2009 - July 20 (Dubai)

Today I went to Deira section of the city in search of what was described by friends as the best Chinese food in the region. It was in a building simply known at the Twin Towers. The restaurants there are award winning and rated well on the web in addition to getting good personal references. What I had not taken into account was my lack of knowing the area. I got to Deira and exited the freeways, only to be confronted with the narrowest streets I have ever driven. I have walked along streets this small but never drove them. And the traffic was insane. Gridlock was the order of the day. All around there were Arab men in dishdash wearing baseball caps instead of headdress and coil. There were huge masses of Indian/Pakistani natives in their native apparel, People filled the streets between the immobile automobiles. All the signage for stores and directions were in Arabic. I was using my phone GPS and dead-reckoning to maneuver around. I never found the Twin Towers but I did enjoy the sights around me as I continued to creep along slowly until I found the beach. From there I was able to navigate myself back to main roads and head to the Burj Dubai Mall. This is the mall associated with what is currently the tallest building in the world. The needle tower is impossibly narrow for the height. But this region does not get hurricanes (cyclones) so they can build structures here that we would not consider here on the Gulf Coast. I wandered the mall and stopped to have lunch at a small Thai restaurant. I was actually greeted in Thai, which surprised me since I had not heard it since my Air Force days. I ordered something simple that I had not enjoyed in many years. A simple Thai Fried Rice. This was really great. There was not too much soy sauce. There was a good amount of egg, some green onion, lots of chili peppers, and a bit of meat. There were some shredded carrots in it for color but basically it was simple and clean in flavor. It really brought back memories of being a single GI hanging out at the homes of buddies who had married Thai women. As a starving young guy these meal gatherings were pretty good. Chip, I think you may remember some days like that. I wish I could find that in Houston, but it seems to be completely lost. I need to search around more I guess.


I have to title the rest of my wanderings around the mall as “Murder with Mal(l)ice Aforethought”. This is based completely on what appears to be a world-wide acceptance that any small child is allowed to scream and have temper-tantrums for an endless period of time without any apparent awareness by the parents of how annoying that little monster is to everyone else in the mall. I heard one child, about four years old, who could clearly walk on her own and speak clearly in complete sentences, riding in a baby stroller, who was screaming so hard her entire body was red. She was angry that she was not being allowed to get things she saw in the windows of the stores. Her mother was oblivious to her rantings. She would be quiet when mom stopped with auntie or friend at a store window. Then as they moved on the child would start reaching for things in the window, trying to climb out of the stroller, and screaming. I could hear her from one end of the mall to the other, and this was a big mall. I love children, especially broiled and with an apple in their mouth. I left the mall rather quickly after this went on for over 20 minutes without stop.

I have to mention one great error that is made by the Emir of Dubai, the concept that people should be able to navigation by landmark. I have found that no matter what you need to find, anyone who is giving you directions in Dubai tries to tell you how to get there by telling you to go to some place you have not heard of, turn left, go to another place you have not heard of, turn again, and continue to give you directions in this manner ending with the comment “you can’t miss it.” YES YOU CAN! Asking for highway numbers, distances in kilometers, exit numbers, or any other common map navigation method is worthless. No one knows. And if you use Google or MapQuest, you find that they use names that do not appear on any sign or marker anywhere. And the locals do not use those names anyway. I got lost more times than I could count because of people wanting me to meet them and assuming I know where Jumeira blah-blah-blah is located. I do not know and frankly no longer care. Everything is either a Burj, a Souk, or Jumeira something. Like finding someplace in Atlanta by having someone tell you “it is on Peachtree.” If you know that town you know what I mean.

My last day before departure was spent mostly at the hotel and the mini-mall that is attached. I found a new surprise there, There is a Mexican food restaurant in Dubai that was actually worth eating at. It was much better than Batam provided. The chips were a bit thick but had good corn taste. There were salsas, 2 types, one mild and slightly sweet, and one thicker with more spice and body. The guacamole was tasty and authentic. I had basically some Gringo tacos with ground beef, which turned out to be finely chopped fajita meat but well cooked. I was surprised that Quesadillas used Gouda cheese but did not get to taste them to see whether that works or not. It was good and I will eat there on my next visit.