Dubai: Desert, City

Written by Charles December 7, 2013

After landing in Dubai, we drove through Dubai and to the desert resort that we were staying at for 2 nights.  When I think of Dubai, I think lots of high-rises spanning out for miles. I was in for a shock.  There are only high rises in the city center or Central Business District.  The rest of Dubai is Bedouin style houses that are 2 to 3 stories tall.  We drove through the main residential area of Dubai, and the pollution kept us from seeing the world’s tallest tower.  After 45 minutes we left Dubai and entered the desert.  It was as you might expect: lots of sand dunes sprinkled with some bushes and the rare tree. We got to the resort, and all the buildings were the same color of the sand.  There were also lots of sand dunes.  I was wondering if we could go camel riding, and that was one of the activities that you could do!  That afternoon we swam in the pool.   I noticed that I saw only saw birds and no other wildlife there.  When it was dinnertime, we got on the bikes they gave us, which were rickety ones, and they were impossible to steer.  Also add to the fact that William’s brakes didn’t work, so at breakfast the next day William and I had to trade bikes.  So I had the bike with no steering and no brakes.  I didn’t mind though.  After breakfast we signed up for archery and camel riding in the afternoon.  We also signed up for falconry the next morning.  What William and I did not sign up for is school in the morning. 

After school it was archery.  My mom, dad, and I got the same type of bows.  William got a smaller bow.  I did pretty well and got 4-5 near the center, and the rest of my arrows were strung about the board.  My mom was about the same as me.  My dad was the best, with half his arrows on or next to the bullseye on the farthest target.  William, on the other hand, got most of his arrows on the sand and some on the target.  I think it was the different bow because in New Zealand he was as good as me.  After archery we went camel riding.  Ms. Jenn joined up with us while we were going to the camels.  

When we got on the two person camels, I found out that the saddle was very squishy.  There were four camels, and we took up three of them.  Two people from Scotland were using the last one.  When the camel stood up, it was a ride on its own.  It went up back legs first, then onto its front knees, and then after that it stood fully up.  My dad and I were up on the first camel.  We were up about 10 feet off the ground, and it was terrifying.  For William, who is afraid of large animals, luck would have it that his camel stood up with Mom and not him on it.  He was about to get on when it stood up.  The two guides just lifted him up onto it, while he was petrified. 

We rode around in the desert for 45 min, and within the first minute I found out why the saddle is so cushioned.  It was very bumpy, even though we were only walking.  The camel behind us was tied to ours by a very short rope.  The camel behind had to rest his head on our camel, who I called Freddy, and the breath from the back camel, who I called Jimmy, steam pressed my dad’s pants.  It was very fun though, and we even saw antelope!  When we reached the end of the ride, we had some water on top of a sand dune.  William and I got bored of drinking water, so we jumped around on the sand dune.  We even slid down it on our stomachs!  We got very sandy that way, and we brought back the sand dune to our room.

In the morning that we did falconry, we had to wake up at 6:30 to go to the 7:30 show.   First we saw the owls during the falconry show.  I was confused at that, but I thought that the owls were cool.  They had really big yellow eyes.  We all got to hold one.  They were silent as they flew, and they were surprisingly heavy.  When the owl landed on my hand (I had a glove on), its wing hit my head, and it actually hurt.  After the owls, we went up to the falconry area.  It is some couches with a grassy area in front of them.  We first flew around a hawk.  One of us would stand in the grassy area with our hand in a glove.  Our arm would be out, and the hawk would fly somewhere nearby, then the trainer would put a piece of raw meat on our hand.  The hawk would turn around and fly to our hand, eat the meat, and then fly off again.  I liked the hawk and wanted to keep him, but I knew I couldn’t. 

After the hawk, it was time for the falcon.  The trainer said to stand far back, and so we did.  She grabbed a rope and the falcon and made the falcon fly off.  I saw that there was a big chunk of meat tied to the end of the rope.  She swung the rope in giant loops, and the falcon would dive after the meat.  When she saw that the falcon was getting tired, she let the falcon have the meat because she would pull the meat away at the last second.  It was awesome, and then we got to hold the falcon after she put the hood on the falcon.  After falconry, we had breakfast.  After breakfast we did more archery.  I did a little better than the day before, but not by much.  William did loads better, and my dad was still the same.  My mom stayed behind and packed. 

