The Intriguing Emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Ajman I had no intention of going to the Middle East, but I met a couple by chance on one of my romps to British Columbia. They were from India but ex-pats living in Dubai. While asking questions about my "exotic" hair, they told me to visit the United Arab Emirates. In my head, I was saying, “Yeah I don't think so; the flight is probably forever.” Well, I did see a lot of advertisements about direct flights to Dubai, and I looked into it. I reached out to my colleagues to invite them to go, and that’s where my journey started to kick off. After months of planning, I was one night from my travel to Dubai and other Emirates. I perused about four travel lists. I was going nuts. I had done all the stuff suggested e.g., got hepatitis A and typhoid vaccines through my travel nurse, took a baby aspirin to help with thinning of the blood, so I won’t get deep vein thrombosis, made sure all my prescriptions had my doctor’s name on it, and so on. I didn’t want to go to jail for some infraction. They don’t play over there. They have a list of medical prescriptions you can buy in the US but you can’t bring into their country! At 1:00am, I called the Super Shuttle to schedule my trip to Dulles International Airport. They picked me up at 5:30am, so I could leave on the 10:00am flight. I’m glad I got to the Emirates counter early. I was third in line. I thought I was seeing double on the announcement board above: UPGRADES TO BUSINESS CLASS $990. I thought to myself the cost is usually $12,000 to ride in Business Class on Emirates. Heck! I better jump on this; I need legroom! As soon as I stepped into Business Class, I was handed my pre-departure champagne. I think it was Moet & Chandon. I also was given a Bulgari gift set, Eau De Rochas hydratante moisturizer cream, Godiva Chocolatier, and fancy toothbrush/paste/floss/eye mask combo. The image of my seat seemed surreal. There was at least five inches between me and the other passenger, and I couldn’t see her when I leaned back. My lie-flat seat was incredible with a bunch of gadgets. I could get spoiled here. I felt like a bumbling idiot, because I didn’t know how to work all the contraptions around me. I decided to watch everyone else to get a clue, since I had never flown on Emirates. I was handed a warm towelette to wash up. Next, my New Zealand lamb shanks with baby spinach leaves, French rolls, cold canapés, pastries, and preserves showed up on Royal Doulton fine china and placed on the mahogany wood panel with a white linen cloth. Yes. I could get used to this for sure. I started to drink my champagne and clicked into Emirates entertainment system, ICE, where I found my groove with the Beyonce Playlist. Later, I was given a thin mattress and pillows to further pad my cushioned recliner. I pressed the button attached to the seat and glided all the way back into a horizontal position. I slept real well. I woke to the smell of omelets, scrambled eggs with chives, veal sausage, and I saw yogurt, fruit salad, a gruyere cheeseboard, apricots, tea, and chocolate dates with nuts. When I got to Customs at Dubai International Airport, I greeted the Customs Representative who looked impeccable in his National dress with, "Marhaban" and "Shukran" in Arabic, which is "Hello" and "Thank You" in English. He smiled and was appeased at my attempt to speak a little Arabic. I got the best exchange rate at Dubai’s airport. My group gathered and we found our chauffer at the Arrival Gate. We shared the ride for approximately $20 apiece and we were dropped at our hotel. Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach Hotel was nestled in barricades of construction, which I knew about from reading all the reviews online. That didn’t matter much because the hotel was on “The Walk” which is where you can walk right out of your hotel and get your meals, sightsee, sunbathe, or stroll to the pharmacy. We were given smoky and fishy smelling rooms at first. I asked to speak to the manager and stated, “We will stay here for one night, but we will request a refund (we pre-paid for 6 nights) and relocate to another hotel, if we’re not satisfied with our rooms.” He pulled two of his best staff members and had them escort us to better rooms. Not only did we get a room upgrade, but a view of The Atlantis Palm on Palm Jemeirah which is part of the artificial island built in the shape of palm trees. After that, housekeeping stopped by a number of times each day to straighten up or see if I needed anything. We strolled along The Walk, had dessert and tea, and felt the warm breeze off the Gulf. Our first big adventure was an all-day excursion to Abu Dhabi an hour away. We would see the Corniche, Sheik Zayed Mohammed Mosque, Heritage Village, Emirates Palace Hotel (second highest priced hotel in the world), Yas Marina Formula Race Circuit and Ferrari Racetrack. The most exciting place was the mosque. First, let me say, I thought I was properly dressed for entrance. Everything was covered except the part between my elbow and wrist, but that wasn’t good enough. The tour guide pulled out an abaya from a bag he carried and told me to put it on. Everything had to be covered, and they meant it. I threw the dress over my maxi-dress, and I was ready to go. Words can’t describe the beautiful architecture and chandeliers that were imported from around the world just to decorate the mosque. The marble ground was covered in Persian carpet and the building seemed to take up a never-ending chunk of space. We found it amusing when we had to go to the restrooms and found there were what they call oriental toilets. The oriental toilets were fixed in the ground, and you had to squat over them. The lady maintaining the restrooms saw my mouth opened wide, and told me to find westernized toilets on the other side. I ran. Our tour continued onto The Heritage Village. Tour attendees lined up to eat from a buffet. My stomach was still full from my breakfast, so I decided to get a head start on finding trinkets for souvenirs. I found many things and tried to bargain, sometimes successfully. I was impressed with the men who threaded carpet with intricate designs on machinery, so I bought two carpets. The tour ended at the Emirates Palace Hotel and the Ferrari Racetrack. The next adventure started the following day. I jumped on the hotel’s free shuttle to the Emirates Mall. It was just another fancy mall, so I just bought a lovely Nine West clutch and Arabian Oil fragrance. I peeked in on the Ski Dubai Adventure and found little in the way of good souvenirs. My colleagues had