Pictures from Dubai

I feel a little bad writing about Dubai when there are attacks going on in Gaza - but we did go there for Christmas and I know you want to see us skiing in the weirdness that is Dubai.

Dubai struck as a lot like Las Vegas without the gambling but with the same sense of everything is new and everything is on a big scale - big offices, big hotels, and lots of fancy cars at the mall. There are a lot of malls but some of that is because it is so hot there in the summer you couldn't possibly spend anytime outside so all entertainment needs to be inside.

Our photos:

#1 - Dan at Ski Dubai. We also have some movies but I can't figure out how to get them into here. The movies are all of Duffy skiing a. because she spent more time going downhill than Dan did and b. because he hogged the camera. The place was really big (we stayed on the small hills) and was as cold as a meat freezer - you really needed a hat and gloves. It was also the only place where we have heard piped in christmas music all season.
















#2 Dubai Museum - a lot of Middle Eastern museums are old houses with mannequins in local costumes. Dubai's museum was much better than average since their mannequins seem to have been built to be in a museum rather than being a department store mannequin wearing a kefiyeh (tangent: the newspaper reports that kefiyeh (checked head scarf) sales are skyrocketing in fashion support of the Palestinians)
















#3 Bastikiyah - Dubai has one historic neighborhood of homes from the 1890s (newer than our house) that were owned by Iranian pearl merchants (Emiratis were the poor pearl divers who lived in Palm frond houses that didn't survive). No one today lives in the historic neighborhood so it is eerily quiet. Here Duffy is in the doorway to an art gallery.




















#4 Fulla - Fulla is the Arabic Barbie. She has "indoor fashions" aka regular clothes and "outdoor fashions" which are very modest abayas. Here is Duffy in a mall toy store wearing an indoor fashion with Fulla in an outdoor fashion.




















#5 Dubai is a port city with a "creek" dividing it. Here is the public transportation which crosses the creek for $.25. We had lunch at a resort where rooms cost $800 a night that had romanticized these boats and used them as transportation to the rooms.















#6 Here is Dan with Dubai's iconic Burj Dubai hotel. We didn't go in because you have to pay $20 for a tour or have a $75 lunch.