Goodbye Dubai

I'm killing time at the airport now. 4 hours to be exact. Thought I'd crank out a few final thoughts while waitingl:

- bastakiya and the Dubai museum were worth the visit. Nothing mind blowing, but walking through there and past the "creek" left me feeling like I'd experienced a little bit of Arabia finally. Also, despite it's ancient origins and Arabic culture, it's striking how similar dubai's modern history is to Calgary. Both definite oil boom towns, and follow roughly the same growth chronology. Obviously their city planners are a bit more flamboyant however. 

- the Burj Khalifa is HUGE. I mean MASSIVE. Even looking up from the observation deck on the 124th floor, it's still bigger than any building in Calgary. Its a bugger to try to capture the whole thing in one shot. Definitely worth the trip here to see it and the al Arab.  

- the views from the top are something too. Haze as far as the eye can see in all directions. :P I've heard you can see Iran on a clear day, but today I could barely make out the shoreline. 

- The skyscrapers here are all so unique, beautiful, and tall. The Bow in Calgary would be very unremarkable here. 

- speaking of which, I did not make it to a beach. Sad face. I was pretty worn out from work and didn't really start feeling like I was on vacation until last night though. Should be far more adventurous from here out, provided I survive tonight's flight. I never did fall asleep again last night and eventually gave up when the breakfast cafe opened at 7. Caught a few hours before checkout, but tomorrow could be rough. 

- Dubai mall is interesting. Also HUGE (largest in the world apparently), and packed. Very much an upscale, and upsized west Ed. A shopaholic's dream come true, even a shopophobe like myself easily killed 4 very enjoyable hours there without even setting foot in a store and only getting lost twice. 

- For all the talk of modest dress, there sure were a lot of surprisingly short skirts around there. Most worn by the relatively few white girls. Man... white people. 

- there are prayer rooms everywhere here, and its pretty cool hearing the call to prayer while shopping in a mall. The vast number of minarets protruding above the low lying skyline areas is quite neat too. Even the houses out in the desert had ones in their backyards. 

- man can they make hummus here. I've had the best pita, falafels, and hummus of my life this week, but the lebanese restaurant I ate at tonight topped it all. My side of hummus came with a basket of straight-out-of-the-oven pita bread that was unbelievable. I don't know what they did to it cause it was still just flat bread and mushed chick peas, but I was having outright foodgasms, complete with eyes rolling back in my head, and that hasn't happened since the fresh-out-of-the-water sushi in Japan. More please!!!

- it wasn't all grand though. The Lebanese white coffee tasted an awful lot like the hot water bowls you get to wash up with at Swiss chalet. Not sure if that's how it's supposed to be or if the waiter was having a good laugh at this dumb backpacker's expense. 

- after dinner tonight, I sneezed so violently my nose made a high pitched squeal as loud as an industrial strength alarm. Not sure how that happened, but I sure startled a few people around me. Glad I don't live around here. 

- milk chocolate  made with camel's milk doesn't taste all that different. Recommended. 

- wandered through a supermarket to burn off my last few dirhams and got curious when I saw the "ethnic food" aisle. Still has the same curries and whatnot we have. But also Mexican and cheese whiz.

- for some reason, India was never that high on my bucket list, but a few days here, where the majority of people are Indian (or Philipino, with a healthy dose of Iranians) has wetted my appetite substantially.

Whoop, flight checkin just opened up. On to Africa!

PS. I found it strange how long I could go in the older parts of town today playing spot-the-white-tourist and not winning. But of the 9 lines tonight, each more than 20 people deep, I am not only the only ginger, but the only white guy period. Either Dubai to Addis Ababa to Kilamanjaro is not a common route for westerners, or I'm going to have an even harder time blending in than I anticipated! :)

EDIT: forgot 1 important detail - they have a Tim hortons here. Its between that, the skating rink, ad the mention of Ontario's contribution to the construction of the khalifa for our best representation here.