arrived earlier to do photo-ops and ski in their rented ski suits. By 3:00pm, we were out of the city and in the desert for the Sunset Desert Safari Tour. The driver commenced to dune bashing to Arabian music with rap music infused. It’s a good thing the vehicle was a Chevy 4X4 because we would have rolled over or gotten stuck in the sand like a few vehicles my driver assisted along the way. We all screamed for dear life while we filmed our adventure. The more we screamed the more he dune bashed up, down and sideways along the desert sand. When we reached the camp, there were three camels parading around with people on their backs. We wanted to ride the camels immediately. This is what we waited for. But first, we ran into the much bigger camp area and claimed a table. We could see the hookah area, buffet, souvenir stand, belly dancer, henna lady, and bar. I gathered everyone to get in line for the camel rides – two persons per camel. I kicked off my sandals and hopped onto the camel’s back. As the camel rose, we wobbled and held on tight for dear life. We started screaming as it moved. To make matters worse, the camel behind me who I named Bur Sleepy kept placing its head on my leg. Nearby, I could hear the kids laughing at us, but my attention was not on them but my dear friend, Bur Sleepy. His eyes were relaxed and almost bored it seemed with the constant get up and prance routines he was commanded to do. When the camel kneeled, I sprang from its back and ran for my shoes. An elderly man brought his falcon over for us to handle and demanded $10AED afterwards. I gave him $5AED. We made our rounds to all the stands in the camp and ate from the vast amount of food. We took pictures of one friend who knew how to use the hookah to smoke strawberry flavored tobacco (called shisha) and then we headed over to the henna lady for a temporary tattoo. Hint: don’t wash off the henna until after one hour. This will help with staining your hand and darkening the henna. Day four started at 9:00am. We were ready to do the Hop-On/Hop-Off Bus Tours, but the doorman advised us he had someone who could chauffer the group around Dubai for 8 hours. If we split the price seven ways, we’d do very well. For approximately 7 hours, we visited and had photo-ops at: The Atlantis Palm and its Aquarium, Burj Al Arab, Burj Khalifa, Jumeirah Park and Beach, Souk Madinat Jumeirah,Dubai Creek, Dubai Mall, and the Gold and Spice Souks of Bur Dubai (old beat down area on the east side of Dubai). Our adrenaline pumped when we were hounded by street hawkers trying to get us to come to their stores in Bur Dubai’s Gold and Spice Souks. We finally decided to follow this guy through all these alleys to see his goods after he promised us he would show us where to get 22 and 24 carat gold for cheap (we never got the cheap gold. Those merchants were not bargaining with the high end gold which was selling high). We ran up at least four flights of stairs in this building, the guy knocked on one door and the door next to it opened. There was this big muscled guy sitting there. I guess he was guarding the merchandise. We looked quickly and convinced the guy we would be back the next day, so he would take us back to our starting point. I laughed to myself and remembered that our chauffer told us that crime is very low in Dubai because penalties are very harsh for even the smallest offense. If anything, they would take our money, but not harm us the chauffeur assured. When we got back to Sofitel we stopped at the Barbeque Delight which is next door to the hotel. There is no Barbeque by the way; it’s all delicious Indian cuisine. They had mutton legs, beef and chicken kabobs, and other names I couldn’t pronounce. After we overstayed our welcome there, we headed to Sofitel’s Plantation Lounge. The ambience included dimmed lights and comfy cushioned sofas to get acquainted, laugh, and drink. We called it a night by 11:45pm. We had to get up early again to tour Sharjah and Ajman, the more conservative emirates. These tours were more for historical information on Day 5. I got lucky and found a gold merchant willing to bargain for the 22 carat gold earrings I liked. By nightfall, the group gathered for our chauffer ride to the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, where we decided to eat at the VIP restaurant, At.mosphere on the 122nd floor, where the elevator propelled us up in 24 seconds. Hint: You have to spend at least $500AED at lunch or $650AED at dinner to eat at this exclusive place, so we’re talking $136USD at lunch and more at suppertime. The group had a blast taking photos and then we were escorted to our table close to the window where we could see the amazing views of Dubai. My Muscat, a sweet dessert wine was $81AED a glass (approximately $25USD). Heck, I pay $6USD for moscato at Target, but of course it’s not the finest from Paris! I chose the seared scallops as an appetizer, and I tasted one of my colleague’s langoustine soup which was delicious. Wild Sea Bass was my choice for entrée. Once we completed supper, we headed over to the lounge to hear the jamming music, but no one was dancing. Well, it was one more stop to Sofitel to join folks at the Saturday night salsa showdown. We caught a little bit of the show; however, the lounge wasn’t serving alcohol because it was off limits for two days in observance of Sheikh Mohammed’s birthday. I deemed my last day in Dubai "Spa Day," while my colleagues did other activities. But first, I hired a chauffeur for three hours to see some parts of Dubai I didn’t get a chance to see. I was taken to One and Only Royal Mirage (where the movie “Sex and the City” was filmed), Sofitel Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jumeirah Supper Club, Zabeel Saray Palm Jumeirah, Kempinski Palm, The Atlantis Palm, and Al Qasr Madinat Jumeirah. The only perplexing thing was my visit to Al Qasr. My driver drove through the front entrance of the compound to show me where only the Arab locals can spend their time. Upon exiting the entrance and driving pass the rest of the compound, a hummer drove close behind us and then pulled up alongside us to see our faces. The hummer had dark tinted windows, so I couldn’t see who was in the vehicle. They saw it was just me in the back. My driver never looked over at them, and they veered off back into the compound. That was a little bizarre and one crazy way to end my last day in Dubai. After my tour of the hotels, I headed back to Sofitel for my full body massage at the Carita Spa. The massage was impeccable, but the price was a bit much. I was very relaxed for the flight back home.