Dubai

Warning: This is a very self indulgent post that will likely not be of interest to anyone other than grandparents.  It features an excessive amount of pictures of the kids doing kid-centric things and looking ridiculously happy.

Dubai was never on our list of travel destinations.  In fact, truth be told, we were known to mock a favorite family member who had it on her list.  Why did we ridicule it as a choice?  I think it was because it seemed so superficial and manufactured and consumer focused.  Big lights, big buildings, big shopping malls, fake beaches.  It turns out that yes, Dubai has all that, but if you embrace it, it is fun.  I am sure it is a lot of other things too, but we didn’t even try to find out.  We didn’t go to the desert, or the amazing old markets, or the stunning mosque.  Nope, we consumed manufactured sights, sounds and amusement parks. And had fun.

A huge number of cranes dot the skyline and teeter on the top of skyscrapers under construction.

How did we end up doing this, a notoriously non-amusement park family?  Well, a few things.  One, Leo and I made two miscalculations regarding kid-wish list items on the trip.  The first was we, in a crazy twist of timing, planned to go to Legoland in California on our last day, when Legoland was closed.  The six year old, who for years has seen pictures of his siblings and cousins visit Legoland on an earlier trip to California, was crushed.  Legoland was pretty much the main thing he was looking forward to when we set off for our trip many months ago (it was also pretty much the only concrete thing he could focus on as we set off on this large and amorphous journey). Parental misstep two was thinking we should just fly through Bangkok and not stop. We had enjoyed Bangkok a couple of years ago, but thought, at least on this trip, that big cities have not been favorite stops and, well, we’d been there already, so lets move on.  Mistake.  Turns out the kids had been counting down the years until they could return to Kidzania which is an amazing kid-only attraction that lives on in our family lore as a favorite day.  Leo and I thought there was no way to live up to the memory so best not to try to repeat.  Mistake.  Kids were devastated, especially the two youngest, to learn we were not stopping in Bangkok because that meant no Kidzania.

So, with parental guilt bubbling under the surface, Leo and I pieced together our flights from Sri Lanka to Europe and realized that flying to and from Dubai was inexpensive. And guess what they have in Dubai?  Legoland AND Kidzania.  Once we realized that Dubai was not as ridiculously expensive as we thought it would be (again, AirBnB changes everything) we bought the tickets and told the kids to buckle up, we were going to Dubai!

Perhaps to clarify expenses.  We did not eat out or stay at a fancy hotel. 
This was the only "meal" we ate out.  It was expensive.
We were a bit over eager on our first night after arriving safely from Sri Lanka, and ordered ice cream, still thinking in terms of price and size from South East Asia. Oops.  But it was delicious.

What followed was a whirlwind 4 days of nonstop fun.  We went to a different amusement park every day. So unlike us and so much fun.  After the stressful 72 hour exiting Sri Lanka it was a real treat to revel in activities that are built around children and families having fun in a safe environment.  We also enjoyed wandering the boardwalk by the Marina marveling at the tall buildings, the multi-multi-lane highways and the endless shopping opportunities.  We were also struck by the reality that Dubai is a city that is entirely staffed by non-Emeratis.  Filipinos and Bangladeshis seemed to be the most visible group.  From the moment we arrived at the airport, where young Filipino men and women steered us through the customs line (but were not the customs officials),  to the taxi drivers, to the retail store workers, everyone we saw working, except for government employees, were from another country.

In a country whose culture leaves some questions in my mind about human rights, this sign is an interesting juxtaposition.  Pretty cool description "People of Determination".  Heck yeah!

Walking along the Marina boardwalk

The highlights of our whirlwind stop were:

Kidzania

This is a cool attraction.  It is a pretend world where only kids get to participate in jobs.  They earn “money” called Kidzos doing jobs, like delivering a package for DHL, and in turn can spend their Kidzos such as a buying cookies (that they decorate). 

At the end there is a store that they can exchange their earned Kidzos for a toy. The complex is set up like a town with a main street that you can wander down and the businesses off to the side.  A small ambulance and firetruck will frequently drive by, sirens wailing, with excited kids in the back. 

V putting out a fire with the fire crew.

At the driving "school" 

Children are each given a bracelet and parents can leave the kids on their own, or stay in the complex, but parents cannot participate in any of the activities.  It is awesome!  We arrived in the morning and spent the entire day.  The kids did almost every activity possible.  They worked together when that was an option, choosing where to go and what to do next. 

Welcome to the store, I will be your cashier.

At the "radio station" getting ready to deliver the news.

Making their lunch.

