Well, day two was Stacy’s first working day. She had an early panic attack when her powerpoint presentation would not come up on her computer. The 26 class members were arriving in the room and Stacy and I are in front trying restrain our fear and act calm while trouble shooting. Luckily things came together just in time and the rest of the day went smoothly. Stacy was unsure of what to expect from the attendees but was very pleased with their level of knowledge in communications and the group was very participatory.
Meanwhile, I walked most of the day with camera in hand. I visited the market where there are a few hundred individual stalls selling fish, vegetables, fruit and meat. Each stall only sells one class of food item. Even the fruit stalls did not sell vegetables and vice-versa. There were about six stalls that only sold dates!
The fish stalls were quite lively with many of the Pakistani vendors clamouring to have me take their picture. I had limited conversations with several of them where the general flow went like this.
Vendor, “Where are you from”
Me, “America”
Vendor, “America good, Bush bad, too much fighting”Â
They all had a strong interest in visiting America and one fellow wanted me to take him home with me!
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The dried fish stalls had a very pungent odor, not necessarily offensive but very strong.
The fresh meat shops seemed to only have lamb. I did not see any other cut available.
Did I mention that the fish vendors were very friendly?
After my morning at the market, I spent a windy and hot afternoon at the pool. I talked with British family about what to do in London that is off the normal tourist beat. We came up with a couple of ideas and I will let you know if anything pans out when we get there.
After Stacy’s workshop was finished for the day we had a cold, refreshing, adult beverage by the pool as the sun was going down. We headed off to the Jumeirah mall for some shopping and dinner. The taxi ride was quite long and took right past the worlds tallest building, the Burj Dubai that will eventually be 30% taller than the next closest competitor. It is an impressive site to say the least.
The Jumeirah mall also offers a good view of Burj Al Arab Hotel, the world’s only seven star hotel. It is certainly a beautiful structure. I have heard that they let people who cannot afford to stay there tour the hotel for 50 Dirham, or about $13. Not too bad considering a single nights stay in the smallest room is $1,500.
Stacy and I had a good Lebanese meal where she had a hearts of palm salad that was terrific. I had the kafta which the waiter repeatedly reminded us was raw lamb. It took a while to convince him I knew what I was ordering. The kafta was very good simply scooped up with a piece of pita bread. The seasoning of garlic, onion, and cumin was very good.
In general, the shops in the Jumeirah mall were not very interesting except for two. The exotic home furnishings shop was terrific. We fell in love with a Persian rug but are not the kind of people to drop $4,000 on the small version of the one we wanted. The other shop we liked offered hand made clothing from Kashmir. Stacy did buy a stunning jacket kind of thing with incredible hand embroidery of a flower motif. Maybe a picture will be forthcoming as Stacy can not wait to wear it.