard because the camel would come down so sharply so you would feel like you were going to tip over and fall off

Dad with a camel

The size of their poop

We had a rest break, so we would run up and down the dunes.  The sand is very fine

Aimee

Soon, the sun was beginning to go down

The sand in the desert was almost like dust and very soft

Even Mom loved to play in it

Getting back up after our rest break.  That was a bit scary too because you felt like you would fall off

Sunset in the background

Getting off after the trekking.

Dad was able to smoke shisha.  He said it was apple flavored 

A traditional dancer came on.  He had these things and he kept on adding more.  They were circular like plates.  Soon he was holding around nine or ten

The lights went out and the dancer's lights went on and it was really cool

His skirt would even go up over his head

We were served two different desserts. This one was sort of a custard

This one was like bread (roti) pudding

After desert, a belly dancer came on the stage and danced for the audience. 

Dad was able to try on some of the traditional clothes for Dubai men.   We joked that he looked like a pregnant Muslim lady