The Real Dubai

In contrast to my last post about on-campus activities, I thought it appropriate to write this post about my life off-campus. First, let me say that my university is in a pretty awesome location. I am within walking distance of a few cool food places, one of which has amazing hummus! I am within a 10-20 minute taxi ride of basically everything else important. Over here, taxi rides are ridiculously cheap. The fare starts out at about $1 USD (3 dirhams) and then does not often get over 30 to 40 dirhams (or about $10USD). As you could probably assume, gas in Dubai is extremely cheap, as the city is in an oil-producing country. A liter of water and a liter of gas are about the same price. Isn't that incredible??

Since transportation is so inexpensive, I leave campus every other day, many more. Just this past week, I felt like going to the beach after class, so I put on my bathing suit, hailed a cab, and watched the waves of the ocean for a few hours. It is so unreal that I am able to go sit in the sand, surrounded by palm trees, whenever I feel like it. The beach, JBR, is free, too! The trip cost me under $10USD, and that price includes the generous tip I gave both my driver there and back.


Other days, I'll go to the mall. "The mall" doesn't do it a justice. There are probably 20 malls in Dubai, 10 of which I can likely get to by just taking the Metro-- which is even cheaper than taking a taxi. I normally go to the Mall of the Emirates, which is about 1.75 times the size of the Cherry Hill Mall and A LOT higher end, if you can even imagine... haha. The Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world, is just 4 or 5 metro stops more. When you exit the Metro Station and turn left, there is an unobstructed view of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. The first time you see it, it is breathtaking. Just thinking about how workers risked their lives to build a building half of a mile into the sky-- it is unbelievable. Anyway, the malls are all wonderful. Dubai certainly puts in 110% effort into making one's "Dubai experience" an over-the-top, lifelong memory.

There is still so much more to do and see! I am in the process of talking to my friends about going skydiving over the palm island, as I believe I already mentioned. I also want to spend a day in Abu Dhabi (yes, ladies, that is where Sex and the City 2 took place). In October, there is a pretty large music festival of some sort taking place at a resort in Dubai on the beach. I am definitely trying to go to that. In November, an International Film Festival is coming here. Basically, I am at no storage of things to do--I haven't even traveled out of the UAE yet!


Before I forget, I want to tell you one amazing story. So the boys here are slowly teaching me about cars, since the cars in the small AUD parking lot are probably worth no less than 30 million combined. Last night, one of the boys just dropped his jaw and pointed at a car leaving the place I had just left. I saw a Bentley with the license plate "10". I stared in amazement. No more than 10 feet away from me was a car full of UAE royalty. In this country, the fewer the digits in your license plate, the more important you are. The plates with the numbers 1-10 cost a few million dollars each. When you have one of those numbers, rules on the road don't apply to you. I think most recently, someone paid the equivalent of 14 million USD for one of them.

I still can't get over how I was hanging out at the same place royalty was chilling last night! What is even more amazing is that I saw "3" on the highway on my ride home! He was texting while driving-- not safe. :)