8.7 KM of Walking

Day 120 (of our winter away) - We settled into our temporary apartment with surprising quickness. We picked up the majority of our groceries yesterday, but after breakfast, we tried out our transit cards by taking the train just one stop. I think it's a good idea for Jay's sisters to get an idea of the huge quantity of merchandise available in Dubai before buying much. We visited what I call the round supermarket by the Sharaf DG metro station.

   

As today was supposed to be the hottest day for most of our forecasted stay, we wanted to wait until later in the day to go to visit the Dubai Mall and fountain. We got on the red line at around 3:30 PM. There's an enormous amount of walking involved in visiting Dubai Mall. Just getting from the Metro to the inside must be about a two-kilometer hike through an elevated, enclosed. air-conditioned walkway!

We did the sites with a little bit better understanding of the layout.  Of course, we'd thought about what to show them first, but found it better to let the sisters explore on their own speed.  Jay's elder sister just had a birthday before we left Sri Lanka and will be my elder for just the next four months and then I'll catch up.  Jay's younger sister was born in 1964.  Both act like the selfie generation with their phones though.  In fact, I think Renuka had to pop in a new SD card into her Samsung just for this trip!

  

We didn't end up paying admission to the aquarium as everyone seemed quite satisfied with the enormous, entire glass wall for free, public viewing.  We also found the waterfall wall, and ice-skating rink.  

So many people were in the mall!  Business is back to normal.  When we were here during November and December, things were still a little slow due to COVID.   On this trip, we didn't need fresh PCR tests as our completed vaccination certifications were enough to allow us in the country.  They have done an excellent job here of dealing with the crisis.  The government quickly vaccinated everyone who lives here so the restrictions could be shorter-lived. 

We knew by leaving a little late we could see the fountain show.  Every hour, starting at 6:00 pm, there is a huge water fountain show choreographed to a song.  It is still hard for us to remember that this section of highway to Abu Dhabi was nothing but desert when we worked here during the first half of the 1990s.  Nothing.  But there we were standing with thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of folks around the 12 hectare (30 acre) manmade Burj Khalifa Lake.

As we were slowly limping back out to the Metro because of so much walking, crowds were still streaming into the mall.  The Metro is extremely overcapacity and we were literally cheek to jowl with the passengers coming back after 7:00 PM. 

The Neighbhourhood We're Leaving

 

Day 29 - Our flight on Emirates Airlines to Sri Lanka will take just four hours and fifteen minutes. However, Colombo is 1.5 hours earlier than our present time because Sri Lanka, again, follows standard India time. This makes it appear a half hour off from usual world time zones. 

We needn't leave for the airport until 10:00 PM. The normal check-out time for our apartment hotel is noon, but they allow free check-out until 2:00 PM.  We were considering buying a late 1/2-day checkout but having to vacate by 6:00 PM still seemed way too early. 

So, this morning, we got bought another day. We can keep a rather normal daily schedule. Rather than thinking about bed at 10:30 PM, we'll be arriving at DXB.   We went for our swim from 4:30 to 5:00 PM.  Later, we'll go out for dinner.  We can take showers and shave before vacating our studio apartment.

We Check Out Tomorrow

Day 28 - Generally, I don't add photos of random strangers here; however, I thought this situation merited it.  I don't know this guy but here's how I got his photo ...

Oops.  Tried to use a Canon Kiosk at the Dubai 2020 Expo on Sunday.  We stopped to see about it.  As it suggested, I pointed my phone at the QR code displayed.  We had been standing in front of the screen and thought it'd taken our picture.  I chose a border for the image.  My phone said it'd email the photo to me.  I added it.  

The machine mailed me the photo of the previous guy, I guess.  I know nothing about him.  Hope he doesn't mind a little free publicity.

This was our last normal, full day in Dubai.  It hardly seems as though we've been here four weeks already!

We did get all our documentation in order to fly on EK650 to Colombo in the early morning hours of December 16th.  There are entire new layers of distraction when flying during times of COVID.  For example, we didn't get our negative PCR tests back until this morning.  So, we weren't assured of passage to Sri Lanka until this morning.  Subsequently, we needed to complete online Electronic Travel Authorization forms to have a visa waiting for us in Colombo.  Additionally, it took a while to complete the forms and image uploads in order to speed through the medical part of the arrival in Sri Lanka.  Our vaccination paperwork from Canada, yesterday's negative COVID PCR test, and photos of our passports needed to be uploaded online.  Yay!  We have a QR code as we met all the criteria with flying colours.  Phew.  I needed to rest this afternoon.

