Adventures in Dubai

I haven't written in a while about the craziness of Dubai so here's one just for fun... We've been on a kick to try new things, things that we can't easily do in the US. So we decided to go to a cricket match. For those of you who don't know, a cricket match can last a whole day, the players even have tea breaks. Because of that we went to a "20's" match which is shorter - means they only get 20 overs - whatever that means. Four couples from our compound bought tickets. The day of the event we found out that alcohol is not served in the new cricket stadium... puts a kink in the plan, but we forge on. At least we'd save money because no cab would be need.

Night of the event one of the baby sitters is over 30 mins late - typical. So we are late heading to the event. We cruise along, getting closer then traffic comes to a complete stop. There is a huge round about near the stadium and the traffic lights are not working - fun, fun. We laugh and carry-on while sitting there. Wave at the buses of workers nearby (who stare and stare). There is a guy behind us who gets out of his car and starts kicking the construction barriers at the side of the road - oh boy, this is gonna be a good night. The boys are restless so they decide they can walk thru the sand and get there faster. The girls turn up the music and sing and dance in the car while waiting. At least we are entertaining ourselves.

Traffic eventually starts moving a litte faster. We catch up to the boys, but they are on the other side of an 8 lane freeway. They decide to make a run for it - which by the way, crossing an 8 late freeway is VERY usual in Dubai. Workes are killed every day by being hit by cars on the freeway. They make it across safely but decide not to get in the car, they can still walk there faster. So the girls head for the car park. Only to find out there is NO parking lot (switching here, back and forth from British to American English). Everyone is parked in the sand, every which way, blocking the person who just parked in front of them. The stadium only opened a few weeks before and, which is typical for Dubai, the stadium is open but not finished! We can't find a suitable parking space and by now we are over 90 minutes late to the event. We decide to abandon ship and head for a bar. Afer all we can still salvage this evening.

We drive all the way back home and walk to an area with restaurants and bars. On the way we have to walk through an area where lawn sprinklers are running. We're hot, it'd be fun to get wet - right? We run through whooping it up only to realize it's sewer water they are using to water the grass!!! (again often used in Dubai, hey it is actually good for the grass and economical). Now we are hot, stinky and in serious need of a drink.

We decide on a nice roof top bar. We have a few drinks and chat. One of the couples with us is leaving the next day to move to Singapour. We are all sad they are leaving, but again, that's Dubai, lots of coming and going. We took a picture of us drinking and sent it to the guys. Haha... we have beer and you don't! They eventually join us. Cricket was interesting, but slow so they left a little early.

On the way home we pick up a few chicken swarmas and then order Burger King when we get home - yes they deliver - how funny is that? Burger King delivering.... just can't imagine that in the states. We crack open a bottle of champagne to comiserate our friends leaving and eat our food. We pop in the movie Saw 5 - totally gross movie. Finally at 2am we decide it's bedtime.

What a fun night and we got in a couple of must do's - Cricket match, running across the freeway, and getting sprayed with sewer water. Ah, adventures in Dubai.