Time To Say Dubai

I spend the day on an inner tube on water slides. At Aqua adventure in Dubai at the Atlantis resort, I realized how much fun water parks are. Even if I went on every slide by myself, stood in line by myself, and screamed on water falls on my own, I had a great time.

Atlantis is a 5 star resort. In Dubai. This alone, I couldn't really get over. Other than the hotel itself being a monument on the Palm Jumeirah Island, It's what's on the inside that counts.

The hotel boasts giant-- and i mean giant aquariums. Filled with more fish than I've ever seen in my life. Now, let me just say one thing. Fish move. they are hard to photgraph...but, I put in some goodies.
He's a biggie.
hahaha oh dad. Messin around with a giant cat fish.
At some point in our first evening, I got lost. I wandered outside, onto the beach, and snapped this picture.
This is the sculpture in the main lobby. It's hand blown glass. One of those dealies.
Me swimming in the pool. I'm pretty sure I was the only one swimming in the pool, as most of the European guests were interested only in completely cooking themselves in the sun.

Due to my parent's snoring, I couldn't sleep, and noticed the sun was rising. I got up and ran out to the balcony to take this shot. In the distance, you can see the familiar Burj Al Arab building. You know, it looks like a sail. Its the building that you see and say to yourself, oh...my god, I'm actually IN Dubai.
The next day, we met up with some friends who lived in Dubai, and they offered to free us from the island and drive us into town. They knew I had my cameras, so drove me as close as possible right up to the building! You have to make a booking to even visit this SEVEN star hotel. That's right. 7. The only 7 star hotel in the world. Which makes me wonder if there's even a 6 star somewhere. This hotel is POSSIMPIBLE. its where possible and impossible meet.
Anything novelty in Dubai exists, like the indoor ski slope inside the Mall of the Emirates. The biggest mall in the world. This part of the world is big on being the biggest of a lot of things.
We went to a mall where they have an ice restaurant. Sure beats East Sides.
My dad took this pic of the Burj Al Arab from the beach of our hotel.
mmm feet in sand. Just in case I forget the feeling.
And what trip to Dubai is complete without seeing DUN DUN DUNNNN!

THE TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD! Ladies and Gentlemen, you've seen it on Discovery, it kicked the CN Tower's ass, The Burj Dubai!
Looking at this building almost makes me want to puke its so big. I mean, this is as close a picture as I could get with the whole building in the shot, but seriously, up close, and i counted, it looked like they piled NINE giant skyscrapers on top of eachother. It's MASSIVE.
Here she is, in the sunet.
This was the beautiful blue-ish view from our hotel room when we got back from the city. that's a monorail track in the water. Monoraaaaail
5 Star Resorts have 5 Star food. As you can see the perfect little tiny desserts above. Some of them had gold leaf. I ate gold. om nom nom.

Everything was done for you. As soon as we rolled up to the hotel, all the doors were pulled open for us, our luggage was carried out of the car and taken to our room in 2 seconds. Guards watched over the elevators 24/7 and remembered us every time we walked by, At one point in the restaurant, One server was pulling out my seat for me, another was pouring me water, and ANOTHER was pouring me coffee. I had a moment there.

At the waterpark, there were lifeguards on duty every 10 meters. I could almost always see 3 at any given time. And if ever anyone at the water park, or at the resort ever saw you struggling with ANYTHING. I'm telling you like, I couldn't open the lid on something at the buffet, 5 men would run over and open EVERY lid on every dish so that I could see everything, or unfold my towel for me getting out of the pool.
This is a shot I took of one of the murals on the ceiling.
Jelly fish!!!
Lobstarrr
Mom and dad checkin out the ginormous Aquarium

Its a PA-RAN-AH! They live in tha A-MA-ZoN!
Nemooooo I found you
I hated this guy. he taunted me. He's ugly. Is it me or a do a LOT of fish just look like they should be food. Other than the cute ones like Nemo.
This is a picture so you can get an idea of just how mother effing huge he was. That's my mom in the picture.
Thought this was a cool shot.
Sea horsies hangin out.
Lion fish.
Anyway, in conclusion, This vacation within a vacation was more than I ever expected (as I did not expect at all) I got to see the tallest building in the world. And hold a live starfish - picture not enclosed as I made the unfortunate decision of wearing horizontal stripes that day eeeee. lol.

Oh giant tube of spinny fish. I have one week in the UAE until I fly to India. It's going to be jam packed! And as always I will keep you all updated on my adventures :)

And remember fish are friends not food!