We spent a bit of time trying to figure out exactly how much we could take along as baggage.  Returning always means extra packages when going back.  As we discovered, we think, we have 40 KG on each ticket we purchased, we just got one of those infrared burners to take along.  It seems as though Sri Lanka is going through big trouble with the gas cylinders people use for cooking.  In recent weeks, hundreds have exploded and now people are afraid to use L.P. 

Anyway, life is always fun and educational if you venture out of the confines of your tiny little space.  You owe it to yourself to stop moping around.

More PCR Testing

Day 27 - We will need negative PCR tests to enter Sri Lanka in the early hours of Thursday morning. 

So we walked to the Aster Clinic in Bur Dubai for our 11:00 AM reservations. Unlike our visit for information, there was just a single patient waiting to be tested today.  We filled out the forms and had our passports photocopied. Oh, and we paid Dhs 130 each, which works out to be less than a third of the cost of the ones taken last month in Canada prior to our flights.

 

The results are due within 24 hours but we expect to get a text message and link to PDF results by this evening.  This will be the seventh time we've waited on COVID-19 PCR test results!

Dubai 2020 (Third Visit)

 

Day 26 - Yup. We visited the Dubai Expo Centre again and spent more than five hours.

 

We had studied the map and planned a route a little bit better today.  Still, my activity tracker acknowledged we put on another 10K walking around the Expo.  We did use the bus people-mover that circles the whole grounds as well.

We did have a very satisfying visit and still did not manage to visit everything.  Although many people make sure they get stamps in their 'Dubai 2020 Passport' booklets, we only visited the pavilions known to have a good representation of their country or ones we in which we've had a personal connection.  We do intend to visit on our way back through Dubai in the spring.

We did get to see several of the shows in the Al-Wasl.  The dome's projection system, speakers, and stage within the open-air theatre do make a compelling place to tell a story.  We also, found the water feature quite extraordinary especially since it is placed in the center of a desert.

Only Three Photos

Day 25 - It was 'Japan Day' at The Dubai Expo. However, we postponed our visit until tomorrow. As today is the end of the weekend, we figured there'd probably be crowds. We noticed lots of other Gulf families are here during peak times as well as local workers who have the day off. We will wait until tomorrow for our third visit. There are still so many pavilions we have yet to see! Of course, we do expect to be able to visit during our return stopover through Dubai in March 2022. That will be the final month of Expo 2020. 

Today, I have just included three photos that might overwise not make it onto my blog.

 

We picked up some apples at the supermarket tonight.  I think they were from the Ukraine.  However, I noticed the bin was marked as 'Kissbel' from France.  A sticker said, "I'm red inside."  I bought a single apple of this type too.  Sure, though it was.

Also, tonight we saw this rather brave cat at one of the street-level entrances for the BurJuman Metro Station.  As in other places in the world, people often feed semi-stray cats as a kindness.  This type of cat is clearly not feral and will often vocalize and rub onlookers' legs politely requesting a handout.  Many are probably fed at home but later then head out to socialize and snack.  This particular one was very loud and quite persistent trying to catch a possible doner right at the very top of the escalator.

We were a bit shocked at movie prices in Dubai now.  Although the only time we've been at a theatre was for the showing of the most recent Bond film in a neighbouring city in BC.  Here, the old theatres are long gone, replaced by cineplexes in the various shopping malls.    Mostly Hindi films are playing at the present time.  I don't think we have the appetite for Sing 2 in English.

Another Friday Evening Stroll

Day 24 - Friday evening!  That's a time when everybody seems to be outside.  We too joined those walking around in the pleasant breeze along the Creek.  The abra (small boat) crossing was as busy as we'd ever seen.

We made our way between the Al Ghubaiba and Sharaf DG Metro Stations.  To me this is the authentic part of the city.  It'd be great to spend a vacation out beyond the Burj Khalifa, but this will always be the heart of the city to me.

Banana Leaves as Natural Tin Foil

Day 23 - This was another rest day after our second evening at the Dubai Expo 2020 last night.  Tomorrow is Friday and we will not visit as so many people will be off on the first day of the weekend here.  The weekends are an interesting topic as several days ago, some changes in the UAE were recently announced for the beginning of next year.  

Let me go back a bit.  When we first came to the Gulf in the 1980s the weekends used to be Thursdays and Fridays.  The holy day for Moslems is Friday so that made it similar to a western weekend, just on different days.  Next, around 15 years ago things were changed in Gulf countries beginning with the UAE.  Weekends became Fridays and Saturdays.  That meant the first day was for the religious observance of Friday prayers.  Saturdays became a free day of rest for many workers.  One benefit has been that the common days of the workweek with the majority of the world increased by a day.   Soon, starting in January, the UAE will be among the first in the world to move to an official workweek of less than five days.  In the new year, Friday mornings will be for work and afternoons off for prayer time.  Then, government and some businesses will have free Saturdays and Sundays.  The 4.5-day workweek announcement says the change is to give a better work/life balance.

