UAE 27 November - 09 December

Why is it everytime we talk about "reining in the expenses" we go do something like this???

Sometimes my naïveté, or possibly it’s my ‘childish innocence’ (haha) lets wife get the best of me. I knew there was a reason she wanted to use Dubai as the stop between Turkey and Sri Lanka. “It will cut the flight time down and give us a sensible stop between time zones. Plus, we haven’t been there before…” she said. "Ohkhay" I said, channeling Forrest Gump. “Sensible” should have sounded the alarm bells for me.

As it turns out, Dubai is only an hour from Doha, Qatar and Doha just CONVENIENTLY was holding its 2025 F1 Race that weekend. If you didn’t know, wife is about as into F1 as I am into soccer. After watching Drive to Survive during Covid she went all in on racing and now she spews stats, tactics, DRS zone info and tire wear strategies better than I can explain the offside rule in football. Actually, nobody except Jorge can really explain offsides, so, bad comparison. When we're driving and we need a bathroom break or gas, she yells out "Box, Box!" If we see a broken down vehicle on the road, she calls for a Safety Car. If (when) I ride partially off the road, into the rumble strips, she tells me I'm Exceeding Track Limits. So yeah, she really likes F1. Oddly this was supposed to be the ‘Rein in the spending’ portion of the trip but guess that will get pushed into next country/next year…because it gets even better (meaning more expensive) down below. But if you just want to see some pretty pictures, here they are:

USA vs. France - Dubai 7's; Top of Ciel - the world's tallest hotel; Doha post-F1 Hook-em-horns sign at Metallica???

Doha, Qatar - F1 Lusail and Metallica!!!

Dubai

Abu Dhabi, F1 Yas Marina Circuit and the amazing Louvre Abu Dhabi

CARS instead of CATS this trip...

We got into Dubai late on Thanksgiving and had French fries and chicken fingers at the airport hotel before moving to our cool hotel the next day near the ultra glamorous marina district, just south of the Palm Jumeira. When we checked in late that first night we noticed a lot of athletic looking people running around in various team gear. It turned out that we were in town the same weekend as the Dubai7’s, a yearly Rugby league tournament that was both an invitational for national teams and also a separate tournament for rugby and netball club level teams from around the world. We seem to get lucky a lot in our travels this way. We looked up the tournament and found out the US Women’s team was playing on the weekend so we quickly bought tickets and rented a car to get to the complex. Everything in Dubai is an hour drive - it looks small on the map but it’s amazing how far it really is to get around. Fortunately, the roads and drivers are all wonderful, so it’s easier and cheaper to simply rent than take a taxi.

I’ve never been to a rugby match but we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere - it was like a big family event…for rich, fit people! And as a bonus we got to see two of the three Saturday games with the US team. The 7's is an interesting setup - it's 7 players a side and they play for two 7 minute halves, so the games are really fast and action packed. Apparently this is a feeder event for World Cup rugby, so the national teams were all pretty serious and very competitive. The US women lost early on to powerhouse Fiji but came back and upset the favorite and eventual winner, New Zealand, before beating another favorite, France. We didn’t get to see the Sunday matches but they also slaughtered England and topped Canada to finish 5th. It was a wonderful showing and we were so impressed with the women…such a strong and talented group of young women!

We stayed there for a couple of days and then flew to Doha, Qatar, for Race Day, and then back immediately to Dubai the next day. If you ask us what we saw in Doha, it’s either the race or the post race concert or the airport and not much else, aside from their awesome metro train. We also saw a bunch of race fans in either really annoying Verstappen Orange or some in really cool Norris/Piastri Orange. Pretty much the same colors but the Verstappen fans are mostly tall and wear suspenders. I haven’t really declared a diehard allegiance to a driver/team but I tend to root for Mercedes and Lewis, who recently left Merc and went to Ferrari. I also like Saenz and Alonso, but mostly because they’re just cool and Spanish. I also root for Norris and Piastri (McLaren) because wife does. Really, it doesn’t matter much because they move so fast I can’t tell which driver is which most of the time.

We checked immediately into the hotel and then left, just as immediately, taking the glitzy free train and shuttle to the track. Doha didn’t seem as flashy as Dubai but we didn’t get to see much. Hell, Vegas isn’t as flashy as Dubai either. But the Doha airport easily qualifies as one of, if not the world’s greatest airport and a beautiful architectural building. You can even buy a McLaren 720S in the Duty-Free area. Not sure what the price tag was on it but I’d guess around $700,000+…but it’s duty free so you’re getting a bargain!

The race was amazing, except the wrong guy won - I’m not a Red Bull fan and basically an anti-Maxxer. I’m tired of him winning everything and he’s won at all of the races we’ve been to. Better, for me, after the race we got to see Metallica at the evening concert. Every race day has a feature artist so you get to see a concert as well as a race. I am a longtime fan and have seen them play a few times, but I’ll admit that I was feeling old that day after the travel and excitement and had to rally to stay for the entire show. And, unlike the race drivers, I can still name all of the members of the band! It is kind of corny to say I have seen Enter Sandman in the desert, now.

Over the last almost-year of non-stop travel, so many of my memories are from hotels. A different bed every two to three (sometimes one or six) nights. Trying to figure out the light switches and shower controls and breakfast options and wifi codes and pretty much everything else that comes with changing your home address completely each day. I’m not complaining at all - I love the transience but occasionally it is really nice to have a home base for a week or more. Especially one with, dog forbid, a laundry room! Sink and shower laundry gets old after a while and a real washing machine (and dryer) is a complete luxury!

