Dubai, UAE

Our last few days getting to and staying in Dubai have been quite the adventure! When we checked out of our Madrid hotel we headed to airport and were mentally prepared for a crazy travel day: Two four hour flights to Dubai with an hour and twenty minute layover in Istanbul. Up to this point, all airlines have allowed us to bring our large backpacks on the plane with us as carry-ons. This particular airline (Pegasus) had a 8kg limit so we had to check our bags for the first time in 10 weeks of traveling. One major reason we decided to bring only backpacks was to bypass the large fees charged for checked baggage and to limit the risk of losing our bags at airports. Thankfully, no fee was charged for checking bags this time, but we couldn’t help worry about our bags not reaching our final destination (for starters, we only had only 5 diapers in our carry on diaper bag and were wearing our heaviest clothes going into 100 degree crazy Dubai heat). It was great to not have to lug around those heavy bags through the airport though and it allowed us to stop and get a nice dinner in comfort before getting on the plane.

The flight out of Madrid ended up being delayed for an hour and ten minutes (Reason provided: Air Traffic), which dwindled our planned layover time in Istanbul to about zilch. We pretty much came to terms that there was no way we’d make our connecting flight before we even took off from Madrid. The flight attendant told us that the company would put us up in a hotel and we could make arrangements to get on the next available flight from Istanbul to Dubai. It was comforting to know we’d at least get a hotel!

When we finally arrived in Istanbul they opened the door to let us off the plane and we had exactly ten minutes before our next flight left. We got on a bus that would take us to the connecting gates and decided to give it our best shot to make it to our next gate not knowing which gate number or how far away it would be. The bus ride took about 2 minutes and took us directly to a security check point with about 20 people in line before us. We politely (holding cute baby Tyson in front of us) asked the first person in line if we could hop in front of them because we were going to miss our flight. We took their confused shrug of the shoulders as an ‘Of course!’ and ducked under the rope, then threw our stuff on the conveyer belt saying ‘Sorry’ and ‘Thanks’ to everyone we made eye contact with in the process. Even with making the metal detector beep 3 times and dropping Tyson’s crackers all over the floor, we made it through security in 3 mins!

As we’re running up escalators and down random hallways looking for a monitor with departure information Tyson was laughing the entire time thinking we’re the craziest people in the world. That lifted our spirits up for sure. We ran up to the gate dripping in sweat with two whole minutes to spare feeling an overwhelming feeling of pride only to be greeted by them laughing at us. They said not to worry, the plane hadn’t even boarded yet (more air traffic issues). Phew!

Once we got on the second flight Tyson ate a big dinner of rice and delicious meatballs then fell asleep for the rest of the flight. Marshall was playing games on his iPad in the aisle seat and a little boy walked up to him to see what he was doing. He started pressing buttons on the iPad and laughing hysterically. This was about 1am and he started waking up everyone in the surrounding rows, so Marshall had to somehow stop a bored cooped up kid from playing a fun game without speaking his language. Thankfully Tyson is a deep sleeper and didn’t wake up from all the excitement.

We landed in Dubai at 4am and went straight to baggage claim with our fingers crossed that our luggage made it too, luckily it did! We grabbed a taxi and took a 15 minute ride to our hotel on a huge street with massive and very unique skyscrapers as far as the eye could see. We told the receptionist that the 27th is our 6 year wedding anniversary and asked if they had any upgrades he could give us. He congratulated us and had a big smile on his face when he said ‘Of course!’ (for real this time) and handed us our key. He then informed us that it was Ramadan (a month long religious holiday kind of like Lent…except completely different). The biggest impact to us (tourists) was that we were not allowed to eat or drink ANYTHING in public from dawn (~4AM) until dusk (~7PM). Also, women are not supposed to wear shorts or show their shoulders or any cleavage in public. You also aren’t allowed to kiss in public either. We found out later after Googling “Ramadan in Dubai” was that we could actually be fined or worse (not likely) thrown in jail for any of those offenses!!

When we finally got to our room we were exhausted from the day. The baggage guy opened all our windows and showed us that we were upgraded at no extra cost to a corner premium room with sweeping views of the city and ocean. The best part was that we had an amazing view of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, shimmering in the night right outside our bedroom window. A very welcome site after the hectic 12 hours we just experienced. Once we soaked in the stunning view and mentally digested the fact that we were in Dubai, we all went straight to sleep.

Since we went to bed so late we all slept in until 10am the next morning. We wanted to take it pretty easy that day since we were exhausted from all the travel. We figured we’d take Tyson and stroll around the Dubai mall, the largest mall in the world with over 1,200 shops. They had an awesome toddler play area and Tyson was having a blast playing with everything in there.