Our days are always free.  In the evening we walked to a huge Aster Clinic, near the former A-Fahadi Metro Station now called, Sharaf DG.  Our hotel provides a service that will come to our hotel to provide COVID-19 PCR tests for a fee.  Many countries require travellers to show negative results.  As we'll be leaving here in the early hours of the morning of next Thursday, we need to have some tests taken on Monday.  We asked at the front desk if there were a walk-in clinic close.  Tonight's walk to the clinic was to check whether we needed to make reservations.  It is a huge complex and is open 24 hours per day.  We found that it's probably speedier to make a reservation by telephone as, otherwise, it's on a first-come-first-serve basis.

We walked around a bit in the old Indian section of Dubai called the Meena Bazaar.  We decided it was time to eat as we passed all the restaurants and the great smell of food.  We stopped at a place with outside dining very close to the Sharaf DG Station intersection.   The Green Land Restaurant had an amazing assortment of food. I had Kerala-type, chicken biryani which came out of the oven in banana leaf rather than a clay bowl.  Jay had the chicken shwarma plate that had so much chicken he didn't bother opening the flatbread.  We drank bottles of water.  The total bill was about US$11.  So now I'm getting excited about Sri Lankan food at prices even cheaper but with cuisine with an even greater selection of exotic spices.

Dubai 2020 (Second Visit)

Day 22 - We went back to the Dubai Expo grounds a bit earlier today. Our Metro train pulled up in front at 2:35 PM.

 

We stayed for approximately five and a half hours. We did much more than during our previous visit but there are still broad swatches of the Expo 2020 grounds we've not yet seen.  

Let me go on record on what I'm hoping for from a country's pavilion at an Expo event.  I want to see some of your people and geography.  I want to be able to add you to an unachievable list of places I feel I must someday visit.  I do care, of course, about your business and technology as it shows the direction in which your country wants to take its society.

 

So rather than a thorough and detailed analysis of which pavilion we visited, I just add a comment in the form of a quick note to each country today.

The UK:  WTF?  I guess you're saying your gift to the world is the language we're all using at this event.  Okay, knew that.  Your AI didn't recognize distraction as a noun and I'm not sure it's worth waiting around to see if it is added to the poetry wall.  Try again.

Pakistan: Amazing building and more high-quality screens than one would find in many of your villages, I trust.  I couldn't help but sit completely through your memorizing, enormous HD screens near the end and just silently gasp at the vistas.  Good job.  Who helped you pay for this?

Norway:  (No photo) There used to be a phrase I'm sure is no longer used by those who are politically correct.  'Trying to sell refrigerators to the Eskimos.'  Your pavilion felt tone-deaf and seemed poorly executed.  It surely didn't showcase the innovation you were trying to say is a national forte.  I suggest you lock the doors, go home, and start planning for 2025.

 

Indonesia: Got it! You're a very multicultural country and have an amazing variety. Good job. I was impressed.  Hopefully, we will see you again.

Columbia: Don't rush me! And please don't include so much climbing, next time. Some of us are getting older! Loved to see that you have so many sections of the country competing for tourists. Because of your attempt here, I want to be one of them someday.  Your iced coffee was authentic and delicious but a bit pricy at US $6 each.

 

USA: Still showing off the same moon rocks for the past 50 years?  I recognize 'the America' you tried to present to us. But just as those rocks, that was back when science was sure to take the world to a better future. Now science, to many in your own land, is nothing more than an 'alternative fact'. I understood the references to the 'American Dream' but nowadays you have to start believing in it again and stop being at war with yourselves and everybody else.  You surely do show you know how to move people efficiently through a structure though.  The available Budweiser and bluegrass music under a disused burnt-out hulk of a SpaceX rocket was a nice touch.

India: Huge pavilion!  Quite unorganized and hard to know if we saw it all.  I surely didn't grasp a narrative.  I don't think you had one in mind.  Your country is bigger and much more vibrant than what I saw in your large building.  I assume your businessmen will stand to profit from your continued participation in the Gulf. Good for you.

 

Italy: Beautifully-designed structure but the swamp in the middle was lost on me.  How about an exhibit that I can wander on my own?  As few people could understand our kind, hyper-energetic guide.  Oh, and I wanted to see much more of David!

Israel:  It was somewhat profound meeting you here.  Yup, you were trying to show that you are youthful and energetic.  I think what you were really trying to say is, "There's a lot of money to be made, so let's all just be friends."  I was sold on that concept already but it was an interesting effort.

