Round 3

Kappa Sigma Brothers: Jared and Goble

Well, although this is getting posted much after the fact, we had a lovely time with our third round of visitors! Our good friend Goble (aka Dan, but I don't think I will ever be able to call him that, Sorry Renee!) and his wife Renee visited us for a week from May 18th until the 26th. Goble is our friend from Hobart, who was also coincidentally Jared's Junior Year fraternity roommate. Jared and I actually started dating while he was living with Goble, so we know Goble quite well and have definitely shared many awkward moments with him. Anyone who has ever dated someone living in a fraternity house will know what I mean... Goble got together with Renee soon after college graduation and we attended their wedding three years ago in Buffalo. They are great friends, who unfortunately geographical separation keeps us for seeing as often as we'd like, so we were thrilled when they booked their trip to Dubai!

They arrived on a Tuesday night, and unfortunately, due to having just started working at ASD (the American School of Dubai), I didn't have as much time off to spend with them as I would have liked, however, we more than made up on nights and weekends, and Jared was able to be their tour guide for most weekdays. Since we had already done a lot of the typical 'tourist' things in Dubai with our previous visitors, we decided to try and take them to a lot of alternative destinations, and try things that were new for us as well.

Me & Renee at Reem Al Bawadi.

On their first real night here (they arrived very late on Tuesday night, not getting out of the airport until after 10pm), we decided that they needed their first taste of Arabic/Lebanese cuisine, and thought we would try a restaurant we had never been to before either. We had heard good things about Reem Al Bawadi and definitely were not disappointed! The atmosphere was quite fun, with a real Bedouin tent feel to it, and the food was almost as good, if not better than our favorite Arabic Restaurant Al Hallab. We, of course, ordered about 5 mezze and a couple mixed grills to share. Mmmm.

Goble's first foray into the wonderful world of sheesha at Maxine's. He already looks like a pro!

And after dinner, Jared insisted on taking them to an 'authentic' sheesha cafe, and not a typical touristy place, but a place where the locals actually go to watch soccer, play backgammon, and smoke endless amounts of sheesha (as alcohol is strictly forbidden if you are a devout Muslim, sheesha is their vice of choice). I went for my typical fav Moroccan Mint tea and Renee ordered a delicious looking dessert. A lovely and relaxing first night.

Abra ride across the Creek.

On Goble and Renee's second day here, we decided to continue with the 'locals' theme and planned an evening going down to the old quarter of Bur Dubai (complete with a stop for street shawarma. yum. something we definitely don't do enough), and then down to Bastakiya to see the old wind tower architecture and hit up the Textile Souq (where I couldn't resist buying yet another pashmina), before taking an Abra Water Taxi across the Creek to the see the Spice and Gold Souqs. Having become quite the experienced Souq visitors, Jared and I now have a favorite spice shop, where the guy knows who I am and sells me cashews and saffron pistachio's for ridiculously cheap. Becoming 'townies' has it's benefits...

After our spice jaunt and some 13,000 steps (Renee had a pedometer and was keeping track!), we were ravenous so took them to our favorite Indian restaurant Gazebo and ordered a plethora of our fav. dishes. A delicious and satisfying way to end the night.

Souqs

I decided to try on a belly dancing costume 'just for fun' while we were at the Textile Souq. The guy working at the shop had me convinced that I was quite talented. Jared was less than impressed...

Oogling the engagement ring bling at the Gold Souq. Jared's expression is priceless.. I think it's stress and dismay.

On Friday, the first day I had off to spend with our guests, we decided to continue the Souq theme of the previous night and took them to the Fish Souq. Goble and Renee LOVE fish, so were excited to not only see the market, but also barter for our dinner and have a Fish BBQ in our garden on Friday night. The following is the progression of our shopping experience:

Crab Man reluctantly posing for me and displaying his 'wares' with a gruff look on his face.

Jared bickering with the Crab Man over price, as the Crab Man is shoving about 10 crabs into a plastic bag.

Success! Three Blue Crabs successfully purchased, at a lower than market price. Now, how the hell are we going to cook them?!

Fish Feast

Jared and Dan playing with the crabs before boiling them alive (or they might have been dead, but still looked alive to me.. hard to say while they are 'waving' at me). Jared seems to get such morbid pleasure out playing with crustaceans before cooking them. It's a thing in his family. Whenever we have lobster on the South Shore we have to give them names and play with them on the floor first. I was truly disturbed the first time, but now it's kind of like a fun game.

The finished product. Barracuda (saved from Jared's Deep-Sea Fishing Adventure), King Fish from the Souq, Vegetables, and Rib Eye Steak for me (I'm not such an adventurous seafood eater, although all the fish did turn out delicious thanks to griller extraordinaire Jared) ...

Crabs in the Pot. Much yummier than I could have imagined, but I think I would have enjoyed them more in the form of a Crab Cake...

Jared on the grill with Goble overseeing.

The Feast!

At The Top

On Friday Morning, we engaged in another new activity for us, and took Goble and Renee to the top of Burj Khalifa. We have been wanting to go to "The Top" since the Burj opened in January, but unfortunately for our other guests, elevator malfunctions closed down the observation deck for about 2 months. It finally reopened in early April (about 2 days after Brett, Scott, and Jess left, to their dismay), but then we decided to wait to go with visitors.

The whole experience of "At The Top" was really well done and had the feeling of being a big deal (which, I guess going to the top of the World's Tallest Building is). We had pre-purchased our tickets because it has been selling out daily every since reopening a couple months ago, and we figured it would be particularly difficult to get tickets for a weekend morning. We had a 10am appointment and after being ushered into line in the hyper-modern lobby with a scaled model and exhibits comparing the size of the Burj to the other tallest buildings in the world (which, by the way, it totally dwarfs all of them when compared side-by-side!) had to go through a metal detector. Then, once we got through, we had about a 5 minute walk through halls of displays explaining the process and procedures for building the Burj. It was actually really interesting because they had models of some of the different designs that were competing before the final design was chosen and also showed all the different weather tests the building had to pass before being approved for construction.