Wife had the foresight to research the most widespread chains for loyalty programs and we settled on #1 IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental, Staybridge, etc) and #2 Hilton because they each offered the most options worldwide and over multiple budgets. Also, with our American Express and Chase cards we are able to gain additional benefits with each chain that make the stays even better, such as room upgrades and late (4 PM!) checkouts and free breakfast and lounge access. There are a few things that really excite us. Obviously the views are near the top of the list but the cost and then the creature comforts count for the most. With IHG we have been amassing points all year and finally put some to use in Dubai. The hotel scene is really expensive there, as you can imagine with a city that boasts the only 7-star hotel in the world and human-made islands that you can see from space. Some of the mid-range hotels can easily cost $400-$500 USD a night and prime properties dwarf that. When there are multiple Ferrari’s and Rolls Royce’s in the parking lot you know the room rates are stupid. Normally I’m a curmudgeon with hotels and don’t like to pay a lot at all - I’m more of a Motel 6 guy than my age and stately gray hair should allow.

But Dubai might have changed this…we (not we, she!) used points to help bring down the prices for a few properties and it was a game changer. We were able to stay in the Marina district at the Intercontinental for a few days for next to nothing and then later in the trip moved to the Ciel, the brand new world’s tallest hotel. I really preferred the IC but the views from the Ciel were amazing and staying at a World’s Tallest anything is pretty memorable. They have a rooftop pool that looks out over the Palm Jumeira and the monstrous Ferris Wheel that turns into a bad-ass light show every night.

The Palm Jumeira was the first, and now smaller, of the human-made island groups (built to mimic a giant Palm Tree) to add luxury housing for the poor and housing-bereft billionaires.

Look at the Palm from Google Earth and you’ll be amazed. I took a tour at the Viewing Tower on the island (some of the shots posted are from the 52nd floor viewing platform) which is the best place to understand the engineering that went into the creation of these monsters. Look them up or catch a show documenting the work that went into the build - truly amazing feat of engineering...creating a habitable island, in the sea, in the shape of a tree - pretty cool. The Jumeira is so large that almost 80,000 people live on it! There is another group of islands nearby in the shape of the world! I suspect the next step will be building an underwater district...if they can find some money somewhere, to finance it.

So, what’s Dubai like? What do you expect a 25 year old city built with bottomless coffers to look like? Part of it looks like the Jetson’s neighborhood, with amazingly new and modern sleek buildings EVERYWHERE. It’s as if they took every talented architect and relocated them to the Emirates. The world’s tallest, the world’s biggest, the most modern, malls with aquariums big enough to scuba dive in, malls with indoor ski slopes, manufactured islands, a ferris wheel that turns into a light show at night, nightly drone light shows (mesmerizing), every imaginable luxury car you can think of. Vegas times 10. And then there is the old city, that looks similar to old cities in Morocco, with labyrinthine alleys and non-stop gold vendors and cats on scooters. It’s a country that only has about 10% of it’s own population - the other 90% are foreigners, mostly brought in as local workers or expats brought in with foreign corporations, who all have a presence in the kingdom. We never actually met an Emiratee but lots of Pakistani’s, Indians, Chinese, Russians, Africans, etc…Also any and almost every American fast food chain you can think of. There was even a Shake Shack booth at one of the races. But the coolest thing for me was finding a Garrett's Popcorn in the Mall of Dubai. Real Chicago Mix popcorn (3 kernels cheddar to 1 kernel caramel, in case you need to know) is one of the few things I still crave. I felt like a dork taking pics at the popcorn stand in a mall right across from the monstrous aquarium, but I was a happy guy. And we also found amazing Mexican Food (the first in 11 months - since Mexico) at the Timeout Market installment next to the mall. I love Timeout Markets anywhere - they always piece together some really fun establishments and we always find good food there.

So, we were supposed to go to Sri Lanka after a week in the Emirates, but there was a huge typhoon the same week, so we pivoted and decided to stay in Dubai. Just so happens that the final race of the season, with the title chase going all the way to the end, happened to be in Abu Dhabi - an hour drive away. Sooooooooo…ticket broker??? We were able to find fairly affordable and really good seats for both Saturday and Sunday but couldn’t come close to an affordable hotel in Abu Dhabi, so decided to simply drive back and forth between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which proved to be much easier than expected.

The race in Abu Dhabi is one of the prettiest tracks in the world. The Emirates built it within the past 10 years for a LOT of money and it sits on a marina, with yachts and super yachts on the other side of the track from us, each holding ritzy parties on their decks during the race. Because of the results of the previous race, the top three racers were all in contention to win the season, so it made for a much more fun race that in past seasons. The only downer for me was that my favorite, Lewis, crashed right off the bat on Saturday qualifying so he had to start at the back of the line on Sunday. But otherwise it was a pretty fun race day and a beautiful setting.

Finally, one of the highlights of the trip was to the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Apparently money can buy you everything, as they built an amazing offshoot of the actual Louvre in Paris. The building is stunning and our pics don’t do it justice. The art is done differently than in other museums, by grouping items from similar periods but different regions together. So you might get a Mayan treasure in the same display as a similar period Egyptian relic. There were a few stellar pieces of art but for me, the true beauty was the building, itself. It’s on par with the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

Overall we really loved UAE and would return if we're in the area, but it's not cheap!