21 Feb 08 - Today we said goodbye to India, its bumpy roads, dust and ash
filled air, whizzers on the roads (today we broke our count record, 51 of
them -- three of them from our own group), beggars, hawkers (not hookers,
Cora), and INDIAN FOOD! You can't beat nan bread, but the vegetarian bent
starts to get old for most of us carnivores.
After an early morning yummy hotel breakfast (with eggs and curry), we were
transferred to the airport for our flight to Dubai - on our favorite
springless, shockless bus, the one we thought we lost for good yesterday.
At the airport we were treated to a whole new way of checking in. A line
forms outside the building and documents are checked before you are allowed
in. Then you take your bags to an x-ray machine where they're checked by
people talking on cellphones, eating sandwiches and not watching the
monitor. The bags are then banded shut, sorta, with an official seal of
strapping tape. Next you haul them off to the ticket counter to drop them
off and get your boarding pass.
The absurdity of the situation is that they band the middle, leaving the
tops of almost all roll type bags accessible. To top it off you can carry
anything you want around the machines since the machines are sitting in the
middle of the room and no one has checked anyone for anything yet, and stick
it in your just x-rayed bag at your leisure.
When we finally got to the check in counter, we discovered that Jim and
Nancy did not have tickets. They assumed this flight was part of the tour,
but oops, it isn't. Luckily, after much computer beating and the
appropriate wailing and incense burning, seats were made available for them
to purchase - which they did, and they joined us for the trip. In hindsight,
it's lucky they even got into the building to buy a ticket since you need a
ticket to enter the building to buy a ticket.
The method used to board passengers at an Indian airport are best left
undescribed as it would turn the stomachs of all but the most hardened
travelers.
Once aboard Emirates Air, and settled in, we had the usual 100's of movies
choices, and a mercifully short flight. Beautiful 777 with all the
trimmings. The Emirates don't spare any expense - you just never know when
some prince's Lear jet might break down and he might have to stoop to flying
commercial.
Dubai. What a contrast to the rest of the third world -- though it probably
ranks in the first world. Dubai! The complete opposite of India. The
streets are paved with Ferraris and Range Rovers. There are only motor
vehicles on the roads -- top of the line machinery at that -- no oxen,
pedicabs, tuk tuks, camels, bicycles, etc., etc.. No visible poverty, just
ostentatious displays of wealth beyond belief.
We arrived at our hotel, the Avari Dubai, and had the afternoon free. Seven
of us took taxis to the "Mall of the Emirates" to the see the giant indoor
"Ski Dubai."
This mall redefines the words "conspicuous consumption." It's a huge mall,
with 450 stores, restaurants, and a movie theatre complex. The third largest
in the world, soon to be eclipsed (and kicked to a"also ran" 4th place) by a
new "largest in the world" to be built at the new soon to be built Dubailand
outside of town. Which incidentally will include a Disney world. Build.
build, build. According to our guide, about 20% (unverified number, but
certainly believable) of the world's construction people are working here.
It takes a two dollar taxi ride to circle the mall to get on the highway.
It took 45 minutes round trip to walk up and down just one row of shops, not
stopping longer than it takes to figure out what a store sells. There are 4
rows just like it, plus long interconnecting corridors,and two floors.
Single windows had a millions of dollars worth of stuff showing, and there
are thousands of display windows. Does anyone really have a use for a nine
carat diamond ring? For anything? Try two, one for each hand, and throw in a
half pound (forget carats) diamond necklace, all in one window.
Everything is high end. Fashion, electronics, jewelry, goodies of all kinds
to boggle the mind and stimulate the buying gene. It might become some new
level of Dante's hell -- consumers doomed to wander its halls for eternity,
forced to look look look and buy buy buy.
Describe it? It's like any mall anywhere in the world, except its size and
sheer number of stores from every country in the world, and the amount of
gaudy merchandise cannot really be described well enough to do it justice.
The scale of the thing rivals any other monument made by man.
The people? Everything from USA rednecks in ball caps to white robed
sheiks. Women dressed in full traditional Muslim Chador with a veil covering
even their eyes, to miniskirts and short shorts with see through bra-less
blouses. Families trailing multiple children, each with their own nanny.
Most of the world's nationalities and races are represented. The mall was
packed with as wide a range of people you could imagine.
We finally looked at the indoor sky mountain, which is what we actually came
to see. It really is an indoor ski mountain, with beginner to black diamond
slopes. 400 meters long and has a 200 foot drop. Unfortunately, it is only
the 3rd largest indoor ski slope in the world, so Dubai loses out again in
the rating game.
If you close your eyes and pretend real hard, you might actually believe
you're in the Alps. The place was hopping, and people were skiing and
snowboarding, inside! Ski lessons were taking place before our very eyes,
in the middle of the Arabian dessert. And as if one weren't enough, another
one is going to be built, you guessed it, at Dubailand. Now under
construction, like everything else you can imagine
More mundanely, we ate cheeseburgers and fries at a restaurant called the
Butcher Shop, a South African beef outlet. Everyone was just a little tired
of vegie Indian food and wanted to chew on some plain old beef.
On the way back to the hotel, we could see the new skyscrapers, including
the world's tallest building, which were all brightly lighted, another
impressive sight. Al Gore's going to need to give up his house and jet and
sell carbon credits to the poor Emirates.
