The Desert of My Dreams

The Dubai Marina is a really nice area of waterfront shops, restaurants, and coffee shops. There are a number of condo towers and villa subdivisions growing around the area.
The Marina featured a really neat water fountain that kept us amused and entertained for way too long.

I was playing with my niece yesterday morning in the front “yard” (yard is scare quoted because there is no grass here . . . only tile) when I noticed the biggest ass spider I’ve ever seen in my life (he was about the same size as the palm of my hand). I went […]

Global Village is a collection of shopping pavilions representing various countries of the world. Of all the Dubai attractions we’ve visited, Global Village was by far the lamest. Global Village is essentially a combination between a cheap Epcot knockoff and a bad flea market. The exterior of each pavilion is built to […]

Ibn Batuta Mall is a brand new mall that resembles various parts of the world under one roof. Ibn Batuta was an Arab medieval explorer who traveled to various parts of the world.
I should note that as a child, I used to always imagine Ibn Batuta as a big rubber duck (Batuta kind of […]

We went to Mercato Mall on December 23.
The mall is designed to resemble an Italian courtyard.
The mall had several traditional Arabic crafts stores that I found intriguing enough for photos.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Dubai and what it really means. Dubai is impressive but I’m not impressed by it. It has an incredible skyline but it doesn’t really have anything that sets it apart from any other place. It’s pretending to be a Western city but it isn’t. […]

This afternoon, Rana, the girls, and I went to City Centre mall in Dubai. The mall was just like any other mall in the US. I thought it was extremely crowded but that might not be unusual. The mall was all decked out for Christmas, with Christmas trees and lights everywhere. […]

Tonight, we went to Madinat Jumeirah, which is a resort and shopping/dining center. Madinat Jumeirah is built to resemble a traditional Arabic marketplace (a souk). Even though it is made to look old, it is very new.
It reminded me a lot with Irvine Spectrum. It also had a manufactured Disney feel to […]

Photos of my five hour layover at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.
Several people told me that Schiphol was a good airport but I didn’t really find it that amusing. Their signs did have nice fonts, though.

It’s about 11 p.m. in Dubai and I’ve been here for a few days. My flight landed Friday at about midnight. The trip overall was pretty good but super long. I shared a cab to the airport with a first year, which was fun and cheap (thanks Ridenow!). When I checked […]