Skiing in a Desert

Today, the Nancys, Gerald, and I went to Ski Dubai. Ski Dubai is a green run at best and says they have five runs, but I only count two. The amazing thing about it is that it is attached to the end of a mall. Emirates Mall is about a 5min drive from Dubai Marina so it’s fairly close and I drive by it all the time either picking up Nancy from the Trade Center or going to explore the rest of Dubai. It is a fairly ugly structure from the outside but the fact that there is a skiing in a desert is pretty impressive.







Later inside the mall I find an electronics store called Kansas Digital to replace my broken Tamron lens. I ended up buying a Sigma 17-70 here. Gerald tried to get me a Filipino discount and I tried to get a Kansas discount, but they wouldn’t budge. It was still cheaper than the states and I am really glad that I now have a working standard zoom lens.

Dragon Boating

Its 5am on a Monday. I’m rowed over facing the couch and suddenly I hear a voice, when I turn over I see a fuzzy figure standing over me. Initially my reaction was to drop kick that scary looking figure and take defensive actions. However, as my vision adjusted I realized that it was Nancy. “Weiiiiii, do you want to go to dragon boatinggggg?”



Nancy belongs to a Dragon Boat team, kind of like crew, but it’s different. I say different for a lack of a better word to describe the awkward style of rowing. The boat seats about 20 some people in rows of two, so you are only rowing on one side of the boat. There is a person at the back working, what I would consider the rudder. However since it doesn’t look like your traditional rudder and more like a long paddle, I’m sure it’s probably called something else. The rowing style consists of making an A shape with your arms. Much of the power comes from your back and shoulders. The form was really difficult to get use to.



My first day at dragon boating was really intense. To be honest I was kind of tired just from the warm up. Furthermore it was really confusing too. Because our coach’s name is Wai, pronounced why. But for someone reason some people would call her “Way”. I’ve only ever met one other Wei in my life and she went by her American name of Maria so this was really strange for me. Now I know how all the Johns and Jennifers feel.



Eventually I got to like Dragon Boating and made some friends there too. We got to a point where we were doing a meet to show off the sport at Dubai Festival City. Oh yeah all the different areas of Dubai are called cities, ei Internet City, Media City, International City, etc. It was hot and during the middle of the day. I think I was dehydrated from the night before too and also running around at 3am trying to find breakfast items with Ben, but that’s an entirely other story.



It was a really short race but the sun just made us all really tired. Afterwards, Nancy#1, Nancy#2, Ben and I headed to Barracudas for a liquor run. Barracudas is a liquor store out in the middle of nowhere and when I say nowhere I mean we drove by a giant sand dune to get to it. This store has alcohol from all over the world to suit the needs of all the expats. In Dubai you must have a liquor card to buy alcohol in bulk and also there is a heavy tax. However, here in BFE the prices are good. To really bring out the point of BFE, here are some pictures of us playing on a sand dune on the way to middle of nowhere liquor store.

We Be Grubbin'

Ever since Nancy #2 has arrived in Dubai Nancy #1 has been doing a lot of dinner parties. And since my mom is always concerned that I somehow forget to eat meals unless she cooks it, here are some pictures of the awesome meals that I have been enjoying. It was nice to have a home cooked meal after traveling for so long and cooking itself was much more enjoyable after not having a kitchen for so long.





Me and Ben are laughing in this picture because we didn’t do any work.

A Dub

There are two Nancy’s in the Cerner Middle East offices now. To avoid confusion we have adopted Nancy 1.0 and Nancy 2.0, who is only here temporarily from the states. 1.0 and 2.0 are both working in A-Dub aka Abu Dhabi this week and it turns out that the there is a Abu Dhabi Film Festival is also this week.

In the morning we all end jump into 1.0’s car and head towards A-Dub. I was driving and it takes about an hour to an hour and a half to get there from Dubai Marina. I have to say it feels good to drive again. That is one thing I have been missing about the states. Although the car was a 1.8L Civic Automatic, the feeling of being on the road again was quite good.





The commuters can be split up into two categories. The first group consists of normal people driving around the speed limit. The second group is the crazy-ass Emiratis that are speeding on the left lane tailgating, flashing their high beam, impatiently swerving back and forth. These guys are really annoying. I wanted to do some cultural exchange and introduce them to the bird. I didn’t know that at the time, but apparently giving people the bird in Dubai is illegal.



A-Dub is a more family oriented city. There is less glitz and glamour but roughly the same atmosphere. I visited the gold mosque which was impressive and it was free to check out. People were still installing parts of the carpet when I was visited. The outside was still being landscaped.



The rest of A-Dub wasn’t really all that impressing. I went with a friend to check out the UAE culture center. Needless to say there wasn’t much there and felt really fake.




