Dubai: Day three

GOODBYE DUBAI!

Last day in Dubai. We only had 3 days there bc my father had a meeting in the next day-.- But no worries, three days were DEFINITELY enough! On that day, all we did was pack up our stuff and hung out a little in the City Centre Mall. I shopped some stuff and then we had lunch at Chili's. Me and ninda thought that there would be chili in Chili's (bc of the name), but in fact, there wasn't. Actually there was, but not as a bowl of chili, but as a topping or side dish. We ordered chili cheese french fries and buffalo wings for appetizer. It was dayyumm good. Hadn't had chili cheese fries since 5th grade at Chuck E. Cheese. Then for main course I had pasta which tasted so delicious. And I got to mooch off daddy's shrimps. Lemme tell ya, it was the best shrimp I have ever tasted! Lemony, crispy, spicy, full of flavors. Yummo!! Chili's was so friggin awesome. If only there was Chili's in Indonesia.

Then we left in the afternoon. The weather throughout our days were cool (since it was wintertime). It was a wonderful experience :) Our days in Dubai were incredible :D

Dubai: Day two

Day two:

The second day was just as fun as the first day :) We started the day with some breakfast in the hotel. There were a LOT of choices; breads, bacons (halal one i might add, veal bacon :D), baked beans, hash brown, curry, paratha, snowfish, yoghurt, fruits, and many many more! It was deeeelish! I had bacon, baked beans, hash brown, and beef and mushroom pie (all in appropriate proportions of course, fitting one plate). Love love the breakfast at the hotel yumm.

The first activity on our agenda was taking a picture in front of Burj Khalifa (which is the tallest building on earth, 828 meters and more than 160 levels). It was great! We were about to go up the top of Burj Khalifa but the tickets were all sold out for that day and the next day :-/ I was really upset but what else can we do, ya know? So we decided to hang out at the Dubai Mall again. I bought a book, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Still haven't pass the third page hahaha :p Then, we had lunch at Burj Al Arab. It was magnificent. Burj Al Arab is the 7-star hotel. The inside was plated with real gold. Such a luxurious hotel. There were also beautiful fountains inside. It was wonderful :D Oh and because it was christmas the time we had lunch at the restaurant (which I forgot the name-.-), we were given small presents. I got a small body lotion and perfume branded Hermès. Niiiiceeeeee...

Next, we went to the world's biggest indoor ski. We went skiing there :D It was so big. And SCARY. I keep falling and falling. The hill was bumpy and so high up -.- I fell for a lot of times. In the middle of the hill, me and my sister fell together and it was so hard to stand up while wearing the ski equipments. So there was this staff that helped us up. He was an Arabic. Maybe in his young 20's. He asked us where we were from and we told him we were from Indonesia. He also actually asked if we were TWINS. Did my sister and I look that much alike? I don't think so-.- We told him no, and then continued skiing down the hill. I wanted to stop skiig at that time but my siblings forced me to go again. And so I did. We went up using a chairlift. And we met that guy again. This time we went down the hill one by one. I was the last one. And before I was about to start skiing. The guy came toward me and suddenly said "Apa kabar?" with Arabic accents of course, then I laughed a little hearing him trying to speak Indonesian and said "Baik". He then said "What's your name?" and I hesitate for a while and answered "Aulia". I quickly ski before he could comment or say anything else, but from a distant I could hear a faint "What?" like he didn't catch my name. The worst part was when I reached the bottom of the hill, I was going so fast that I couldn't stop myself. And I CRASHED into a stranger. He was a foreigner, maybe western, maybe european, but a blondie for sure. It was so embarrassing!!! I fell on my side (Because one of my ski poles got caught on his arm) so hard. He apologized and I apologized too. It was too embarrassing, because you should've seen the way I fell. He didn't fall at all (he was strong I guess-.-). My fall was so weird (i fell on my side, duh) and so hard to describe. You should've seen it yourself. GAH, from then on, I told my siblings I wanted to stop bc the side of my butt hurt a lot :( So the ski trip was fun, scary, and embarrassing at the same time.

