Dubai has built quite the reputation for being ridiculously over-the-top. While it definitely lives up to that hype, I would completely disagree with the idea that there is nothing more to Dubai than glitz and glam. It's actually a very diverse city that is a melting pot of several different Middle Eastern cultures.
Dubai is not just one destination, it's multiple destinations all in the same place. The beaches of a resort town, the religiousness of Islam, the flashiness of Vegas, the wealth of New York, the shopping of Palm Springs, the desert of the Middle East, the vastness of Los Angeles, the skyscrapers of Tokyo, the humbleness of migrant workers. It's flashy and new, yet strict and reserved. It's home of the haves, but also the have nots. It's the land of gold ATMs and people sharing beds in 8-hour shifts. It's one contradiction after another, and I was fascinated by the endlessly competing interests. Under the shiny facade, there is always more to the story.
Can I hop on my travel soapbox for just a minute? I work in sustainable tourism development so we talk a lot about connecting visitors with authentic travel experiences. If you travel without ever leaving the confines of the "touristy" part of a destination, you are missing the most rewarding part of travel. If I had visited Dubai and never left the resort areas, my impression of the city would be vastly different than it is.
One easy way Jon and I branch out is by eating in off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods. This is a win-win. The best food in a destination is usually hiding far from the touristy areas and this way you can get a real flavor (no pun intended) of the city. Eat where the locals eat and you'll probably get a great meal and a more authentic, local experience.
Rant over.
Without further adieu, and to finally wrap up this trip several weeks later, I present my top ten of Dubai:
10. Pakistani tea at Ravi - sometimes the humblest things are the best
9. Platinum Movie Theater
8. (tie) Bu Qtair - fish in a non-descript trailer is the best fish
8. (tie) Arabian tea house - how many of these can be about food?
All good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, that includes vacations. But since our plane didn't leave until 2:20 a.m., we still had the entire day to enjoy Dubai. We started at the top.
The Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building. It towers over Dubai to the point of making all the other ridiculous skyscrapers look like child's play. It's 2,716 feet high with more than 160 stories - almost twice as tall as the Empire State Building. And yes, it does sway in the wind.
We weren't on our game for this one - apparently you have to make a reservation in advance to avoid paying a pretty penny to go up to the top. We had failed to do this so by the time we checked the times, only 8:00 a.m. on Saturday was available. This actually turned out to be great because it wasn't crowded, and we lucked out with the clearest day of the entire trip. Since the top is literally in the clouds, you need a clear, non-hazy day to fully enjoy the view.
The open air observation deck is on floor 124. The elevator was so fast (40 mph to be exact) we didn't even feel like we were moving - although my ears popped to remind me that we were. We were greeted with a mostly wide open desert view. Here's the weird part: it honestly didn't feel that high. I think it's deceiving because most skyscrapers are surrounded by other similarly sized skyscrapers. The Burj Khalifa is so tall that it completely skews your sense of height.
world's greatest selfie
you can see how big the dubai mall & fountains are!
Our next stop was one of the oddest of the trip. The Dubai flower garden was just plain weird. The flowers were pretty and they were everywhere, but I just couldn't get over the music and strange vibe. Sometimes Dubai knocks it out of the park, and sometimes it's so fake & contrived that it gives you the creeps. The flower garden gave me the creeps.
weird
weirder
what is this place?!
After the strange flower garden experience, we headed to Dubai mall to buy some chocolates & dates and to meet up with Rob and some of his friends for lunch. We had met Jason briefly at church the day before, but this time he was joined with his awesome wife Bev & their two little ones. Jason & Bev are former Capitol Hill Baptist members (like us), and they now live in Dubai where Jason is a pastor at Redeemer Church. It turns out we have a lot in common (Go Nats!) and several mutual friends. It was so fun to get to know them & hear about their work in Dubai. It's always great to make new friends - especially halfway around the world. I loved their little cutie, Sam, who kept me entertained during lunch.
notice the aquarium behind us
After lunch we hung around the mall where we could probably live for a few years before getting bored. Jon got what he claims was the "best massage of his life", and I enjoyed a mani/pedi next door at the salon. It was a great & relaxing way to end the trip.
For dinner, we headed back to one of the food tour stops with Rob so we could enjoy a full portion of some of the favorites we had sampled on the tour. We also walked down the street to the sweet shop to buy some more baklava. I fell asleep on the couch while watching Gilmore Girls. Jon woke me up around midnight to leave for the airport. I didn't love the 2:20 a.m. departure, but the flight home was my best plane sleeping effort yet. Fourteen hours later, we arrived in DC at 9:00 a.m. surprisingly well rested. We breezed through customs (no small feat at Dulles), dropped our bags at home, and went straight to church!
