Ah, yes – the wood…..

The first area in the air-conditioned area of the Dubai Museum had a sign that indicated the where the wood had come from … Mystery solved!

Are those real people?

The book mentioned the mannequins in the Dubai Museum, but it was still surprising how life-like the exhibits were… You enter the fort into a large open air courtyard with rooms off to the side – one side with weapons and such and more huge wooden doors – one of them had spikes, the sort that you wouldn’t want that door slammed shut into you. The other side had more cultural items – drums and musical instruments – like a skirt covered with goat hooves that rattle when you move (looked more like a dog toy than an instrument to me, but I’m sure it makes interesting music).

The courtyard exited into a spiral ramp to the air conditioned area (WooHoo – cold air). Down the ramp you entered a room with a large screen with a video of the history of Dubai – starting with men on camels and pearl divers and moving to oil discovery with non-Arab oil drillers, and then on to the huge building projects going on today. It was in this room that I learned where all the wood came from… Through the next door there were more dark and narrow alleys with mannequins in the rooms describing the different activities of the past and present. This is where the life-like mannequins were – they were all over the place, just in the middle of the walk way or sitting on edge of the path looking like real people. Stephen wrote before me and he captured the underwater room pretty well.

Last Day in Dubai...

Well, the last day in Dubai was pretty full, all things considered… We got our last breakfast of chicken sausage, baked beans and pastries – orange juice with a lil mango added in our open air hotel lobby. We went back to the room to cool off one more time before packing up, leaving our bags with the hotel receptionist, and then heading out for the day. I was a little concerned to just leave the bags locked in a closet, but the bastakia area seemed very safe and the hotel was off the beaten path. First things first, we needed to get to the Dubai Museum – it was the #1 thing to see in Dubai according to the Dubai tourist book…

Last Post for today....

The hotel internet is not free - it costs 2RO per hour (2/.4 = $5.00) so, I try and upload as much as I can in an hour... I will leave you with this - it was an advertisement in a pajama shop in the old souk area in Dubai... I don't understand what I should think about this advertisement - but mostly I was just disturbed...

Where are all the taxi’s?

Like I said, the wait for a taxi at the Mall of the Emirates was an HOUR… but that allowed us to watch all the cool cars – like the orange and black Audi R8, and the many Land Rovers, there was a BMW X6 cross-over SUV – then in the back – of the taxi waiting line, you got to walk past the premium valet parking… where there was a Rolls Royce, a Lambourghini, Ferrari, corvette and Audi R8… Maybe that made the hour wait worth it – nah, I don’t think so…

Bahri Bar and Burj Al Arab – Wow that’s some Mojito….

Well, after the souks, we had decided to forego the Dubai Museum until tomorrow, so I had wanted to get to the Bahri Bar tonight to find the view of the Burj Al Arab our travel guide had described as “awesome”. Up until then we decided to get a taxi and go to the Mall of the Emirates. Dubai’s reputation as being the “shopping capital of the world” is well deserved, not just from the souks but also the malls. This one in particular was huge! Of special note is that on the bus ride into Dubai, I had noticed a stunted building that angled up into the air and just stopped, as if it was an incomplete freeway onramp. This was actually the indoor ski area of the Mall of the Emirates. The pictures from the various window spots of the mall show what I’m talking about. We had lunch at Apres Ski situated at the base of the indoor ski area, I had risotto with prawns, Eliz had a spicy chicken wrap, and we both shared fondue. Not exactly “roughing it” in terms of food though… Multitudes of shops, some high end ones we had never seen before, others familiar such as H&M, Tiffany’s, and Nike. It seemed to go on forever; we’d come to a common intersection, pick a direction, then come to another completely new intersections with new directions, stores and such. The mall’s view from outside hides the mall’s sheer size quite well. Perhaps the highlight of the mall (in my opinion) were the cars in valet while we were waiting for a taxi. Nice…

We took a cab to the Burj al Arab and after some walking we finally found where the Bahri Bar was. It was located inside an adjacent mall. We got a couple seats outside on the patio and saw a breathtaking view of the Burj al Arab. I had a mojito, she had a grown-up Hawaiian punch. See the pictures. That was our night, we took another taxi back to the room and went to bed.

The adventures of Jewelry Girl and Barter Boy.

I thought the shopping experience would be awesome, such that I could possibly get a Rolex or something for a few hundred dollars. Ooh, there’s a store selling some Tag Heuer watches. Hmmm… 5920 dinhars translates to… More than $1000. Wait, I can’t afford that! Alas, guess I’ll be reserved to window shopping for now. I had read that these souks are the place if you like to barter. In fact bartering and haggling were expected in any sale, and when Elizabeth found a jewelry store with a nice “ametrine” necklace (half amethyst, half citrine), I couldn’t help but think about this. The shops all looked like this, about a 7-foot by 15-foot rectangular room with necklaces, rings, earrings enclosed in glass cases on every wall. I always had the thought in the back of my mind that perhaps what these guys are selling isn’t the real thing, how were we to tell? Initially we had wanted to get this necklace for our friend Lisa. Maybe a $100 or a little more, a nice little Christmas gift. Total price for the necklace, over $1000. Gah! Sorry Lisa, you’re a good friend, but not that good, lol! So we decided to keep looking, and Elizabeth made the decision that for something that expensive, it ought to be hers. Eventually she set her eyes on a nice ruby necklace with gold chain. A funny thing I thought that happened is that Elizabeth had asked to see a matching pair of ruby earrings if he had any. Evidently there were none in the store, so he had another store employee (told him in Arabic) to go find one. He totally left the store and went to what I can only assume to be another jewelry store. Were these stores connected? Perhaps another store owned by a family member? Maybe the stores have trade/sale agreements together? I didn’t know. Similarly, another man came into their store, rummaged through his front window display and took a particular ring, and made a waving gesture to the man helping us that he was taking that ring. Then our man pulled out a hand-written ledger and must have made note of what was taken. Very odd. Anyways, Elizabeth seemed to have her mind set on the ruby necklace and earrings, and the man started punching numbers into a calculator. What happened next was, and I expect will be, a recurring theme in any of the souks/shop dealers we happen upon. “Your price is (around) 960 dollars, but for you special…” He punched in a percentage and said “850.” Another recurring theme, all the shop peddlers thought she was special and didn’t really acknowledge me. Oh well… Oh that’s nice, pessimistic me is thinking, how do I know you didn’t just start at the higher price and worked your magic to get back to the original price, or was that even the original price. I’m not the best at bartering, in fact I know nothing about it or how to do it correctly. First off, I thought perhaps the thing to do is just hold out and feign the “it’s too expensive” card and see what happens. Magically, the price started to fall. I thought about if there are particular techniques used to barter/haggle, such as fawning over other less expensive pieces to try and have the store employee try to redirect us to the original piece at a lower price, but in general I leave Elizabeth to her own devices. Don’t get me wrong I try and look out for her as best I can, but she’s a grownup and knows just as well as I do. In the end, she received the necklace and earrings for 2800 dirhams, about $775. He shook both our hands, and deftly reached under the counter to pull out some drinks to celebrate the purchase. It was the most expensive can of orange juice I had ever drunk. He was quick to close up shop and shuffle us along since it was noon and all shops had to be closed, I believe for noon prayer. That probably also helped us move the sale along also.