Once he was worn out we continued strolling around the mall and Tyson started to fall asleep. We were happy to see that and didn’t want to wake him up. By that point it was 5pm so we picked up some food from PF Chang’s to take back to the hotel for dinner. Most of the restaurants are still open during the day during Ramadan, but you can only take the food to go. We also stopped at a coffee shop to get frappuccino’s to have for dessert. All the Starbucks had blackout curtains they put up over all the windows. The only way you’d know it was opened was from a small sheet of paper taped to the door that says ‘Take Away Only’. When we opened the door I went straight to the counter and started ordering while Marshall let Tyson take his time walking inside. The lady said she couldn’t take our order until everyone was inside and the door was fully closed. It was definitely a different experience and showed us they take this very seriously. In fact, the drinks come in paper bags that have warning labels saying that if you eat or drink in public you may be prosecuted. We’re being really careful and not taking any chances. We even secretly go into a bathroom stall to drink water throughout the day just to make sure nobody sees us. We’ve been giving Tyson food/water whenever he needs it as kids aren’t expected to participate in Ramadan from our understanding.

Yesterday we celebrated our 6 year anniversary! We slept in again and decided to go check out the Burj Al Arab Hotel which is one of the tallest hotels in the world and is shaped like a sail boat. Our hotel had a shuttle that stops at a beach about a ten minute walk from that hotel. As we were waiting for the shuttle the hotel front doormen were having a blast passing a balloon back and forth with Tyson. Everyone is so friendly in Dubai and they all love playing with Tyson. Once we hopped in the shuttle we convinced the driver to take us all the way to the hotel instead of dropping us off on the beach. Although a 10 minute walk doesn’t sound that far, when it’s 100+ degrees out you don’t want to walk a single minute outside. It seriously feels like someone slaps you in the face when you walk out of the air conditioning and into the hot air.

After the driver dropped us off at the hotel and drove away the people at the front security entrance of the hotel told us that we can’t go any farther and we could only take pictures at the gate. There was a group of Indian women also taking pictures so we asked if they wanted us to take a picture of all of them. As is custom while traveling, they asked if we wanted a picture of the three of us. One of the ladies casually walked over and stood next to us and they all started taking pictures with their own cameras. Everywhere we go people seem to be obsessed with Tyson. We’re always getting stares, pictures taken, and it seems like Tyson’s hair gets jostled every 5 minutes by people walking by. This particular group kept taking pictures one by one, but Tyson has been a bit shy so he eventually reached out for his Mama to rescue him.

Since there was nothing for us to do at that hotel we took a cab to the Atlantis hotel thinking there would be a lot of stuff for us to do and see there. We strolled through the hotel and saw that they had a water park and an aquarium. We considered going to the aquarium until we realized the crazy cost. I think it was going to be close to $100 for us to go in. The Dubai mall has a huge aquarium that you can see fish for free inside the mall, so we decided to pass. After we realized Atlantis is set up to pull every dime out of tourists and provide nothing for free we ended up just taking a cab back to our hotel and grabbed lunch at KFC right next door. Before we ate, we wanted to make sure we gave Tyson some time to swim up at the rooftop pool on the 42 floor. It was a bit windy up there, but he loved playing with his balloon and watching it dance around on top of the water.

We wanted to go out for a nice dinner for our anniversary, but the restaurant in our hotel didn’t open until 8pm. We decided to walk along the strip near our hotel to see if any other restaurants opened earlier. Besides the heat, you also need to contend with the random blasts of sand that come out of nowhere. You’ll be walking along the sidewalk and all the sudden there will be a small dust devil in front of you that you need to wait out or pass by the side of a building and get a gust of hot wind/sand straight to the face. No wonder you don’t see many people roaming the streets during the day. As we were on our restaurant search we heard a guy singing on a loudspeaker. We started walking toward the sound and a saw a mosque that hundreds of people walking into. What a cool experience!

Turned out that the only options for food near our hotel were Applebee’s or Pizza Hut (umm… no) so we decided to wait until 8pm for our hotel restaurant to open. Generally, we put Tyson down to sleep around 7pm, but figured we could make an exception tonight for our anniversary. We had a delicious Italian dinner and sat next to the window that overlooked the main strip. Tyson didn’t want to stay sitting in his highchair so our waitress said she would watch him while we ate. They were both laughing the whole time as she was chasing him around the restaurant, taking him into the kitchen to watch the chef cook, and showing him off to her coworkers. It was a welcome reprieve for our anniversary and gave us some ‘alone time’, even if for just a bit.

Today is our last day in Dubai and then fly out this evening. We stayed in our hotel room all the way until check out time and then went back to the Dubai mall so Tyson could play for a few hours. It’s such a great place to people watch because there are people from all over the world shopping there. After a while we were starving and wanted to eat lunch. We didn’t know how we could eat since we had already checked out of our hotel and you aren’t allowed to eat in public. Thank goodness we found a food court at the mall that they allowed non-fasting people to eat at worry free. It was boarded up all the way around so the people eating inside weren’t visible from the outside. Tonight we will be flying 8 hours to our next destination (the last of our long flights for a while). We are so excited for the next leg!

Next stop: Bangkok, Thailand