A little taste of heaven...

So, our first morning in Dubai was being awakened to a fabulous wake up call from Sarah, asking if we could be ready for the beach in half an hour. Good thing we are natural goddesses, because we were ready to go in half an hour - not bad for only getting 5 hours of sleep!!! So Sarah and Lee showed up to pick us up in the Lancer. The first stop was at a park - apparently the nicest park in Dubai. Pretty good considering green space in Dubai is as common as affordable housing in Calgary. We stopped at a little waterfall, checked out the grass, which felt more like astroturf - I think Lee thought he was back in Taylor Field, or Mosaic Stadium as it is now called.

Our next stop was at the supermarket to pick up some contraban (fruit and salad). Since it was Ramadan, no one is supposed to eat or drink anything in public from sunrise to sunset. Then it was off to the destination we had been waitning tso long for - the beach. It was a pretty quiet day, with not too many people which was fabulous, because it made our illegal eating and drinking that much easier. The water was fabulous - a nice aqua blue where you could see all the way down to the bottom which made locating the water snakes easy (ewww...) and was pleasantly warm. This was no Sylvan Lake let me tell you, although Jules kept referring to it as "the lake". After lounging there for a couple of hours, and a quick drive by the souks, we were back at our hotel for a little R&R and to get ready to head out for the evening.

What better way to spend your first night in Dubai than at the Mall of the Emirates. After a dinner of Italian food, the girls were off to do a little shopping while Lee headed off to Dubai's only indoor ski slope to show off his Ross Rabiglione moves to the locals. Shopping proved to be fruitful as ever - Jules and I yet have solve a shopping dilemma by rock, paper,scissors - pretty good considering we have shopped in 3 different cities!! After picking up a few gifts and chatting it up with an Indian man who wanted to know the story of my life - he apparently was from Kashmir which according to him was heaven, so why he is in Dubai I do not know...we collected Lee (who was still in one piece) from the ski slopes.

Erin you would have died and gone to heaven - Luis Vuitton was out in full force, but was closed off to us for a private shopping excursion. Obviously the security guard did not recognize us - or we would have done our own damage (I think he is now being deported as we speak...)

It is very interesting to watch the little Arab women doing their shopping. They are wearing their black robes, complete with veils, yet are sporting their Luis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci & Channel handbags. You name it, they've got it. Money is definitely not an object here and I find them very fascinating to watch - it's 2 completely different worlds coming together.

After finding the Lancer parked by a Lamborghini and a BMW, we headed back to the hotel to call it a night. It may sound early - but we were shopping until midnight. Off to bed so that we could hit the beach bright and early the next day.