The hidden perks of traveling with your mother.

Dubai, UAE

Day Five

On our last full day in the UAE, Mary and I schlepped it on down to Dubai. Like Abu Dhabi, Dubai is a playground for the rich, only on a much larger scale.

Because we feel a strong connection to the common man, Mary and I decided that we should take the bus, instead of a hiring a cab for the two-hour trip east.

Little did we know that this would be probably the most interesting part of the day.

Due to the UAE’s religious and cultural practices women and men don’t really mix, unless they are related. This means that there are two queues for most things; a men’s queue and a women and children’s queue.

The women’s queue is almost always shorter.

So after purchasing our 15 AED tickets (the taxi would have cost us around 200) we slipped past the 100 odd man queue and tacked our selves on to the 20 deep women’s queue.

Naturally I was permitted to come along too, although I did see two dudes kicked off the end of the women’s line by a station official. They had forgotten to bring their mother with them.

After a comfortable bus ride across the desert we arrived in Dubai. 

First stop the Burj Khalifa. This is the world’s tallest building, so the first thing you notice about it is how tall it is. I can’t remember exactly how tall, but it’s pretty damn tall. In fact I can’t say I’ve never seen a taller building, because there isn’t one.

So we had lunch in the shadow of the Khalifa, marveled at it’s tallness, watched a ridiculous but spectacular water fountain display set to opera music and then moved on.

The rest of the day was a bit of a bust. I’d stupidly left the guidebook in Abu Dhabi and we’d forgotten to arrange tickets to the top and it was booked solid for the next two days.

So we spent the rest of the day ambling around the city. And then took the bus home (Again playing the gender card to get us on a bus sooner. Thanks Mary).

Anyway I didn’t shoot much so here are a couple of shots of the Burj Khalifa.

In the words of Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, "Pretty long, eh?"

The dark lines in the water are the pipes which make up the fountain.  It was pretty impressive, but quite ridiculous.