May 13 – Dubai, UAE

welcomed to the hotel

Weather – 38º

Steps – 14,824

Humidity – 66%

First pic is how our bed was set when we arrived last night. I have NEVER seen a more detailed welcome bed arrangement. The words are incredible – each letter made up of individual palm fronds cut to size, WOW!

I set an alarm last night, but jet lag had me up around 4:30. 5 hours of sleep isn’t bad but I had to have a serious nap this afternoon.

night view from the room

Breakfast is included in our room rate and this one is really good. On the way in we were greeted with a delicious fresh-pressed cranberry/mango juice. There
were western, Arabic, and Asian options. The person who sat us, fist toured us through the various options. I’ve never had a tour of a buffet, but it was brilliant!! We tried many new things. The best was probably the yogurt (not exactly new) that I drizzled with a ginger honey infusion, I’ll be having another one each morning we are here! One thing that was lacking was pork – that didn’t mean we had to go without bacon, there was beef and turkey, both were very good.

I am not the biggest fan of going to the spa. I used to get pedicures at the Hyatt spa in Calgary, but always felt I was overpaying when all I wanted to do
was get in and get out. I didn’t linger, taking advantage of the steam room, the whirlpool, or the sauna. I wanted my feet taken care of…that’s it. I’m very capable of spending time doing absolutely nothing, but for some reason, my doing nothing had to be location specific.

same view buy day

HOWEVER, when I started researching the hotel we were staying at in Dubai and saw a review of the hotel’s spa treatment that included CAMEL MILK, I was intrigued. I mean… come on. Camel milk??? That was never a treatment available at the Hyatt in Calgary!

welcome treats

The treatment I had was called the “Arabia Felix”. The way the spa brochure
describes it is that “The Arabia Felix is the ultimate experience and a feast for the senses deeply rooted in the Arabian Peninsula. Bringing together delicate regional ingredients from across seven seas including rose water, Dead Sea Salt and Camel milk, this ritual starts with a gentle foot exfoliation. The journey continues as it gently refreshes your mind and revitalizes the body with a full body massage using elements rich in minerals with calming massage oils secreted from delicately scented candles.”

In the end it was a camel milk foot soak, and a massage – good, but not much different than other massages. Nonetheless, the camel milk was neat.

breakfast with a view

Chris went to the pool while I was at the spa. I considered joining him after, but when I realized how hot it was, I opted for some down time back at the room.

The rest of the afternoon was spent napping, blogging, and reading.

slightly creepy, but charming

In the evening, we found ourselves at a hotel bar (of which there are MANY) with a happy hour (still pricy) for a drink watching the sun set. Well, the sun didn’t exactly set until we were wandering the beach, but the water-front location was beautiful. We chatted with our bartender – a woman from Colombia. Recently, we learned that 10% of people who live in Dubai are actually from here!

Next, we wandered the beach when the sun was actually setting. As it turns out, our hotel is not very busy compared to the ones next to us. Those beaches were busy. Each of these has a sort of beach club/restaurant area that is huge. Our is more of a complex of smaller bars and restaurants. The sand is soft and the water is surprisingly warm, like…really warm.

Dubai wheel and sunset

Part way through our wander, we thought we’d go for a bottle of wine for the room. To buy liquor in the UAE you need to get a licence. This requires either getting one ahead of your visit to the liquor store via an app or bringing your passport with you. We had neither the app nor our passports, so we headed back to the hotel. Once we were at the mall where the liquor store is, we finally found the booze store hidden away (like the pork section “for non-Muslims”.) It was on the second basement parking level, behind a door that you couldn’t see through. No pics were allowed. It was a small but packed place. I suspected the booze might be pricy, but was pleasantly surprised. We found a half decent bottle of wine for 20USD.

Marina highrises

Next, we picked up some snacks, including the internet famous Dubai chocolate.
Apparently, the original Dubai is by a company called Fix Chocolate and they only sell online. I couldn’t be bothered with that, so we found another brand at the Waitrose grocery store in the mall. I found a replica at home before we left, it wasn’t life changing and neither was this one. Chocolate filled with pistachio cream and crispy Knafeh (filo dough). This one wasn’t life changing either, it was fine.

room snacks

At first when the sun set it cooled off slightly, then the humidity must have skyrocketed, because wandering around after dark, we were in a lather!! Even Chris was hot…that’s when you know it’s hot! The Marina area where the mall was, is lined with restaurants and yachts. These yachts seem to be commercial for rent ones, not the super privately owned ones.

The rest of the night was at the room, not even on the balcony. I wanted to be out there, but Mother Nature with her heat and humidity kept us indoors.