Thus ends our trip to Dubai. I still have some general thoughts that I'll save for a quick wrap up post later this week.
Have you ever been so full you that thought you'd never eat again? Yep, that was me on Friday. You'll be happy to know that I have overcome that ridiculous idea and have enjoyed several meals since then. In fact, I ate again the very next day. Shocking, I know. But before I swore off food for the rest of my life, we went to church.
I wasn't sure exactly what to expect at a church in Dubai. I imagined a small church full of expats meeting in a humble, undercover environment. I've obviously been watching too many foreign missions movies or something.
What greeted us at Redeemer Church of Dubai was a huge, lively, and diverse congregation that meets in the lovely JW Marriott hotel. There was valet parking, an expansive ballroom complete with chandeliers, and the best coffee & snack set up I've ever seen at a church.
But that really has nothing to do with why Redeemer is so great. It was the people. It was such a sweet congregation of believers who were all so earnest about the gospel. I was so encouraged to see the blending of cultures and backgrounds and their unity in Christ. Not to mention the music and the sermon completely blew me away. The pastor managed to make the message both understandable and challenging. Since English isn't the first language of many in the congregation, they try to speak plainly and clearly, yet it was plenty "meaty" for those of us who are church regulars. We met so many great people, and were completely blessed by the experience. God is doing some awesome things in Dubai.
church in Dubai looks something like this
After church, we headed to thee brunch. It was at the Madinat Jumeriah where we had been the previous day for shopping & the abra ride. I've been to some pretty great brunches - it is one of my favorite meals after all - but I've never seen anything like this. Like much of Dubai, there are no words to adequately describe it.
Beautiful people in beautiful clothes, flowing champagne, white columns, high ceilings, sunshine, umbrellas, draping flowers, palm trees, music, dancers, and food. So. Much. Food. I could have sworn I was at a Gatsby party. The brunch was really 3 restaurants full of various food stations that all connected and opened up onto an expansive balcony where there was, you guessed it, even more food. It's so massive, they have maps. For the price of admission, you could stay and graze all day. There is only 1 reservation per table per Sunday so time was of no essence.
and this is just the inside of one room
I would estimate there were at least three dozen food & drink stations. Freshly opened coconuts with a little (or a lot) of added rum, an entire station devoted to various types of foie gras, Asian food, Spanish food, seafood, blue food, green food, all food. And the craziest part is that the food was amazing. Most buffets emphasize quantity over quality, but they somehow managed to go above and beyond on both counts.
waiting to go in...so much anticipation
my first plate of food - mostly foie gras and mac 'n cheese because why not?
open coconut
add rum
enjoy!
I was mesmerized, and per usual, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I think I made it through 3 plates of food + a dessert plate before I was completely tapped out. Keep in mind that this was the day after the food tour. And that's when I entered the most serious food coma of my life. Rob actually watched it wash over me, and he was quite concerned. He kept asking if I was ok. I was. I had just become the human equivalent of the fatted calf. It was both glorious and vile.
people started hoarding drinks near the end...i suspect things did not end well for this table.
this is my "i'm so full, but trying to smile" face
We got home around 5:00 p.m. Yes, we had been there since around 12:30. I put on stretchy pants that were now stretching to a whole new level and assumed my position on the bed where I wallowed for the rest of the evening. I know I'm making this all sound rather miserable, but it was actually a highlight of the trip. It was such an over-the-top, see-and-be-seen experience that was just so Dubai. I am quite certain no brunch will ever come close to matching it.
We've got a few other things to get through first, but I have two words for you: food. tour.
Wednesday had been a big day so we were determined to take things easy on Thursday. We started the day at the Souk Madinat Jumeirah. The Jumeriah Resorts is a collection of several hotels on Dubai's coast. We'd already had drinks at the Beach Club, today we would be hitting up the Madinat Jumeriah, and Friday would be the piece de resistance of the Jumeriah experience - brunch.
The souks at the Madinat are completely new, replica souks. Again, very Disney, but it was fun to explore & do some shopping. I'm actually really glad we made the stop because I picked up my favorite souvenir of the trip - a camel print. I like to buy useful souvenirs on trips - things I will actually use and enjoy. We almost always come home with a Christmas ornament. Every year when we decorate the tree, we have fun reminiscing about past trips. You might also remember the bronze nativity set we bought in Barcelona. It's still one of my favorite vacation buys ever. I try to steer clear of the inauthentic trinkets that are mass-produced (usually in some other country) for tourists. We often end up bringing home food or wine, Christmas ornaments, and a wild card item like this print or the nativity scene.
After exploring the shops, we hopped on an abra for a little ride around the resort. This is where Venice, or better yet, Vegas meets Dubai. The Madinat is built around a series of manmade water canals. Abras are commonly used by the guests to get around the resort, but they also give rides for a nominal fee to non guests. It really was beautiful - authentic or not.
