Dubai Wrap Up

Let's finish up our Dubai posts because I'm ready to move on...

Our second day in Dubai, we actually left the emirate of Dubai for the emirate of Sharjah.  We had found a Groupon for tickets with lunch included at Pearl’s Kingdom Waterpark.

Sharjah, to me, seemed much more like your typical big city.  It has regular looking skyscrapers and some traffic.  The waterpark is in a park area of town next to a theme park that wasn’t open and across a main road from Flag Island.  I wanted to go to Flag Island, but we were hot and tired by the time we left.

Pearl's Kingdom entrance

Pearl’s Kingdom had an impressive entrance once you get inside the parking lot entrance.  The parking lot entrance made us think it was closed and/or we were in the wrong place.  They also have uniquely Arabian-themed slides.  J’s favorite was the magic carpet slide.  E loved the King’s Palace.  They had a nice and relaxing lazy river and 3 kid play areas for kids of different heights.  They allowed both of our boys in any of the kid play areas since there were so few of us there that day.  Have I mentioned that it was us and one other family for most of the day?  Another couple showed up before we left.

The smallest kid area, but J had fun while E road some taller rides.

Magic carpet slides with J coming out of the tube slide.

E at the Kids' Galaxy.  Okay, not such an Arabian name.

King's Palace slides

An example of the signs they had around the waterpark.

Pearl’s Kingdom takes safety very seriously.  There were lifeguards everywhere!  They were at the top and bottom of all slides (even ridiculously short slides), at every pool, and quite frequently along the lazy river.  And I saw them rotate very frequently.  My poor short J could only ride a handful of rides because they had rather tall height restrictions.  He couldn’t go on the King’s Palace slides or two of the Fort slides.  There were even a few slides that neither boy could ride.  The lifeguards would also require life jackets on some of the slides and on the lazy river.

Being that we are in a Muslim country and modesty is of importance, women were required to wear long sleeve swim tops at this water park.  T-shirt cover ups were not allowed.  Boys, surprisingly, were allowed to go shirtless.  I really didn’t think that would be allowed.  All my boys have shirts for swimming because a) I forget sunscreen frequently and b) we thought it would be good to make locals feel comfortable.  But their shirts weren’t necessary here.  All the lifeguards had the same uniform whether they were girls or boys.  They all wore a long sleeve swim top and long board shorts.  Actually, the women also wore leggings underneath their shorts.

Would I go back to Pearl’s Kingdom?  Probably not.  I think there are other, better water parks in the area, but I’m sure they cost more, too.

For sleeping, we stayed in the Villa Rotana in Dubai.  It is across the canal from downtown Dubai.  This gave us a little bit of room and a beautiful view of the city.  The hotel itself was beautiful!  It looks old but with modern finishings in the rooms.  And they have a wonderful breakfast buffet that isn’t included.  The breakfast is cheaper if you add it when you check in.  It is worth it.  There are hot lines, breads, juices, fruit, a continental line, and they will make you fresh eggs and omelets.  Some of the food isn’t exactly what I would call breakfast food (quesadillas) and some didn’t appeal to me (unknown Indian food), but it did give us a chance to fill up and try new foods.  J tried a bircher muesli that he loved!  I need to find a recipe for it…

The living room of our suite.  E slept in that red chair both nights.

View from the rooftop pool of our hotel

Part of the breakfast buffet.  The thing in the middle is a honey comb.

Walking distance to our hotel (walking distance for everyone not just us crazy people that try to walk everywhere) is a restaurant called Thai Time.  We had dinner there one night.  Oh wow!  We each tried a different meal, loved it all, and couldn’t finish everything.  It wasn’t spicy in the way Americans seem to think Thai food should be spicy.  Maybe that’s why we liked it so much.  It makes me wonder if authentic Thai food is overly spicy or not.  I’ll need to do some research… in Thailand.

For other meals, we ate in the Dubai Mall.  They have an endless assortment of American restaurants to choose from.  More than we had in Duncan, OK even.  For those from Duncan, you get it.  We ate at Rainforest Café at the boys’ request for lunch after the aquarium.  And Stephen and I chose to eat at California Pizza Kitchen for a lunch later in the weekend.  There were so many good options; it came down to what we felt like eating at the time.

An interesting aspect of the malls, in my opinion, outside of the enormous size, is the decorations.  They took the time to decorate the malls.  There was a whole section with butterflies hanging from the ceiling.  These butterflies were made from feathers.  There was another section with some sort of abstract art that looked like DNA.  Throughout the mall, they had photo spots made of flowers.  Some of these designated which part of the mall you were in (fashion district is the only name I remember).  And there was a beautiful fountain art piece, to just name a few.

The feather butterflies

The fountain in the Dubai Mall

Then there are the outside fountains.  The fountain at the Burj Khalifa is reputed to be the tallest water fountain.  It does shoot water rather high.  You can hear it go off with a bang.  You will want to check the times for when it is happening and catch it at some point during your trip.  It goes off multiple times a day.  When we watched, the music wasn’t working until the last few seconds.  Oops!  We didn’t figure we missed enough to try to make the next show.  There is also the water fountain outside the Festival City mall.  This mall has Imagine light shows at night.  They light up the fountains to go along with music, they do a laser show on the side of buildings, and they even have fire occasionally.  These are both lovely, free bits of entertainment for your Dubai stay.

Imagine light show fountain at Festival City Mall

Fountain show at Burj Khalifa

Oh man, I almost forgot about our morning adventure along the river walk!  I had the opportunity to cross the canal using the pedestrian bridges I saw on our dhow cruise.  Below were two of my favorites!  Side note:  you don't want to swim in this canal even though it is beautifully clear.  We saw many jellyfish floating along the rather quick current.

The curvy bridge.  There were men who were jumping/swinging from it as we left.

This bridge is enclosed by a series of squares that twist around the bridge.

So visit Dubai... and come visit us before you leave!