Dubai Vacation

Last month, we went to Dubai for some much-needed sunshine and R&R. We chose Dubai because it was in the same time zone as Moscow (no baby jet lag, yay!!!)  warm in February AND a direct flight. Score!

Beau snoozing peacefully in his airplane bassinet.

It turned out to be just what we needed!! Everyone was so friendly, it was easy to get around with the stroller, even in taxis, and there were lots of helpful signs written in English (of course they were also in Arabic, which was pretty much as hard as Russian to decipher, maybe worse...). Unlike Moscow, in Dubai, they're all about over-delivering on hospitality & customer service, which was a big relief and so nice to experience for a week. Unlike Moscow, people smiled and talked to us and commented on how cute our baby was. I mean, how can you resist this face?

We stayed at the Sofitel Palm Jumeirah Resort, which was located on a "crescent" that surrounds one of the two manmade, palm-shaped islands that extend off the mainland that is Dubai. The Sofitel was down the road about 20 minutes walking from the famous Palm Atlantis Resort. The whole place reminded me a lot of Las Vegas, with gigantic, opulent hotels all competing with each other to be The Best and The Most. Even in the lobby, there were amazing floral displays at each hotel and because we were there for more than 7 days, we got to see more than one.

"Date night" in Dubai - we got a sitter thru the hotel service and went to dinner and a Colbie Caillet concert. This is us in front of one of the gorgeous floral displays where we had dinner.

We did some ogling and shopping at the giant malls.

Giant fish tank at Emirates Mall.

Mostly we just sat and vegg'ed by the pool.

Bay / beachside view.

Pool view (bay is all the way in the distance).

Cute boy view.

Me and B. Just Keep Swimming!

The most interesting part of being in the UAE for me was the people watching. I could not get over all the different Muslim women in their long black robes; some were completely covered up head-to-toe, with only their eyes showing through a little horizontal rectangle, and then others not nearly as covered up, simply wearing what looked like a plain black sari. Many of them carried incredible designer handbags and wore serious high heels. So intriguing!

Muslim woman walking by the pool.

The men were equally interesting and varied in their clothing. A lot of the Muslim men - including the guys working at the airport! - wore white robes and scarves on their heads, held on by a woven, circular rope-type thing. To me it looked like they were dressed up for a fancy event, but I think this was just their everyday clothes. So fascinating!

Photo trying to capture the juxtaposition of the "regular" tourist on the left in shorts / t-shirt and the Muslim gentleman on the right (white robe, head gear etc).

Family portrait with the 7-star Burg al Arab Hotel in the background. I didn't even know hotels came with that many stars!

Tallest building in the world, the Burg Khalifa.