After archery we went on the hour drive to the next hotel.  About 45 minutes into the drive, we saw the world’s tallest tower.  It was massive compared to all the other high-rise buildings around it.  It was massive, just plain massive.  We arrived at the hotel 15 minutes after sighting the tower.  We got to the hotel, which was the hotel that looks like a wave.  It is right next to the Berj (The fancy hotel that looks like a sail).  Then we saw the really exciting part about the hotel.  There’s a water park right next to it!  After making dinner reservations at the Berj, we went to the water park.  We first went on a slide that had 2 toilet bowls in it.  I liked spinning in the toilet bowls.  Then we went on one that has 3 cones/funnels in it, and I sat in the tube going backwards!  After that, we found an awesome slide where you sit in a tube and there are jets of water that make you fly up the slide.  It goes up and up and up with some corners, then it sends you down a dark tunnel with lots of curves.  Then it spits you out into the lazy river.  We all did that one, then we did the big one. The big one is a slide that goes straight down for 10 feet, then flattens out, then drops at a forty-five degree angle for 100 feet.  We went up all the steps and got to the top, and there was a drop box.  A drop box is an extension of the slide for another five feet.  You stand on a certain spot, and they close a glass cage around you.  Then the scary part comes.  A big voice coming out of a speaker saying 3, 2, 1, then the floor that you were standing on slides away really fast, and you fall down the slide.  Everyone did it, including Ms. Jenn; I thought that it was awesome, and I did it a second time.  After the second time where only William, Dad, and I went, we did the toilet bowl.  After the water park, we went to the Burj to have dinner at a fancy restaurant.  I think the view would have been awesome from up there if it had been daytime. 

In the morning we had breakfast, and my mom’s phone went for a swim.  I accidently knocked it off the table, and it went into a nearby pond.  Luckily a ninja waiter was next to the railing, and he caught it before my clumsiness did any real damage.  It was broken for about 5 minutes before we got all the water out of it.  After breakfast we went to the water park again, and William and I did all the slides that we did the day before.  For lunch we went to the world’s tallest building.  It was awesome.  The elevator ride took 1 min to go up 123 floors.  The view was awesome from up there, and you could see the entire city stretching out in all directions.  The most amazing thing is that the designers of the building made it so if there was competition, they could expand the building and make it taller. That night was a long night; our flight was at 3:00 am, and we had to wake up at midnight to catch our flight.  I slept and did this blog on the 9-hour flight to Capetown.  Dubai, as guessed, was one of my favorite places on the trip so far.

Written by William December 7, 2013

We arrived in Dubai and drove to our hotel in the Arabian Desert. When we arrived at our hotel, we went swimming in our villa’s pool. We were doing cannonballs and belly flops; Charles did one so big it flooded over onto the floors and into our room. That night we just had dinner and hung out. The next day, we did archery, where I was the worst shot ever. I only got 3 arrows on the board out of 27! It was fun anyways, but I was still frustrated that I didn’t do better. That night we did a crazy insano camel ride. Miss Jenn’s camel was sniffing on my mom the whole time, and the camel in front of us was pooping a lot. There were landmines everywhere! At the end, it was an adventure to get down. The camel did a really fast accordion move, so we could get off. Charles and I were rolling and belly flopping down the sand dunes. When Charles was climbing up the hill, he told me it was really fun to jump down, so I did two big jumps down the hill. We penguined down the dunes some more, and then we went back to our villa. 

The next morning we did falconry. We got to hold owls, a hawk, and my favorite bird, the peregrine falcon (which is the fastest animal in the world). Back in the olden days in Dubai, the Bedouins used falcons to catch food in the winter when it was migrating season. I found it quite interesting how they caught falcons; sadly, a pigeon had to be sacrificed. They would hide in a bush, and when they saw a falcon flying overhead, they would throw the pigeon into the air. Then the falcon would kill the pigeon, and the Bedouin would pull the pigeon back in and catch the falcon. Nowadays they do falconry as a sport. After we did some more archery, which I lost every competition on again, and then we drove to our hotel in Dubai.

