Dubai Part 1

The wait is over! I have had a week to recover and I am now ready to post some pictures about my trip to Dubai. This trip was offered as part of my MBA program and was actually a full credited class. We wrote papers and gave presentations on the countries and companies we would be visiting. All in all, we visited four countries, nine different businesses and managed to sneak in some fun stuff too. Overall, it was an amazing trip and I could go on and on about all the wonderful experiences I had. Hopefully I can share at least a portion of the experience through posting these pictures and descriptions.

      After a short flight from Jacksonville to Atlanta, I boarded a Boeing 777 headed straight to Dubai. The direct flight took 14 hours and was bearable because of Delta's wonderful on-demand entertainment system. I had hundreds of movies and TV shows to choose from and I think I watched 4 movies and slept the rest of the time. On our approach into Dubai, I tried to snap a few pictures from the airplane window but the heat from the engine managed to blur everything on the lower half of every picture. The city is sandwiched by the Persian Gulf on one side and the desert on the other so it was interesting to see the stretch of lights with pitch blackness on either side.

Since we were a day early, a few of us got a cheap hotel for the night. We were all hungry after the long journey and went in search of food. We found this place down the street from the hotel. Maybe it was the long flight or the fact that Delta served pizza and hot pockets for breakfast (seriously Delta?) but the food at this restaurant was awesome! It was Indian and delicious. The three of us ate chicken biryani, chicken masala and mutton korma for a grand total of $10. After dinner we decided to check out the local club scene at the hotel. (Alcohol can only be sold in establishments that are attached to hotels so every hotel has two or three bars/clubs.) We ended up in a place called "The Kremlin" which had a live band made up of Russian girls who couldn't sing. It was like watching bad American Idol auditions over and over! Nonetheless it was fun to see the locals hanging out, buying the singers bottles of champagne which were presented by the wait staff in dramatic fashion.

Saturday morning, we caught a taxi over to our real hotel. It was called the Movenpick and is Swiss based. It is a five star hotel and was very nice. We had great service and it made the trip that much better.

After checking in and unpacking, our first order of business was to check out the rooftop pool! It was very relaxing and had great views. In this picture you can see the Burj Khalifa in the distance and some of the other buildings as well. (More to come on the Burj Khalifa.)

  

After our dip in the pool we went to one of the gazillion malls in Dubai for some dinner. This mall was the Wafi mall and was done in an Egyptian theme which went well with a nearby hotel that was shaped like a pyramid. Everything in Dubai is a spectacle and was a lot like Las Vegas in the way everything is built to impress. We ate at a place called Thai Chi which served both Thai and Chinese food. The food was great but the setting was even better. We ate on a rooftop terrace that had a great atmosphere and great views. It was a great precursor to our trip as we would constantly find ourselves surrounded by awe inspiring views and wonderful people.