That night 2.0 got us tickets to see a movie at the film festival. It was to take place at the main mall at A-Dub. The only other film festival I had experienced was the Cannes Film Festival in Nice. The A-Dub film festival was much less important. It didn’t feel like an actual film festival. We all got tickets to see Vicky some Barcelona. Each scene of the movie reminded me of the time I spent in Barcelona and reminded me how unique the Gaudi architecture is as I was instantly able to recognize each location. The movie was pretty good too. Scarlet and Penelope Cruz had several pashing sessions, that’s how Aussies say ‘making out’.

Holy Whale Shark Batman!

Nancy and I went to Atlantis today. I had seen a discovery channel episode, oh how I miss the discovery channel, about the Atlantis water resort in the Bahamas. They just opened this clone resort here in the Middle East. It is located near the base of one of the Palm Jumeirah off shore islands. The main attraction of this resort is a giant salt water aquarium. They have two whale sharks in this tank. It was impressive and sad at the same time. These two whale sharks are both babies too.

Dubai Marina

This morning I took public bus ride from Al Quais to Dubai marina. It took almost 4hrs. By car this journey is no more than 45min to an hour. The bus stops are supposedly air-conditioned but the one I am waiting at is not. The clientele of the buses are purely Indians and Filipinos. By the time we arrive at Diera, most of the Indians get off. By the time we get past Bur Dubai, most of Filipinos are gone. By the time the bus gets to Dubai Marina area the bus is almost empty.



Dubai marina is a posh part of town. Everything is new and expensive. The marina is full of expensive yachts and is surrounded by tall skyscraper apartments. I get off at a stop that is close to the giant GH building that Nancy told me to look for and trek across a construction site. All the roads in the area are lined with orange construction barricades and I have jump over several blockades to get to the entrance of the Iris Blue building. I bet a backpacker walking around in the Dubai Marina area is almost as awkward of a scene as it can get.



I am greeted at the font by a Filipino security that makes me sign in. I take the lift up to the 15th floor to Nancy’s 1bdrm apt. Nancy happens to have another friend staying over. Ashleigh is doing a modeling gig over in Abu Dhabi, another Emirate. We ended up checking out the Buddha bar that is directly across from her building. The drinks run around 50 UAE dirhams each which is about 14 USD.

Intro into Expat culture

The next day we all get up around 11 to catch a brunch. Brunch in Dubai does not have the typical meaning that any regular person uses the word; Meaning that brunch is not just any ole meal combining breakfast and lunch as the word typically describes. Brunch is Dubai is an event, usually put on by a hotel. Basically the entire expat subculture of drinking and lavish spending is combined into a buffet style food and drinkfest. Apparently “drinkfest” is not a word according Microsoft Word, but I cannot think of any other word to describe it.

I met Nafeesa, one of Pud’s friend’s friends at the brunch. She has been working in Dubai for a while and said that she could show me around and maybe help me find a job. She made a really good pitch on the Dubai lifestyle and the fast moving pace of the work environment. The next day she showed me around Dubai. One of the tourist spots is the abra ride across Dubai Creek. Abras are these old-school boats that ferry between the two sides of the creek. It costs 1 dirham to ride across. Here is a picture of Nafeesa and I on the abra ride. Check out the Indian dude mean mugging us.

Dubizzle fo Shizzle

I landed in Dubai, well specifically Sharjah which is another Emirate, around dawn during the end of Ramadan. Thus, the traffic was much better and I was able to catch a shared private driver with another local expat. I had contacted Pud on couchsurfering while I was still in Turkey and he had agreed to let me stay there initially since all my friends were on vacation for Eid. Pud is an Aussie living in Dubai working as a teacher.

I arrived in Al Quais which is located in Dubai bordering Sharjah, the emirate that I flew into. Things are really quiet and there is hardly anyone out. His apt is provided as part of his compensation, which I’ve read to be the norm here in Dubai.

The first night Pud and I ended up going to one of his friend’s birthdays at an Irish Karaoke bar. This bar like most drinking establishments is in a hotel. It was really entertaining. I remember sitting there at one point drinking a Stella, listening to ridiculously hilarious rendition of “Back to Good” by Take That, surrounded by pissed (aka wasted) brits, and thinking “wow, this feels like London” Yet in the back of my mind I know I am in the middle east.

Pud’s friends are all teachers at an American school at Al Quais. One of them happens to know the girl that is playing host for Karaoke night. Basically her job is to sing a song between the customer’s songs to keep the party going. We ended up at an after-party at her place. The apt was pretty nice, the view wasn’t the greatest but there was plenty of room and everything like Dubai is new. At the party I discovered that most of the people that have jobs out here in Dubai also have accommodations provided. I also met a lesbian girl living in Dubai and she explains to me how she lives in fear as same sex marriages are strictly forbidden. Well why do you live in Dubai instead of Canada? I asked her. “Oh the money here is good, there’s no taxes” she replied. Weird, but interesting conversation none the less.