Dubai Trip

Last week, I was able to go to Dubai, UAE for a business trip to the WETEX show at the Dubai World Trade Center.  It was an exhibition for water and energy technology.

I flew from Salt Lake City to Paris, France and then on to Dubai, UAE.  It was a long trip there and even longer coming back.  It takes about the same amount of time to fly to the Philippines from here.

My flight from Paris to Dubai was delayed 5 hours.  It was a long time to wait around, but I finally made it to Dubai at around 2am.  Once I landed in Dubai, I thought my night was just about over, but soon found out it would be a long wait before entering the country.  When I got to the passport check, there were 50 lines all at least 50 people deep waiting to get their passport stamped and enter the country.  So...I waited another hour in lines and finally made it out.

By this time it was 3am.  Since I was so much later than expected, I had no idea if my ride would even still be there.  I walked out of the terminal and looked all over but didn't see my ride (an employee of ours and also a friend of Ritchell's family from the Philippines).

Luckily, there are a LOT of Filipinos in Dubai.  I went back inside the terminal and asked one of the Filipinas at a rental car counter if I could borrow their phone to call my ride.  They let me call and I was able to get a hold of him and get a ride from the airport to my hotel.

Ibis Hotel Deira City

When I checked into the hotel, I found that they had not kept my reservation properly and was only able to get a smoking room.  I didn't think this would be a big deal, since I don't smoke anyway, but when I got to my floor, I realized the whole floor they put me on was a smoking floor, so as soon as I got off the elevator, it reeked of cigarette smoke.

View from my hotel room

Luckily, I was able to switch rooms after the first night.  My room wasn't as bad as the smell of the hallway, but still smelled a bit like cigarettes.

My first day in Dubai was spent at our office in Sharjah getting ready for the exhibition. 

Water Services Sharjah Office

The next 3 days were spent manning our booth at the exhibition.  Unfortunately, 90% of our show materials never made it to the show because of a logistics error on the part of our freight company.  Fortunately, we did have limited materials at our office there that we were able to use.

Water Services/Zoeller Pump Co. booth WETEX 2011

Thursday night, after the show was over, we went out to dinner at an Iranian restaurant with another American that had a booth close to ours at the show.  The food was actually quite good. I had grilled shrimp and an avocado shake.

The night before, we went out to a Turkish restaurant for dinner.  I really enjoyed the food there as well.  Flat bread with all sorts of meat & yogurt toppings.  We had beef and lamb.

After the show, I had a few days to explore the city.  I'm really glad I had time to check the place out. 

Friday, I went to church.  Yes, church is on Friday instead of Sunday in the UAE.  I attended the Sharjah ward.  Church was held inside a large home/mansion that was apparently given to the church by the UAE government.  The ward was about 50% Filipino, 25% American, and 25% other.  I felt right at home.  All of the people there were very nice.

After church, we went to our office and my boss then got ready to head home (a few days before my flight was scheduled).  We went to dinner that night at the Deira City Center mall at a Chinese restaurant.  The food there was very good.  We had dim sum, stir-fried rice noodles with seafood, and kung pao chicken.

On Saturday, Ronan, our employee and friend, let me borrow his metro card so I could get around town to explore the city.  I went to the Dubai mall, Burj Khalifa, and Mall of the Emirates.

At the Dubai mall, I went through the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo.  It is a very large indoor aquarium that is 3 stories tall.  It was very cool.

 

I also went to the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world.  They also have a huge fountain pool there in front of the Burj Khalifa.  I didn't get to see the fountain running on Saturday because they only run the fountain in the evening and I was there early in the afternoon.

The fountain pool

"The Address"

Dubai Mall

Burj Khalifa

The fountain pool from the bridge

Burj Khalifa, fountain pool, Dubai Mall

The Mall of the Emirates was just like any other mall, except it was huge--as was the Dubai mall.  All very fancy, high-end shops.  The malls were so big that there was no way I could see all of it in a day.  The attraction at the Mall of the Emirates is Ski Dubai, an indoor ski slope.

Ski Dubai

I ate lunch at the Dubai mall where I had sushi and sashimi for about 1/3rd of what I would pay for the same thing here in Utah.  It was delicious.

Tuna Sashimi and Shrimp Tempura Roll

On Sunday, I was able to get out again.  This time, I had a guide to drive me around--one of the members of the ward that I met while at church.  He drove me all around town showing me the different areas of the city.  We went out to the Palm Jumeira and saw the Atlantis resort.  We also drove out on one of the branches looking at some of the homes there.

 

After the palm, we went to the beach near the Burj Al Arab--which is one of the most expensive hotels in the world.  It was beautiful and the weather was very pleasant.

Later that evening, I met up with Ronan again and he took me back to the Burj Khalifa to see the fountain run.  I think the fountain show was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.  I loved it and would definitely recommend anyone that goes to Dubai go and see the fountain.

 

 

Burj Khalifa Fountain Show 3.13.11 by dsteinmetz21

 

Ronan also took me down to the mall/outdoor shops and restaurants near the Burj Al Arab.  We ended up not eating there because all of the restaurants were out of my price range.  We ended up going to another huge mall--don't remember the name of it--and we ate at London Fish & Chips--shrimp, fish, and chips.  It was very delicious.

After dinner, Ronan dropped me off at the airport for my long flights home.  I had another 5 hour layover in Paris on the way back.  The nice thing about the last flight from Paris to SLC was that the flight was half empty, so I had a whole row to myself and actually got a little sleep.

Overall, I enjoyed the trip.  However, it was very hard being away from Ritchell and the girls for that long.  The trip would have been 100 times better if they were with me.

I really enjoyed Dubai a lot more than I expected.  The main reasons why I like Dubai are:

• Very large Filipino population - this made me feel right at home
• Very clean and safe
• Very multi-cultural/global city - there are people from all over the world there in great numbers.  I loved talking with people about where they were from, how long they had been in and why they were in Dubai
• Beautiful architecture
• Good public transportation

It was an unforgettable trip, but I am also really glad to be back home with my girls.  I really missed them.