Skiing in Dubai

My first day in Dubai took some unexpected turns, but it went quite well overall. In the morning, I woke up to a nice mug of hot chocolate and some turkey bacon. After my whole family got ready to leave our place of rest in Abu Dhabi, we set off on the highway to Dubai.

The ninety minute drive to Dubai was pretty interesting and brought us away from the vegetated paradise of Abu Dhabi to the impressive concrete jungle of Dubai. Because Dubai is technically an emirate and not a city, the densely populated areas are spread all around the region. Downtown Dubai, the Burj Al Arab, and the Ski Dubai ski slope are all about 15km or 10mi apart. The planned attraction for today was Ski Dubai, the world's largest indoor ski resort.

As we entered the Mall of the Emirates, the location of the resort, we could see the massive towering Burj Khalifa almost 20km away. We also saw the incredibly fancy Burj Al Arab hotel which was slightly closer. Seeing these structures in real life was simply far more impressive than seeing photos and hearing stories about them, even when they were more than 10km away.

In the parking garage of the mall, we missed a turn,so we had to exit and find a way back in.
This was not at all as easy as it sounded. We left the parking garage and found ourselves on a freeway to the downtown area. We were completely lost in some remote industrial area when we took the nearest exit in attempt to turn back. We first stopped a cab to ask for directions to the Emirates Mall, but he simply got us lost further in this remote area. We finally found our way back to the mall after a group of what looked to be like clueless teens surprisingly got us going in the right direction.

The interior of the Mall of the Emirates was impressively larger than any other mall I've been in, but it's supposedly dwarfed by the Dubai Mall downtown. The crowded entrance to the Ski Dubai ski slope was pretty intimidating for me. I've never skied before in my life, but my friend assured me that he would teach me well. After buying the ticket and picking up all of the ski equipment and snow gear, I stepped inside the slope area. What I saw was both awe-inspiring and frightening. The ski slope which looked relatively small from the outside was absolutely massive. People on the top of the mountain-like slope looked like ants.

My friend kept assuring me that I would be fine, but I began to have second thoughts. The ski lift up to the top felt like a true mountain lift. We got off on the first exit to go on the smaller slope, but it was of no help. The moment I started off the slope, I fell on my back and unwillingly began to fall down the hill. I struggled a lot to ski down the rest of the hill and ended up losing a ski. I stood out quite a bit as skiers sped all around me. At the bottom of the slope, one of the employees informed me that I needed a lesson to continue skiing on the slope. I completely agreed, since my friend underestimated my ability to learn from him.

At the ticket booth, I found out that I wouldn't be able to go back on the slope after the lesson, so I was able to get a 150 dirham refund in exchange for a lesson (I originally paid 300 dirhams for the day pass). Because the lesson was scheduled for 4PM, I had about forty minutes to readjust my equipment and get new skis for the lesson.

Despite my previous failures at the main slope, the lesson went extremely well and I had a lot of fun. The rest of the people at this "Discovery Lesson" had never skied before, so I knew I was in the right place. Our group started with the very basics of walking with skis and getting into the stopping position. After a bit of practice, we moved onto the beginner ski slope, which was much smaller than the the recreational slopes. Here, I was able to slide down the hill of artificial snow at a very controlled and comfortable speed. I was even able to stop at the bottom without falling over. After about ten descents on this baby slope, the lesson was over, but I felt significantly more confident about my skiing skills. Now that I've learned the basics of skiing in the desert city of Dubai, I'm going to be able to ski as a hobby in my snowy homeland of New England.

I met outside the Ski Dubai entrance with my friend after the skiing experience to have an excellent Chinese food dinner at the mall's P.F. Chang's. Although I was incredibly full after my shared meal of chicken dumplings, crispy honey chicken, and Mongolian beef, I still managed to fit in an entire Coldstone Creamery milkshake after the meal.

Although we didn't do much in Dubai for the first day, it was time to go the hotel as we were completely exhausted. Unfortunately, the hotel was completely booked for the night, even though we had reserved it the day before. Our reservation for New Year's Eve was still guaranteed since we made it a month ago. We were luckily still with our friends from Abu Dhabi, so we went back to their home to stay for another night.

After getting lost one last time on the way back to Abu Dhabi, we were home before 9PM to relax. Because of the extra time, I was able to upload photos from previous days, so check out the links at the bottom of this post to see them. Tomorrow, we'll be going to Dubai again, first to see a few of its attractions, and later to join in on the spectacular New Year's Eve celebrations. So far, this trip has had a huge amount of strange twists and unexpected events, but I must say it's been an absolutely amazing experience and hope that it stays that way.

https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/AbuDhabiDay1
https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/AbuDhabiDay2
https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/AbuDhabiDay3
https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/DubaiDay1