My first impression of Dubai was whoa to the wow, look how many high-rises! When we got to the hotel, I observed that it was shaped like a wave. We could see the Burj from our hotel room, and it’s shaped like a sail. We could also see Atlantis and the hotel’s huge waterpark. We spent the afternoon at the waterpark; we went on the toilet bowl slide and the cone slide, and there were slides with jets that push you uphill. We also went down a big drop slide; you get locked in a tube, then the speaker counts down 3, 2, 1…then the floor goes away, and you free fall 3 meters and then down to the end of the slide. That night we went to dinner on the 27^th floor of the Burj, and it was really fancy. 

The next day, Charles and I attempted to go to the waterpark again, but they wouldn’t allow kids under 13 to go in by themselves. Finally, my mom came in with us and stayed 5 minutes then left. We played there for like an hour and then we left. We had lunch at the tallest building in the world. When we got there, they said we couldn’t come in with shorts and a t-shirt, so we had to go buy a nice shirt, pants, and shoes. I thought that was really stubborn of them because some of the adults in the room had flip-flops and jeans on. The view was good, and we could see the man-made palm tree island and the world islands. I ate 14 carat gold leaves in dessert. After dinner that night, we took a nap from 10pm until 1am because we had a flight at 4am, and my dad likes to get to the airport 3 hours early.  My parents said Dubai is in its golden age right now. I liked it, like most of the other countries we’ve been to, but I wouldn’t guarantee that I’d go back. 

India: seeing the Taj Mahal at sunrise and sunset

Written by Charles December 3, 2013

We landed at the Delhi airport, and the first thing I noticed was the temperature.  It was back to normal!  Or at least Puerto Rico normal, which is 75.   The second thing that I noticed was the smell.  After an 8-hour plane ride, you’d think that your nose would want to retire.  The smell outside though made the Chinese “non smoking flight” smell tame.  The smell was something like cigarettes/burning trash.  After driving 30 minutes, weaving between suicidal bikers, motorcyclists, car drivers, army trucks, and tuk tuks, we eventually made it to the hotel.  Tuk tuks are three wheelers; there are two seats in the back and one in the front for the driver.  They are Delhi’s taxis, and there are a hundred fifty thousand of them; the locals fit 6-7 people in them and use them as the main mode of transportation.  We ate Indian food, which is overly spicy, and I think I needed a fire hose to cool off my mouth.

The next day we flew in a tiny plane to Agra.  We went there because we were going to see the Taj Mahal.  We first saw it from the car, and it was white.  I mean tooth white.  When we arrived at our hotel that we are staying at for the night, we saw that you could see it from our balcony!  I thought that was pretty cool.  After that we went to lunch and had chicken curry.  It was spicy like everything there, but I liked it.  Then we went to see the Taj Mahal; we rode in a golf cart to the main gate.  There were cows in the street, horses pulling carriages, pigs wandering around, even camels pulling carriages!  The smell was awful because there was poop in the road, and the road was crowded too.  They had prayer music blaring in Arabic, I think, and everyone was honking the horns on cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks and even on their horses.  We finally got there and went through the gate, and then we hit the crowds.  There were wave after waves of people, and we went with the flow.  The funny thing though is that all the people were Indian.  Only about ten percent were Westerners. 

The guide told us that if we stand in a certain spot, you could draw a perfectly straight line from there, down the main walkway, all the way inside, and directly into the empress’s tomb.  I thought that was cool and creepy at the same time.  We first walked towards the massive building.  There were lots of people who wanted to take pictures with us.  Although some didn’t ask and just stuck their cameras in our faces.  We walked down the less crowded sidewalks and took lots of pictures.  Then we went into a mosque.  A mosque is a church for Muslims, and some were praying in there.  We had to take off our shoes and went in our socks.  Then we went inside to see the tomb of the Emperor and Empress, or at least that was the idea.  There were lots of people in there, and there was no ventilation, so it was hot and stuffy.  My dad got us out of there, but the guide wanted to show us one cool thing.  It was the semi-precious jewels that were carved and glued into the walls.  They made the coolest designs.  There was one stone that he held a light up to, and the stone glowed.  After that my dad made us scramble and get out of there.  By that time it was dinnertime, and we went back to the hotel.  Though it was not before we did some shopping.  Mom and William broke the bank again and bought silk embroidery.  I, the golden child, didn’t cut the funding for the trip; I was good and didn’t buy anything. 