Time to crash and get sleep for our full day of sightseeing and activities
tomorrow.
filled air, whizzers on the roads (today we broke our count record, 51 of
them -- three of them from our own group), beggars, hawkers (not hookers,
Cora), and INDIAN FOOD! You can't beat nan bread, but the vegetarian bent
starts to get old for most of us carnivores.
After an early morning yummy hotel breakfast (with eggs and curry), we were
transferred to the airport for our flight to Dubai - on our favorite
springless, shockless bus, the one we thought we lost for good yesterday.
At the airport we were treated to a whole new way of checking in. A line
forms outside the building and documents are checked before you are allowed
in. Then you take your bags to an x-ray machine where they're checked by
people talking on cellphones, eating sandwiches and not watching the
monitor. The bags are then banded shut, sorta, with an official seal of
strapping tape. Next you haul them off to the ticket counter to drop them
off and get your boarding pass.
The absurdity of the situation is that they band the middle, leaving the
tops of almost all roll type bags accessible. To top it off you can carry
anything you want around the machines since the machines are sitting in the
middle of the room and no one has checked anyone for anything yet, and stick
it in your just x-rayed bag at your leisure.
When we finally got to the check in counter, we discovered that Jim and
Nancy did not have tickets. They assumed this flight was part of the tour,
but oops, it isn't. Luckily, after much computer beating and the
appropriate wailing and incense burning, seats were made available for them
to purchase - which they did, and they joined us for the trip. In hindsight,
it's lucky they even got into the building to buy a ticket since you need a
ticket to enter the building to buy a ticket.
The method used to board passengers at an Indian airport are best left
undescribed as it would turn the stomachs of all but the most hardened
travelers.
Once aboard Emirates Air, and settled in, we had the usual 100's of movies
choices, and a mercifully short flight. Beautiful 777 with all the
trimmings. The Emirates don't spare any expense - you just never know when
some prince's Lear jet might break down and he might have to stoop to flying
commercial.
Dubai. What a contrast to the rest of the third world -- though it probably
ranks in the first world. Dubai! The complete opposite of India. The
streets are paved with Ferraris and Range Rovers. There are only motor
vehicles on the roads -- top of the line machinery at that -- no oxen,
pedicabs, tuk tuks, camels, bicycles, etc., etc.. No visible poverty, just
ostentatious displays of wealth beyond belief.
We arrived at our hotel, the Avari Dubai, and had the afternoon free. Seven
of us took taxis to the "Mall of the Emirates" to the see the giant indoor
"Ski Dubai."
This mall redefines the words "conspicuous consumption." It's a huge mall,
with 450 stores, restaurants, and a movie theatre complex. The third largest
in the world, soon to be eclipsed (and kicked to a"also ran" 4th place) by a
new "largest in the world" to be built at the new soon to be built Dubailand
outside of town. Which incidentally will include a Disney world. Build.
build, build. According to our guide, about 20% (unverified number, but
certainly believable) of the world's construction people are working here.
It takes a two dollar taxi ride to circle the mall to get on the highway.
It took 45 minutes round trip to walk up and down just one row of shops, not
stopping longer than it takes to figure out what a store sells. There are 4
rows just like it, plus long interconnecting corridors,and two floors.
Single windows had a millions of dollars worth of stuff showing, and there
are thousands of display windows. Does anyone really have a use for a nine
carat diamond ring? For anything? Try two, one for each hand, and throw in a
half pound (forget carats) diamond necklace, all in one window.
Everything is high end. Fashion, electronics, jewelry, goodies of all kinds
to boggle the mind and stimulate the buying gene. It might become some new
level of Dante's hell -- consumers doomed to wander its halls for eternity,
forced to look look look and buy buy buy.
Describe it? It's like any mall anywhere in the world, except its size and
sheer number of stores from every country in the world, and the amount of
gaudy merchandise cannot really be described well enough to do it justice.
The scale of the thing rivals any other monument made by man.
The people? Everything from USA rednecks in ball caps to white robed
sheiks. Women dressed in full traditional Muslim Chador with a veil covering
even their eyes, to miniskirts and short shorts with see through bra-less
blouses. Families trailing multiple children, each with their own nanny.
Most of the world's nationalities and races are represented. The mall was
packed with as wide a range of people you could imagine.
We finally looked at the indoor sky mountain, which is what we actually came
to see. It really is an indoor ski mountain, with beginner to black diamond
slopes. 400 meters long and has a 200 foot drop. Unfortunately, it is only
the 3rd largest indoor ski slope in the world, so Dubai loses out again in
the rating game.
If you close your eyes and pretend real hard, you might actually believe
you're in the Alps. The place was hopping, and people were skiing and
snowboarding, inside! Ski lessons were taking place before our very eyes,
in the middle of the Arabian dessert. And as if one weren't enough, another
one is going to be built, you guessed it, at Dubailand. Now under
construction, like everything else you can imagine
More mundanely, we ate cheeseburgers and fries at a restaurant called the
Butcher Shop, a South African beef outlet. Everyone was just a little tired
of vegie Indian food and wanted to chew on some plain old beef.
On the way back to the hotel, we could see the new skyscrapers, including
the world's tallest building, which were all brightly lighted, another
impressive sight. Al Gore's going to need to give up his house and jet and
sell carbon credits to the poor Emirates.
Time to crash and get sleep for our full day of sightseeing and activities
tomorrow.
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