Vipond Adventures: New Years in the Emirates

Well we all managed to tackle the United Arab Emirates and make it home in one piece. Once we landed in Dubai we quickly made our way to our reserved rent-a-car. The girls had no idea what kind of car I had booked and never cared to ask. Typical. But when they were directed to a 2008 Mercedes Benz their eyes lit up. I looked at them laughing and said, "when in the Emirates do as the Emiratis". We made our way to our hotel and checked in then hit the city.

Our first objective was to meet up with a friend at the Atlantis Hotel on the man-made Palm Island just off the coast of Dubai. We never did end up getting a hold of him but did manage to spend about 2 hours around this magnificent hotel.

After leaving there we headed to the other massive hotel on the beach of Dubai, the Jumeriah Hotel. We parked the Benzy and walked straight in like we owned the place. Nobody stopped us so we just helped ourselves to the entire grounds of the hotel. We were all pretty sure that this was not something that tourists were allowed to do but if you dress to impress nobody bothers you...and they didn't. So we headed out through the hotel to the amazing view of the beach and the Burj Al Arab Hotel (sailboat hotel). This is the worlds only 7 star hotel and sits on its own man made island. It is $150 to enter the lobby and is guarded by a strict security gate. The foundation is built just as far into the ocean as the hotel is into the sky and averages $10,000/night. Yup ten thousand. We snapped pictures like the dickens and then headed back to our hotel.

The next day we headed to the Emirates Mall and looked at the indoor ski-hill. Wendy and Tricia loaded up on souvenirs then we headed to "Chill out". Chill out is a bar/restaurant that is completely made out of ice. Everything in the bar is carved from ice, the seats, tables, cups, chairs, lights, etc. It is $15 to get in and they give you a big parka, boots, gloves and a toque. We had a cup of hot chocolate and then left. It was quite chilly in there after sitting for awhile but still only -6 Celsius. After that we drove down to the public beach to watch the sunset over the Burj al Arab Hotel.

The next day was a trip to the capital city of Abu Dhabi. It was 160kms away and a very nice drive along the Emirates coast. Once there we headed to the Grand Mosque, which, is the 3rd largest mosque in the world. The tours for the mosque were closed for the day but, as a male, I was able to head straight in and check the place out. Reason being, women have to cover in order to go into a mosque and the tour desk that gives females the dresses to cover themselves with was closed. So the girls stayed back and took pictures of the outside. This place was unbelievable.

After the mosque we headed to the heritage village to check out some local handicrafts but most stores were closed until 5pm so we went down to the beach for some tanning and then headed back at sunset. Kelly blew some glass and then bought her work of art and we explored around for a half hour or so. The last stop for the day was the Emirates Palace Hotel. This hotel was US$3 Billion to build and was completed in November 2005. It occupies 2,550,000 square feet of floor space, underground parking allows housing for 2,500 vehicles and it has its own marina and helipad. Most of the suites are furnished in gold and marble and the cost of staying for a night begins at $400 for a small 600 square foot room and goes all the way up to $12,000 a night for the 7,300 square foot Palace Grand suite. We parked the Benzy underground among the $500,000 Rolls Royce and Maybach's and then explored around the entire grounds of the hotel. We took pictures inside and out and could not believe our eyes with every corner we turned.

We got back to Dubai at around 1am that night. The next day we spent the morning at Wild Wadi water park. This was the largest water park in Dubai but still not up to the standards of the rest of the city. We had a blast but it was a far cry from Wet & Wild in Florida or West Edmonton Mall water park for that matter. We headed back to our hotel at around 2pm to get ready for our desert safari. This desert safari we had arranged the day before included, 4x4ing on sand dunes, BBQ dinner, belly dancing show, camel rides, and sandboarding throughout the afternoon and evening. It was an extremely fun time as we blasted over mountains of sand in a Toyota Land Cruiser. There were many times when we figured we were all a goner. Talk about a dream job for that driver. There were also opportunities to rent quads and go out on the sand but it was $40 for 15mins and the quads were Grizzly 400's. NO THANKS (no offense Rick). They had Banshee's and Raptor 700's for rent at another place but we didn't have the time for those. THAT would have been worth it!!

I think that was the best way possible to spend new years eve. We all had a blast!

New Years eve night parties were all called off throughout Dubai the morning of the 31st by Sheik Mohammed, ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates because of the crisis between Israel and Gaza. We were very surprised of this news, as was the rest of the city, but thankful that we hadn't put out hundreds of dollars for a new years eve party that was now cancelled. The reason for this order from the Sheik was to show support and condolences towards the Palestinians who have lost many loved ones in the battles over the past few weeks. Basically he didn't want his people to be celebrating and having a great ol' time while this tragedy was taking place. It really didn't affect us at all as we had no plans anyway but it would have been nice to see the huge fireworks display that was also cancelled. Needless to say it was a quiet celebration at the crack of midnight but was an unforgettable new years eve day.