We lunched at a seafood restaurant at the resort. It was the second and last time we would eat seafood during the vacation. We were just so consumed with getting our fill of Middle Eastern food.
fruity drink alert! only the hotels serve alcohol in Dubai.
Jon appropriately ordered the redheaded saint
After lunch we hopped over to the beach so we could dip our toes in the Persian Gulf. I wasn't interested in spending much time on the beach. I was perfectly content to just get my feet wet. This may seem crazy, but I'm not a huge beach person. I get hot in the sun, and I think sand is mostly annoying. Give me a shady palm tree by a sand-less pool any day. We [read: Jon] also pedaled around on the bike path near the beach.
So part 1 of day 5 was a success, but part 2 of day 5 would *maybe* be our favorite experience of the entire trip. As we were doing our food research for Dubai, we stumbled across this blog - I Live in a Frying Pan. We planned on using her recommendations to find the best places to eat during our stay, but it turned out, we could do so much better - we could actually go on a food tour with said food blogger. Sign me up!
We would spend the next 5 hours traipsing around Diera (old Dubai) with an Indian-born, Dubai-raised tour guide eating dish after dish of amazing Middle Eastern food. Arva, expert foodie & tour guide extraordinaire, has lived in Dubai for most of her life. This was her neighborhood full of her favorite local eateries where she had been dining for years - what better person to introduce us to this fantastic cuisine?
Along the way, Arva gave us helpful instructions about how full we should feel (I was always at least 25% above her recommendations so by the end I was a good 200% full). She also told us about the history of the neighborhood, introduced us to the story behind the food, and showed us how everything was made. The history nerd and food lover in me enjoyed every minute.
The first stop was actually 2 stops in one. A street falafel shop and a sit-down restaurant owned by the same person. We had falafel, hummus, fava bean dip, lamb and cheese pie. Don't knock the cheese pie, I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it was amazing.
Lamb Mansaf
kunafa (cheese pie) - yum, yum!
Then we headed to my favorite stop - the sweet shop. Baklava galore. It was so, so delicious. I've never had baklava like that. It literally melted in my mouth. And yes, I brought plenty home with me. Keeping with the sweet theme, our next stop was for Syrian Boozah ice cream that you eat with your hands. Think about how awesome life would be if you didn't even need a bowl or spoon to eat ice cream. Yes, please.
baklava
making the ice cream
eating ice cream with our hands
bonus henna tattoo shot
I think we're on stop #3 at this point, which was Egyptian feteer. I would describe it as their version of pizza. They had also just chopped a big batch of onions before we showed up so we were all literally crying as we downed our feteer.
making some feteer
The next stop (are you getting full yet?) was an Emirati place where we had a traditional desert meal. We sat on carpets on the floor and learned how to eat with our hands. Jon excelled at this. I was a mess, but I powered through because the food was good and I didn't want to stop eating just because I was making a fool out of myself.
jon eating with his hands like a boss
i look more like i'm smoking something...
Finally, we checked out an Iranian spice shop before having our last meal at a Persian restaurant. Iranians are known for their rices, and the kabob we had there was so tender and flavorful. We also had the added pleasure of being serenaded by some live musicians.
making Iranian bread
eating Iranian bread
entertainment!
Almost all of the food was completely new to me, and I enjoyed every bite - some more than others, but nothing was unworthy of a second bite. My favorite dishes were probably the Jordanian lamb Mansaf (lamb with yogurt sauce), the kunafa (cheese pie) and everything from the sweet shop. It was so fun to learn about the different cultures and their different approaches to food - you could see how they were similar, and how they differed. My only regret is that I didn't wear stretchy pants.
The best part is that we wouldn't have found any of these places on our own. And even if we had, I'm sure we would have ordered all wrong. The restaurants were more along the lines of "hole in a wall" - places I'm sure we would have easily walked past without being tempted to stop. The Iranian restaurant, for example, was on the 2nd floor of a rundown, under-construction mall. I never would have guessed they were turning out some of the best food Persian food in the city.
Now that we're back, I'm so excited to test my newfound food knowledge and branch out to try some local Middle Eastern places. Now that I know some dishes I like (and have some general ordering guidelines), I'm excited to explore the places in my own backyard. I know they probably won't be nearly as good as the real deal, but I must figure out where I can get a slice of kunafa without flying halfway around the world.
And now, in our bravest move yet, we would follow our evening food tour, with Friday afternoon brunch. I'm not sure what we were thinking, but stay tuned for day 6, which I'm already pretty sure should be titled: it's all fun and games until somebody gets so full they can't even move.