At 6:00am the next day, we woke up and went to see the Taj Mahal.  It was the same golf cart ride there, only it was less crowded.  We waited in line for ten minutes, and then we could go in.  We went directly inside, but I saw while the sun was rising, it turned pink.  The gleaming white from the afternoon before had turned into a pinkish white building.  We went inside without a problem, and there were three other people inside.  One was the security guard, so that made two tourists.  We looked at the intercut carvings that were all done by hand, and everyone was amazed.  We couldn’t take pictures, so we can’t show you. L  I was amazed at the symmetry; the only place where it is broken in the entire building is where the emperor’s tomb lay next to the empress’s.  I was also amazed at that.  After seeing the Taj a second time, we got breakfast and headed to a fort.  The same guy who built the Taj built the fort of Agra.  If anyone has ever been to Puerto Rico and went to the fort in San Juan, the fort was sort of like that one, only in sandstone and with screaming monkeys.  All the gateways that we walked through, there were screaming monkeys, and the guide said that they are aggressive.  There were also lots of carvings there.  Then we went to a place where we saw how they make the carvings, like the ones in the Taj.  I thought it was cool, and my mom got a vase with the carvings in it.

After the workshop, we took the small plane back to Delhi.  We saw lots of Indian Air Force planes on the runway, and it turned out that the military uses that for a non-official base.  I saw one of the planes that has the big radar disk on top, and I wondered where it was going.  When we landed in Delhi, we went through the suicidal traffic back to the first hotel.  In the afternoon William, Ms. Jenn, and my dad went to the old town in rickshaws, but I stayed back with my mom and took a nap.  It was worth it though because they said it was very crowded.   At dinner we had an Indian tasting menu, and I tried everything.  It was all really good. That was our last day before going to Dubai, and I am really excited for it, even though I want to come back to India.

Written by William December 4, 2013

We went to Delhi and spent one night there. The next morning we flew on a private plane to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. At lunch I discovered that chicken curry can be yummy. Our hotel rooms had a view of the Taj Mahal. After lunch, we went to see it. When we arrived I noticed that it was made out of marble, and our guide, Raj, told us it was also made out of the semi-precious stones. You would think it is a palace, but it is really a mausoleum (gravesite) built by Shah Jahan for his third wife, who he loved the most. He wanted to build a simpler black version for himself across the river, but his son overthrew him and exiled him, making him build his own prison at the Agra fort. That prevented him from building one for himself. I thought it was pretty cool sightseeing, but there were a lot of people there. When we went inside, Raj showed us how one of the types of jewels lights up when a flashlight shines on it.

The next day, we woke up at sunrise to see the Taj again when it was less crowded and also because it looks like different colors during different times of the day. That time I had a better experience because there weren’t as many people. We got to see a lot more and took better pictures. I would recommend going to see it, and I also would want to go back. Next we went to see the Agra fort. When we came in, we saw monkeys, and they were screaming. Raj told us to keep walking forward, and Miss Jenn was trying to take pictures of them. She thought they were cute, but they really were evil. We learned that the moat was once filled with alligators and poisonous snakes so enemies couldn’t swim across, but now its filled with garbage and water. After that, we flew back to Delhi in the private plane.

That afternoon, Miss Jenn, my dad, Raj, and I went to Old Delhi, which made Times Square in New York City look empty. We took rickshaws to a mosque and then through the Muslim and Hindu marketplaces. It was pretty miserable for me because it was really crowded, loud, and I was tired from going non-stop that day. Charles and my mom didn’t want to have the crazy experience, so they took naps instead. We were on a really narrow street, and it was really crowded. Two wheels bumped together on the rickshaws, so people picked one up to help move it along. Above us, we could see monkeys climbing on the power lines. I wish I had stayed at the hotel for a nap!

I liked every part of India that we saw except for Old Delhi. A lot of the locals liked taking photos of me and Miss Jenn because they are not used to seeing people who look like us. Raj was one of my favorite guides on the trip so far; it was like having a local family member show us around. One of the funny things that Raj did was shove an old man out of the way of Miss Jenn, and then he said “he had no business being there.” At the airport, we saw some little local kids wanting to polish our shoes (even our flip flops), and Raj told us that they usually throw dirt on your shoes and then ask to polish them. I felt bad for those kids because their parents basically kick them out of the house during the day and make them go make some money. Overall I liked India, and I would recommend Raj as a tour guide (we have his card if you are interested!).