With the kinder chocolate he "made"

The older two generously and beautifully played along with their younger brother and at the end pooled all their earned Kidzos so he could get a remote-control car.  I was worried that coming back to an activity that is such a favorite memory might not live up to the hype, especially with the kids being two years older, but Kidzania-take-two for the Artalejos was another huge success.

Motiongate
We added this when we realized that a pass to the two parks we wanted to go to would include this one for only a few dollars more.  Why not? Of everything we did this was the most traditional amusement park and was also the least favorite.  However, it was still fun to wander around and ride some rides. It is a park that is based on movies, so there were rides from Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, etc.

This one got into the fun!

Aquaventure Waterpark
This was huge fun.  We spent the day mostly floating in big tubes along the “lazy river” that also includes “rapids”.  The river was over 6 km long and had numerous exit and entry points.  We braved a few of the big water slides, which were long and intense and fun for some of us.  But mostly we went around and around and around.  And we loved it. 

Even entering the park is an experience.  The water park is attached to a large hotel complex, which of course has innumerable shopping experiences. Us, getting ready to head into the building.

The lazy river. 

Hanging on the "beach" - totally manufactured of course.

The famous Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in the distance.

The cherry on top of this day was that we rode home in a Tesla taxi.

We have been hearing A LOT about Tesla cars from the 13-year-old.  Leo and I are both puzzled at how we have an offspring that is into cars, but apparently we do.  Most recently there has been a recent focus on Teslas.  So, when, while standing in the taxi line leaving the park, we saw a Tesla with its two butterfly doors up and at the ready, we had some excited kids (because of course, the 6 year old is following his big brother’s lead and points out every Tesla we see).  I overhead the taxi guys trying to get a family to go in the Tesla as it was “just a little more” than a regular taxi.  Hmmm, true?  As it turns out Taxis in Dubai were very affordable and regulated.  It was true that it was not that much more, and it was going to blow a 13 year old boy’s mind.  So, we did it.  This ride was probably the highlight for him.

Legoland

We told V that going to Legoland was an early birthday present for him and he got to lead the way on this one.  Even though the park is targeted to younger children, all five of us enjoyed it very much.  We aren’t very big daredevils when it comes to amusement park rides, so the gentle Legoland rides were perfectly fun for all of us.  The Lego city that has the architectural highlights of not only Dubai but much of the world built out of Lego, was amazing for all of us to gawk at. 

Standing in front of the Lego version of the Taj Mahal.  The site of our first "date" 22 years ago.  Awwwwww.

The mellow rides were totally our family's speed.  Everyone had fun!

We closed the park down and I think it lived up to the hype (phew).

Dubai Mall

This can stand alone as its own attraction.  The Dubai Mall is the biggest mall in the world.  It is attached to the tallest building in the world.  It has the biggest water fountain show in the world.  Yeah, it is big.  It is glitzy.  It is open until midnight.  We first saw the Mall when we went to Kidzania as that is where it is housed, but we mostly walked through quickly to get to our main attraction.

Entering the mall to go to Kidzania, "look, there is the world's tallest building!" the Burj Khalifa.

Looking down at the indoor skating rink.

On our first time at the mall, to go to Kidzania, we didn't really get to experience the mall.  So the older two kids and I went back one evening and, once again, shut the place down. 

Indoor waterfall (one of two) with beautiful sculptures of divers.

We had a blast spending four hours wandering the floors, window shopping, people watching, gawking and laughing.  We puzzled over the juxtaposition of women in burkas heading into Victoria’s Secret and babies tottering around at 11pm. 

We watched the fountain show and admired the light show on the world’s tallest building. 

The light show on the Burj Khalifa.

Fountain show.

There is a huge aquarium inside the mall.

Random Star Wars Storm Trooper display.

We even got some donuts from Tim Hortons (a coffee shop chain back home).

I was really thankful to have had the time with the older two as it has been hard to carve out time without the littlest by my side. Taking the taxi back home at midnight we were exhausted and happy. 

From Dubai we flew to France via Istanbul.  The travel day was long but uneventful.

A fascinating tidbit on our flight from Istanbul was the number of men who very obviously had just had hair transplants who were travelling back to France, bruised and scabbed.  At first we only noticed a couple of men on the plane, but at baggage claim we counted six men from our flight who had obviously just had hair transplants.  They were all middle eastern descent and they all looked like their scalp had been brutalized.  It was bizzaro.  Turns out, after some google sleuthing, that Istanbul is a hub for hair transplant surgeries, with over 350 performed daily. Wow.  Weird. A perfect ending to our somewhat surreal few days in Dubai.  Once in France we settled in for a totally different experience.