The last place we went before we hit the hay at our hotel, was the largest fountain in the world which was located in front of Burj Khalifa. The fountain turns on every half hour from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. (if i'm not mistaken). We got to see it turn on 3 times. Let me tell you something about the fountain, IT WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I'VE EVER SEEN. And I'm not being dramatic about this. The water was practically, like, dancing to the music (that's why it's called the dancing fountain duh :p). The song was magnificent, and the view was extraordinary. It was too perfect to describe. When I saw it for the first time, I literally stood in silence and in awe watching it and my eyes started to water. It was AMAZING. The fountain was HUGE!!! Which made it more jaw-dropping. It was such a heart-touching moment. If you want to see a video of how it looks like click this, but lemme tell ya, it's not as breath-taking as it is in real life. I would want to go there again with my husband one day cuz the scene was so romantic :p el oh el. Anyway, a perfect perfect PERFECT way to end the day :')

Dubai: Day one

For the end of the semester/new year holiday, our family decided to go to Dubai. It was an adventure I would never forget (but in case i do forget, i'm gonna write down all about the adventure in this blog :p )

Day one:

I left Indo at 9 p.m. and arrived in Dubai at 2 a.m. (Dubai time). The time in Dubai is 3 hours behind the time in Indo. So it was an 8-hour flight. When I first arrived at the Dubai International Airport, I was awed by seeing how tall and big the people were. The men were really tall. Even I was considered normal height for women (whereas in Indo I was considered quite tall). Lots of the local men wore long robes (usually white), which they call dishdasha, while wearing that cloth cap thingymajig on their head which is held in place by the twisted black coil agal. It was traditional Arab clothing. Just like how women wore long black Abaya and some wore a veil that cover their faces and reveal only their eyes. Both the women and men are good looking (Arabic, oy -.-). So anyway, we went straight to our hotel from the airport to unpack and clean up ourselves. We even had the chance to take a little nap. Okay, let's skip the preparations and go straight to our first activity there.

The first thing that we did was visit The Dubai Mall. It was soooooo huge (well duh, it's the world's biggest mall!). There were so many stores. I think you can find every famous brands there. I got to shop a little of this and that :p There was also a huge aquarium inside the mall. They won the Guinness World Record as the world largest acrylic panel. The people who shopped there were stylish, wearing the latest designs. The local women were smart in mix and matching their clothes, which made them stylish but not revealing the skin and still covering their hair. It is safe to say that Dubai is a modern and global city. I saw lots of different people at the mall; arabic, asian, european, western, african, etc. Very diverse. Oh and while we were wandering and exploring the mall, my brother and my father went inside this fancy store which sells watches and other things. When they came out of the store, my brother told me about this cellphone he saw which was the most expensive thing he ever saw with his own naked eyes. It was a cellphone made out of gold, and covered with diamonds and other jewels. The cellphone had a basic rectangular shape, like an old cellphone, but was shining in gold and glittering in jewels and other fancy stuff. Guess how much it cost?? 700,000 FREAKIN Dirham which was approximately Rp. 1,716,400,000 !! CRAZY right???

After shopping for quite a while at the Dubai mall, we went to Jumeirah Beach. It was a very beautiful sight to see. There was a view of the famous Burj Al Arab. Then at about 3-ish, we went to the desert so we can go on our Safari Desert. We changed to another car, to a more suitable one, because we would be driving on the sand and the wheesl must be those special ones so we can ride up the sand dunes and stuff. There we were, sitting in the car. Told to wear our seat-belts by the driver. Little did we know (except daddy of course because he had done it before), that it would be the wildest car ride ever. I felt seriously like in those ACTION MOVIES because we were speeding, and drifting, and driving up sand dunes in the middle of nowhere in the desert! It was CRAAAAZY! A hell lot of FUN! Then we stopped at a camp site where we would have dinner (Arabic one, so lots of grilled meat like lamb, beef, chicken, and stuff). They provided lots of thing there. We could ride on a camel, drive a dune buggy (My brother tried that, but I didn't because it looked kinda scary haha), and others. For entertainment, there was some belly dancing and a traditional dance (which i do not know what it's called) where this person spins around for like 20 minutes non-stop doing tricks and stuff. Me and my sisters also got the chance to get a henna tattoo carved on our hand. The safari desert was soooooooooooooooooooo FUN! It was a perfect activity to end the day :)