festival city

my mall tour of dubai has begun. today we went to festival city (a big mall) because we needed to go to ikea. since we had been in the car for about 2 hours by the time we got there, we went straight for food, of course. stomachs first, everything else later.

as an aside, i think in an earlier post i talked about the traffic problems getting into dubai. the problems most often occur in sharjah, the emirate just north of dubai, because the highway goes from 6 or 8 lanes down to three. trucks take up the right lane, and then everyone else who was cruising down the spacious road gets jammed up into 2 lanes, basically. it is like this because there are buildings right alongside either side of the highway. they had been built long before the huge development in sharjah and dubai happened, so they can't just raze those buildings and widen the highway. so it's a nightmare. since today is friday (1st day of weekend), there was no traffic. also, trucks aren't allowed to drive through sharjah on the weekends. nice.

yes, so we opted for the iranian food in the food court, which was delicious. so good we stuffed ourselves silly. but not so silly that we felt like puking, oddly enough. i had lamb kebabs with rice and serge had chicken kebabs with french fries (julian's new favorite food, help us please). i was busy chasing julian around the food court, so i didn't realize serge also ordered hummous and tabbouleh. the hummous was soooo creamy and delicious. much better than anything i've ever eaten before. 

we had so much food it was ridiculous. the portions were quite copious, but we managed to do some serious damage. i will say that food in general is more expensive in dubai, even with the increased portion size for some things. for example, tabbouleh was about the same amount, or a little bit more, but more than twice the price. at least it's good, so that's fine. so i guess when people say, "oh no, you're moving to dubai! it's sooo expensive!" they are right, but we don't live in dubai. an outing or two a weekend won't break the bank. may break the stomach, but we're resilient. champion eaters. we welcome the challenges.

we then walked outside to the canal promenade and the marina to see the big yachts. we were somehow able to wrestle julian back into the stroller, where we then cruised some of the mall during the "shopping festival" going on in dubai right now. up to 75% off of things. i picked up a few shirts in marks & spencer, mainly because i didn't have the patience to go into the other stores and sift through tons of stuff that looked cool. the biggest issue - i have no idea what my size is in english sizes, which is what a lot of stuff was. i grabbed what they had in m&s and what fit was good, what didn't was out. that was thanks to a low stock supply (process of elimination). all of the other stores i popped into had too many size choices! and you can't dawdle with an impatient toddler and a bored husband...

we also went to toys r' us and finally found some outlet covers. julian is obsessed with outlets. hello, danger. i'm just a little concerned still because he likes also to touch the stove. the stupid stove safety devices are installed with adhesive. my child will rip it off in about 5 seconds. need to come up with a plan b!

then, once we hit ikea, we let julian out again to play. he had a ball in the fake kids' rooms, but i had to take him away to change the old diaper. when i was in the baby changing room, i thought of something else to mention in a post. it has to do with toilets.

they have 2 changing tables in the room and a big roll of paper to put on the pad so that your baby's butt doesn't touch other babies' butt germs. so i'm using one, and another local woman comes in with her daughter. she just plopped her down, took off the diaper, and then went to the sink to rinse off her butt, then dried it off with the paper. i guess it makes sense, because next to all of the toilets (it's like this in asia too - like in thailand when you have to pee in a public place, you have to buy toilet paper if you want it - and ask for a western toilet if you don't want to pee in a hole. i don't think they have those here) there is a spray hose, even in our apartment. so when you're done with your biz, you just hose down. i don't think i can get on that bandwagon. and i will add that the toilet paper rolls in our home are placed at the most bizarre angle. maybe because the people who put them there don't use it. interesting.

i will say that i saw more local people here today, which is good. i still stand by my other post, however. i am glad we live in RAK. there may be more activities for moms and tots, or yoga, dance classes and other fun activities that i so enjoy in dubai, but i feel like where we are is more down to earth and cultural. it is nice to be able to go to dubai, but nice to come back up here where the camels roam free. i think it's pretty cool to be experiencing a city that is undergoing so much development. i'm sure in the time that we're here, we're going to see a lot of changes. that will be something.