DUBAI/SINGAPORE

Day 1.

Our flight on Air Emirates made the 13 hours go by so quickly! We had plenty of movies, tv, games, music, and oh so much food to keep us occupied. There was practically one flight attendant per 10 seats or so! The flight also wasn't completely full, so we were able to have our own row which was amazingly nice.

We spent the majority of the flight watching movies, and yes -- we would tell each other exactly when to press play so we could laugh (and cry) together! Although Crystal brought 25 magazines to read... don't you worry, of course she didn't read a single one! Nonetheless, it did not feel like 13 hours and we actually wanted to stay longer because of all the great amenities!

We arrived in Dubai the morning of Thursday, May 14th. The airport was beyond immaculate... indoor full waterfalls, such open space, high ceilings, and overall it really looked beyond this century. We didn't have any trouble getting through customs -- rather, we just walked through a door? -- found the first taxi, and were on our way to the Ramee Hotel and Apartments!

Although we arrived much earlier than the check-in time, they had our room available and we were able to rest up a bit before heading out for the day. Our air-conditioned room was spacious, complete with its own kitchen (which obviously we didn't use), waching machine/dryer (which was broken), a nice balcony (which we never opened because it was 40 degrees outside -- hehe, Celsius), and a big screen TV (complete with DVD player but who brings those on trips?)!

So the rest of the day, we bought tickets to the Big Bus which is similar to the big red double-deckers that you'll see in London. We literally looped around the city about 2-3 times between the two separate routes the bus had. We saw the seven-star hotel, the Palm, 1000000 malls, the beautiful beaches, and all sorts of "souks", or markets. As explained to us, it really was like "Vegas on steroids" minus the alcohol. The majority of north side of Dubai was based around tourism and very "high-end", while we stayed in the older, more residential area.

That night, we found our way through the residential streets of Dubai and stopped at a random Arabian restaurant to eat. Although we didn't know what half of the items on the menu were, the waiter was nice enough to help us out and we had a delicious meal of assorted meats and rice.

Day 2.

10:00 pm the night before: Christie can't sleep, because all she can hear is Crystal's snoring and someone singing loudly down the hall of our hostel.

4:00 am: Crystal is awoken by extremely loud singing over the city intercom outside our window.

6:00 am: Crystal is still up. See above.

7:30 am: Christie wakes up, and is beyond confused because the loud singing has now moved on to preaching over the city intercom.

9:00 am: Christie presses snooze.

10:30 am: Crystal wakes up to screaming at this point.

12:30 pm: Both Christie and Crystal jolt awake in bed to a combination of screaming and singing outside their window. Welp, time to get up. It dawns on them that yes, Friday is their holy day!

So after a slow start of a morning, we headed to the beach! We went to the Jumierah Public Beach and were glad that we waited because the sun wasn't as strong at this point. Since Friday is their Holy Day, the beach was PACKED! Families, and everyone young and old were there playing in the water and burying each other in sand (yep, that seemed like the thing to do there). There was a rule that you couldn't take pictures at the beach, so we were a little nervous to... until we looked over and a woman was sneaking pictures of us?! I guess our swimsuits didn't really fit in... although there were plenty of other tourists in the area wearing the exact same thing!

Some older men from Iran came over and made friends with us! We were offered hot tea (on a 100 degree day...), oranges, water, peanuts, and yes... even a tennis ball to play with in the water! One of the men was there to sell his timeshare on the Palm and villa... we asked how much it was and he said $3,000 USD and we were ready to jump on that deal... until his "interpreter" (or good friend who happens to teach English in Iran) stepped in and said it was $30,000. Oh, that changes it a little. Overall, they were excited to get to know us and were overall very curious. They had so many questions about these two Americans who were traveling Asia for 10 weeks. Then it was interesting to hear their questions about the US Economy, because you really do wonder what the rest of the world hears about us. They asked about why our economy was doing so poorly, and about the swine flu outbreak. When we asked them what their perceptions were, they said basically all that gets broadcasted around the rest of the world was "it's all America's fault." Hmmmm.

Then we decided to watch the sunset! There wasn't one. We were ready and walked out to the end of the pier and everything! It basically just dropped into the haze and that was it. Instant night at 7pm.

After taking a cab home to wash up, we headed back out to Jumierah Matida and ate at an AMAZING Morrocan restaurant. After dodging these two young boys that wanted to take us to the Disco (haha), we went out into the courtyard and smoked shisha to relax! Shisha = hookah =)

Day 3.

4:00 am: See the first few posts of Day 2.