 

Despite the apparent negativity expressed in today's posting, we really did enjoy our time.  It felt like the once-in-a-lifetime experience that it was.

Again, my activity tracker racked up around eight kilometers.  After all the walking we did wait at the Al-Wasl Dome for a few of the 'programs'. Something was off as the displays were nice but we missed any sort of scheduled presentation.  I guess it was a pleasant enough way to spend a half-hour in the beautiful outdoor breeze prior to boarding our train for the 45 KM trip back to Bur Dubai.

Rest from Our Vacation

 

Day 21 - Today was a rest day. Well, this is a vacation but today we took it easy as we figured we'd return to the Dubai Expo tomorrow.  We decided we could use a break between our visits.

We had to buy a few groceries.  In the evening we walked up to the large Day-to-Day store on Al-Kuwait Road on a corner in Karama.  I'm wondering if our luggage will go over the scales when flying to Sri Lanka.  I must add that our Emirates flight allows 30 KG from here.  We were allowed to come a bit overweight, above the 23 KG allowance on Turkish Air and I'm concerned since we've bought a fair bit more ...

 

Dubai 2020 (First Visit)

Day 20 - One of the reasons we decided to stay a month in Dubai is access to the Dubai 2020 World Expo. We got free, senior, season passes online a few months before the postponed start in October even began!

 

We decided to head to the Expo grounds at around 3:15 PM although the daytime temperatures are sort of perfect now. We knew that getting to the fairgrounds on the Metro would take about an hour. The whole area is near Jebal Ali but not near the coast. The Metro train runs right to the entrance in around one hour from the BurJuman Station and at a cost of Dh 7.50 (US$ 2.05). This put us at the Dubai Expo at least an hour and a half before sunset, so we could get a grasp of the well-designed layout.

 

We first wandered around without studying the map. With 190 pavilions and the various stages and amenities, the Dubai Expo 2020 is large if one's walking. We quickly spotted a few favourite pavilions as well as Sri Lanka's. We did get a chance to enjoy Egypt as it had large, interactive exhibits.  China proved to be a bit of a disappointment.

   

As darkness arrived, we quickly were able to gain access to some of the popular pavilions because it is only the second day of the workweek. Saudi Arabia had an impressive display of the varied geography of the country. It seems as though they're now opening up to tourism and are now proudly showing some of their pre-Islamic past, including cities seemingly as impressive as Petra in Jordan and the famous ancient cities of Yemen.

 

 

Thailand was interesting even with the obvious nod to its royalty. They also frequently put on dance performances in front of their pavilion. We did want to rush back to see the Chinese drone show which launches from the roof of their building.

 

Now the distances were beginning to become obvious to us.  We had only hit two of the three main districts of the park.  We started in Opportunity and crossed over to Mobility.

We knew that a great many things lie in store in the Sustainability District.   However, it was getting late at 8:30 PM and we chose to head back to the Metro station.  Moreover, we could feel that we'd walked the 10 kilometers that my activity tracker reported.

As the Dubai Expo is the end of the line, we had no trouble getting seats for the one-hour ride back to our apartment hotel near the BurJuman Mall.

We'd not even stopped to eat, so we were a little hungry when back in the neighbourhood, and thirsty too.  We came out of the Metro on the other side of the intersection and bought 'special shwarmas' at a takeaway restaurant we'd used before.  Due to orders and waiting for the chicken to cook, we were there for at least 20 minutes although it seemed like hours!

We came back and ate and showered and went to bed later than on most nights.  By that I mean it was at least 11:15 PM.  I guess we no longer paint the town red, not that we ever really did.

We look forward to going back to the Expo at least a few more times because we aren't scheduled to depart to Sri Lanka until the early morning hours of December 16th.

Life Can Include Oil Cakes

Day 19 - I just have to stop a moment to consider the good fortune in being able to retire early. 

I honestly feel more like a kid again than during the middle sections of my life. Doing what one wants, on one's own terms, is the very definition of being free. Having a mindset of enjoying life's small details helps. Almost everything can take on an air of pleasure or enjoyment. For example, desserts!

 

I was able to kick off our retirement when 55 years old.  We've chosen to have many different chapters of life by living abroad for five months a year, coinciding with winters in Vancouver.   Currently, we're in Dubai, a city where we spent five years of my teaching career.  It's been thoroughly interesting coming here to witness the changes in life after three decades.

Next, in about ten days, we will fly to Sri Lanka to visit Jay's sisters.  We're expecting to stay three months on that tropical island again.  In March, we'll most probably return through this city and add some time in Istanbul, Turkey on our way home.  

All of this is possible only because we bought and own our time now.