I Want to Ride My Bicycle I Want to Ride My Bike

Hello blawg fans...wherever you are. Today I had a desire to visit the Corniche. Pronounced "Core-neesh" The above picture wasn't taken by me...or WAS it...no...it wasn't...but I wanted you to get an idea of what the Corniche is. Basically, it's what Toronto wishes it had the money and cheap labour to do. The most beautiful harbourfront. Although in this case, its the Persian Gulf with its clear waters. Not the nuclear plant wasted Lake Ontario.

Anyway, it spans the entire coast, and I wanted to rent a bicycle, take some time to stop along the beach etc.
Here is my bike! honestly, I wanted this wicked cool Pink cruiser bike, but it had back pedal brakes...which might not be fun if you have to stop a lot when there's people in the way.
My bike wanted me to stop and take in the view. OKAY bike if you insist.
I realized about half an hour of bike riding gets you pretty far, and the sun appeared to be setting.
My mom took this picture of me...I'm talking to my dad...clearly I'm too important to take a picture?!?
Beau-ti-ful sunset
Signing off from the Corniche in Abu Dhabi, I'm Amanda de Souza. Stay classy San Francisco.

So, tomorrow I am getting a full tour of the University, and will meet all of my dad's colleagues. Then we are heading straight for DUBAI. It's about an hour and half drive I'm told, but only because everyone drives about 130km/hr on the highway. (It's a little craze) I should mention that everyone drives nice cars here.

We are staying at *drumroll* Atlantis the Palm Resort in Dubai. Many of you may know the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. This is the same thing...different beach. Here she is
YOWZA! The hotel is on the tip of the Jumeirah Palm island. You know, you've probably seen it on the Discovery Channel, its one of those man-made islands: and they're also making one called "The World" that looks like the earth from space?

Anyway, we are going for the weekend, so next time I blog I'm sure it'll include many pictures from this amazing looking resort. Also, I should mention a fun little snack of info, In the UAE, Friday and Saturday is the weekend. Sunday is a work day! Bet ya didn't see that coming.

See u soon blog friends :)

p.s. I know, I would hate me too if I knew I was staying at that resort.

A whole new world

So I'm kind of uber pissed. I had one of those camera snafus, you know, where I go somewhere and take once in a lifetime pictures only to have the compact flash card fuck up on you and now I'm pretty sure those pictures are lost forever. LUCKILY I had a backup crappy camera...

It'll have to do.
So lets back track a little..while my laptop shocks me every 5 seconds. Here is my parents Annivers. dinner we had at an Italian restaurant. wooo cake. And here I am holding up a placement. Who doesn't love a good old Arabic Mongolian Chinese Family Restaurant? The answer is EVERYONE. because I'm pretty sure there's only one. This is that hot spring I was talking about before. My feet are on fire here but you can't tell. My feet felt like gold after though. There's minerals in the water--its theraputic. I wish I could bottle some for Jay. Ahhh the Grand Mosque. The second largest mosque in the world second only to, well, MECCA. If this doesn't shout I am Princess Jasmine, I don't know what does. Well...its a mosque...not a palace. But you can see this thing for miles. This is also where I took said 'awesome pictures' and thus lost them. Maybe it was a sign... WHAT?! (for Femma) I know you guys are gonna love this pic (mostly Vanessa). Let me explain. You have to wear the Abaya inside of the mosque as a sign of respect. This isn't a place where women are forced to wear these or anything. Besides...I liked them...they're breezy and cover everything on a bad hair/fat day. GAH my pictures were so much better. clearly this is a "Amanda turn around so I can take your picture" shot by Mom. lame. Each individual flower on the walls is made of marble. crazy! And in other crooked photography, here is a picture of the world's largest swarovski crystal (Vic's mom loves!) chandalier. It's huge. Oh and the carpet below it that you can hardly see, is the world's largest persian rug. oooh. aaaah. I hope God/Allah will help me retrieve the rest of my photos from today. Someday.

And now some completely gratuitous beach shots! Here you can see in the hazy afternoon the skyline of Abu Dhabi in the background.


Here you see me (yay!) looking at what is the world's biggest flag pole. AND flag. I know i know I'm sure you were all laying awake at night wondering, where in the WORLD is the biggest flag EVER? well look no further my friends. Here we see the United Arab Emirates flag in the distance. And, I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, no way, we gots flags like that in the Wal Mart plaza! but you are wrong, by the time I actually got close to the pole in question, it was the thickness of a house at the base. Collaborate and LISTEN! Hahaha everytime I see the stop signs I laugh because my dad says they look like 2 guys in a canoe. He's always like, "Oh! the two guys in the canoe are telling me to stop!" bwahaha hilarity!Here is a pic of all the fixins' they bring you for eating shawarma. mmm.

That was a lacking last picture. Howabout another gratuitous beach shot! thats right, soak it in.
Oh and p.s. by popular demand (...my brother) you can now click on the images to view them bigger and comments are now open to everyone :)