This day we decided to do some shopping, so we went to the Gold Souk, Vegetable, Meat, and Fish Souk. However, that's not really what we had in mind. What we were really searching for was a cute little Hubbly Bubbly. Google it. So we found a store where they sold all sorts of Hubbly Bubblies as well as other nice souveniers. After about an hour or so of haggling, we started at $800 (AED), ended at $500 minus a few items, then they threw the items back in there when we were walking out the door for an extra $100. Christie wanted it for $90, but the salesman gave her a deathstare and already said she was already too good of a haggler. So she said OK, and we went on our merry way only to realize that the new total was $600... now we know to avoid that last tactic.

After rushing back with our new toys and cleaning up, we ate at a Lebanese restaurant next door to our hostel with the BEST hummus ever!! At this point, we had so many different taxi drivers, waiters, hosts, etc. and each of them were so individually poised, well-mannered, and just so humble! They were so gracious and precious, we just wanted to stay forever! It was also at this point, that we realized they don't use knives. Perhaps it was when Christie was flinging chicken all over her plate and the waiter walked over with two knives without saying a word. Thank you, kind sir!

Then, we went on a desert safari for the evening! Where do we start!! Other than these are our new dream jobs! From the awkward land cruise driver -- who to this moment we still don't know his name -- to driving wrecklessly through endless sand dunes, to watching one of the land cruisers get stuck on a sand dune and have to get towed out by another, to camel rides, and to the bellydancer/shisha/buffet/bar and tiki hut at the end of the night... it was a riot of a time! Although we never did get to the buffet or see the bellydancers because spent most of the evening in the shisha hut... and were befriended by an entire futbol team from England. Between their accents, jokes, and stories, we were entertained for quite some time until our 'unknown' land cruise driver came and found us at the end of the night! At least he found us, because we really were worried (not really) that we would just have to live there forever! So back our dream jobs... Crystal is now the ridiculous crazy land cruiser driver, and Christie is the General Manager of the bellydancer/shisha/buffet/bar and tiki huts (all her favorite things)!

Day 4.

Are you still reading? If so, give yourself a gold star.

This day was basically a travel day. The flight to Singapore was 8 hours long, and of course -- we were well-entertained again this time around (we won't bore you anymore with the details). Once we arrived in Singapore, we actually had to go through a human temperature scanning machine. They had 4-5 airport employees with masks on who were ready to pull anyone aside who was over the specified temperature limit. We weren't sure what the temperature was, but we were also wondering what would happen if you were above it. Would a huge alarm go off with a giant arrow pointing at you? Would there be a loud booming voice saying "possible swine flu victim?"

Anyways, after easily passing through customs yet again, we took a taxi to ABC Hostel -- our home for the next few days. The management staff is amazingly nice, and immediately flocked to Christie when they found out she spoke Mandarin. They took us out to lunch, they're giving us free drinks, and moving us to nicer and larger rooms all for free! Now they're asking Christie to call them "big brother" which is a symbol of friendship. Awww.

That night, we found a hole in the wall bar called Beavers and had some nice big beers with "drink companions" or rather like us Americans call it, bar food. We also booked our next flights to Bali, Jakarta, and Cebu that night for a total of $350! Not bad!!

Day 5.

After getting to bed around 4:30 am, going through some jetlag, and sleeping in arctic temperatures in our small hostel room, we awoke this morning around 1:30 pm to our new friends/"big brothers" wanting to take us out to lunch! So we geared up, moved to a new room, and went down to Chinatown where we basically toured a very large Chinese food court and could select whatever we wanted. We chose a combination of BBQ Duck, Wonton Soup, Rice, and some vegetables. Delicious, and so nice of them! They told us that next time they came to the States, we could instead treat them to a meal... and the way we could find them is that they would post themselves on huge billboards reading "find me!" -- hey, their words not ours.

We then spent the rest of the day doing a little TOO much shopping! But don't worry Moms and Dads -- all for a very reasonable price =) There are fantastic shops and markets here, and Christie continued to practice her haggling skills! We bought some new clothing that are much different than what we see in the States, and a new luggage piece because we had nowhere to fit the clothing (haha). No really, we need to get our packs down to 15 kg (from around 20 kg) for our next few flights so they don't charge us basically double the cost of the flight!! So we'll be shipping some things back home very soon!

After an adventure at the subway station and getting back to our hostel, we went out to a restaurant named Brewerks -- supposed to be a nice brewery in town with good food until we got there and noticed almost every single table there was made up of tourists.... I guess that's what you get when everyone reads Frommer's. Sadly enough (but almost expected), that was our least favorite meal yet. So afterwards, we grabbed some wine and headed back to the hostel so we could finally update all of you!

We hope you've enjoyed reading about our first few days of our trip! We'll try and update soon!