And what better way to show their love for America, and all it stands for, than to import that greatest of American contributions to capitalist consumerism... the Mall. Yes, that is a Starbucks in Arabic at the Mall of the Emirates, currently the second largest mall in Dubai, and one of the ten largest malls in the World.
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But there are Malls everywhere in Dubai. The Dubai Marina itself had a nice Mall that had stores I had only seen at the Venetian in Las Vegas, but that was considered downright "pedestrian" around those parts. And boy are they popular. Probably has something to do with the oppressive heat everywhere and the nice air-conditioning inside, but I am willing to bet a huge percentage of an Emirati family's spare time is spent in Malls. Can you blame them?
And speaking of air conditioning, yes, that is William in front of Ski Dubai, the indoor ski resort in a country where the outside temperature is always a balmy 100 degrees.
The tubing runs and sledding hill of Ski Dubai. It's main slope is 400 meters long and clearly visible from the outside, and has the world's first indoor black trail. The day lift pass costs about $100 and includes all equipment and clothing, so we actually considered doing it.
Just to get in the park itself and do some apres skiing in the little Switzerland of Dubai is around $15 (jacket included, of course).
Some views of the chairlift going up the slope...
... and a more elevated view of the slopes themselves.
Okay, enough about skiing. The Mall of the Emirates has about 6,500,000 square feet of floor space, which is as much as the Pentagon. Last year it got 31 million visitors. Yowza! We took a cab from out hotel, took the main highway, and arrived in about 20 minutes for 60 dirhams ($20). Seems most of our fares around here were $20. The cab actually let us off in a funny spot (it's where they are supposed to let us off), but then we sort of had to enter the parking garage and go up a level before we entered the main foyer, which has the magnificent glass dome shown above...
... and the gorgeous fountain shown below. On the left we have a P.F. Chang's Chinese Bistro, and on the right we have a Tribes, which is sort of the P.F. Chang's of African cuisine. Seeing as how we were in the Middle East, however, we opted to dine at the Middle Eastern restaurant to the left of P.F. Chang's.
This is a shot from inside that restaurant. As you can see, it was indeed the most empty of all of the restaurants.
Also as a product of being in the Middle East turning into the Midwest, we had these nice Arabian arches perched over the people conveyor that would make LAX proud.
I think it is fair to say that this is first appearance of Cornholio at the Mall of the Emirates.
The Mall was modern in every way...
... in a bit of irony, way nicer than any of the ones I had been to back home.
So, of course, we had to indulge ourselves a little as well.
In another bit of irony, we spent most of our time in the one or two genuinely Arabian stores in the Mall, like the one above that sold cool globe lighting. Resha purchased a key holder in the shape of a lamp, while I purchased a gold and blue shawl for Eunice. Both, of course, were made in India.
But by far the vast majority of stores there were Western in nature, and completely indistinguishable from the one back home. Well, okay. You probably can't find the life-like giraffe above, even at Toys 'R Us.
I didn't realize Krispy Kreme was known for their coffee, but it makes sense in view of my explanation about coffee below.
Their phones were definitely as up-to-date as any we had in the States. Not quite East Asia level, but getting there.
Home furnishing at its best.
You will also notice the different styles of dress present. At first, we had assumed that the Western-dressed people were foreigners or non-Emirati, while the Emirati wore the traditional white robes for men and block robes for women, as I noted in my previous post. But after talking with some cabbies, we were mistaken. Apparently Westernism has indeed taken hold in the U.A.E. and many Emirati families have completely flipped over to the Western style of dress. So, while they still wear their robes much like we wear suits, definitely the men, and also many women, have taken to wearing Western clothes (even shorts!) not infrequently. While our sample at the Mall admittedly includes the more "liberal" Emirati families, we noted that children and youth in particular, regardless of what their parents wore, almost uniformly wore Western clothes.
They must really hate our freedoms.
Manhattan yogurt? Meet Dubai. More freedom hating.
A last outpost prior to their bankruptcy? I guess they get the last laugh?
Pretty much looked like your generic movie theater in Anytown, USA. Did I mention how nice it was that everything was in English? Their outward manifestation of their dislike of everything American is overwhelming.
I showed you a Starbucks at the beginning of this post. Above is a Seattle's Best. So you are asking "yes, these are coffee houses? What is the big deal?" Well, actually this is actually sort of a much bigger deal than you realize. It all goes back to the fact that in the Middle East, muslims are forbidden from drinking alcohol. So instead, they all drink coffee and tea, usually in your friendly neighborhood teahouse - the social equivalent of their bars (again, the no alcohol thing). However, with the import of places like Starbucks, particularly popular among the younger set, the traditional and almost spiritual teahouse tradition is massively and rapidly loosing ground to this so-called modernity. Indeed, all over Dubai you can find roving "gangs" of Emirati youth (all males, all dressed in all-white robes, and all extraordinarily good natured and well-behaved) hopping from Starbucks to Seattle's Best to Starbucks in efforts to mimic the behavior of American suburban youth that they see in the movies. Yet another way that they are trying to emulate America at the expense of Arabia.
This is sort of previewing the next post, but yes, even fast food has invaded Dubai...
... although they did have their slightly different offerings, much like the Royale With Cheese in Amsterdam.
This is actually from the last day, but of course, we couldn't leave Arabia without partaking in the local of fare the world's second largest toy distributor (any guesses for #1)?
The McArabia falafel.
Beefburger... since the hamburger gives the wrong connotation. Much like Seymour's steamed hams.
And of course, Halal chicken.
Okay, that's enough consumerism for one week. Next week, some "real" Arabia... or at least the Disney-fied version of it...
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