And just before getting to the elevators to go up, they had this observation point that allowed you to see just how high we were going. The observation deck is on the 124th floor of the 160(ish) floor building.

And once we finally got to the top in the super-fast elevator (which, kind of disappointingly did not show which floor we were on as we went up), the views were just spectacular. So very cool to see Dubai and our neighborhood from above!

The Dubai Mall, Fountain, and Address Hotel from above look so much different! Who knew the roof of the Dubai Mall is so interesting to look at!

Old Towne Island and the Dubai Fountain from above.

Burj Khalifa Views

Me & Jared At The Top with Sheikh Zayed Road behind.

Goble & Renee with Jumeira I behind.

Looking up to the top 40 floors from the outdoor observation deck.

Sheikh Zayed Road view.

The World (man-made) Islands out in the Gulf beyond Jumeirah.

More Views From The Top

Looking Down.

The Outside Observation Deck. Pretty Awesome, but it was incredibly hot out, so we couldn't last long out there.

The Boulevard, Burj Residences, and our building on the right side.

Our building, 8 Boulevard Walk, from above. You can even see our garden on the left side of the building, just behind the pool area!

Sheikh Zayed Mosque

On Saturday, we decided to take a little road trip to Abu Dhabi, the next Emirate over, and the Capital of the UAE. I had been to Abu Dhabi once before, but had never been to the city proper, so I was excited for another new experience for me. Our first stop was the Sheikh Zayed Mosque (notice a name trend here?), the largest mosque in the UAE and the 8th largest mosque in the world (the superlatives never seem to end here). Absolutely breathtaking and without a doubt the most beautiful mosque I've ever seen. I was a little bit obsessed and got a little carried away with my camera, so bear with me. :)

Detailing in the outside corridor.

Ceiling dome in the outside corridor. The detailing was all so elaborate and beautiful.

Renee & I in our abayas. When we called the mosque for info about touring, they were very unclear about attire, so we just assumed we needed to dress conservatively (ie, wear long pants, long sleeves, and women needed to bring a head scarf to cover our heads). Low and behold when we got there though, they gave all the women abayas and shaylas (headscarves) to wear. Of course, the men were fine in their normal clothes. Some men were even admitted wearing shorts. Well, it was about 100 degrees and I was already wearing jeans and a sweater underneath. So my expression is one of pure annoyance. And the most annoying part was that my headscarf kept sliding back (as I don't know how to properly wear it. Hello Muslims, I'm Catholic! So, I kept getting yelled at once we got into the mosque. grrr.).

View into the Courtyard.

Before You Enter

Even the mosaic floor tiling in the outside courtyard was amazing.

The Minaret -- Where the call to prayer is trumpeted from.

Another view. It was so massive that I couldn't even capture the whole building in 1 photo across.

Stained Glass in foyer.

Chandelier in the foyer. Gorgeous verging on tacky, and in the usual Emirati-style of completely over the top.

Inside the Mosque

Me & Jared inside the Mosque. It was very lush and opulent and you had to leave your shoes outside as is true of any mosque you enter (I've only ever been in one other one -- the Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai, which is also open to non-Muslims, but if you ever walk by a mosque during call to prayer time you can see hundreds of pairs of shoes outside some of the bigger mosques).

The giant carpet. So beautiful and of course, the largest Persian rug in the world. The carpet took about two years to weave with upwards of 1,200 weavers working around the clock. It also has 'built-in' raised lines for the people to line up while praying. Kind of insane.

Flowers seemed to be the theme in the Mosque.

One of the apses (if they are called that in a Mosque).

Chandelier close-up. I told you I was obsessed. Sometimes it's fun to be a tourist. Much to Jared's chagrin (although he was as much of a shutter bug that day as me!).

More Mosque

Jared & Dan in the Mosque

Outside Views

I really like this picture.

The outside corridor makes a big square around the big open area in the middle. It was just amazing to me that as much attention and detail went into the outside as the inside of the Mosque.

Last Mosque Photo. I promise. :)

Emirates Palace

View into garden and beach at Emirates Palace.

The next stop on our Abu Dhabi trip was the famous Emirates Palace Hotel. Other than the Burj Al Arab in Dubai (self-proclaimed '7' Star Hotel), Emirates Palace is supposed to be the nicest hotel in the country. Guests are allegedly made to feel as if they are actually staying in a royal palace. Coincidentally, the Emirates Palace is also supposed to be the setting for the new "Sex & the City" movie. However, the Abu Dhabi government wouldn't let any filming be done in the UAE, so all the Middle Eastern scenes were shot in Morocco. The movie hasn't been released here, and if the first "Sex & the City" movie is any indication, it won't be (many movies get censored and/or just plain out not released here if they are deemed 'morally' inappropriate), so I will have to wait and see it on dvd back home. Suffice to say, this is the real deal though.

Gold "To Go." A gold-bar ATM machine. Just in case, instead of withdrawing cash from your bank account, you felt it necessary to convert your money into gold bars, here's your place. Right in the Emirates Palace lobby. I was contemplating it for novelty purposes, but the lowest increment you could get was the equivalency of $1000 USD. A little steep for my wallet. Good to know the Gold ATM machine is there though. You know, just in case.

Looking back at the 'Palace' from an outside courtyard.

Another garden and beach view, with the Abu Dhabi Corniche beyond.

Another view.