Day 3 of Dubai Trip: Jumeirah Beach -highlight of the day!

Day 3 and our last full day started out slow again. Baby decided to sleep little more like yesterday. In the meantime, we ordered breakfast, same thing again. Today we were supposed to meet a cyber friend (which was almost a last minute thing) at the Jumeirah beach...and we had our tix for the observation deck at the Burj Khalifa for 4.30.p.m. slot. We decided to meet her around 12, initially I believe I told her 11.30...anyway, since baby was sleeping I made a quick call to her and told her we would meet at 12 p.m.

We ate and got ready. And then something funny happened. My sis was using the second toilet and I heard her trying to open the lock and but wasn't able to do it. Initially I thought that was funny and was laughing out loud. After a few secs we realized it wasn't funny. She was seriously locked in! OMG! I was MAD. First of all, baby made us little late and now this. I looked at the time and already it was 12 p.m.! I made a quick  frantic call to front desk and told the lady about the situation. She told me someone would be there shortly. While I hung up the phone...my sis was able to open the door! good heaven! Then basically we just bolted as we were really late. I wouldn't have mind if we were just going to the beach...but for God's sake we are meeting someone. I didn't bother to follow up on the issue.

We took a cab, and as our luck would have it there was an accident on the road and things were a bit slow. We asked the driver what was up and he said in a funny accent..which basically sounded like this...ummm this road...ummm that road...this road...that road..this road..that road... My sis was like what the hell. I explained to her that he was saying, we are supposed to be on that road, due to accident we are taking this road and hence, the delay. aaaahhhhhhhhhh............ LOL

Once we reached Gate # 1 of the Jumeirah Beach and Park (as discussed), I looked at the time and it was almost close to 1 p.m.!!! oh no! We got out of the cab and saw no one. My friend told me that we would meet at gate # 1, however, that gate could very well be closed and #3 might be open. So, we decided to walk over to gate # 3, which we passed while in the car. In the middle of our way to #3, my friend came over and introduced her! I was glad she didn't leave but she understood sometimes it was not easy to be just on time when you have an infant on a trip and a massive jet lag to boot!

Jumeirah Beach

I really enjoyed Jumeirah Beach. It was Monday and  every Monday is Women and children's day at the beach. And that means no men allowed. Really lovely. My sis and I really enjoyed talking to J, new friend and her experience in Dubai. It seemed like both my sis and she had one thing in common, they both work at some sort of publishing business. Anyway, while they chatted away, I took baby close to water, as close as I could be since I didn't know swimming myself. It was really windy. I think, Eliana really enjoyed that time at the beach the most. And we took some pics slyly I must say as camera wasn't allowed at the beach. People still do take pics as long as it's their pics not others. KWIM.J had to go back around 3, and we also thought that was a good time for us to leave as well as we had a ticket for Burj Khalifa obs deck at 4.30, and we wanted to stroll through Dubai Mall as much as we could. There was a fast food restaurant right on the beach, and we looked through the menu but nothing stroke my fancy. Since I wanted to have Lebanese food, we only got a bottle of water and called a day. J mentioned a Lebanese restaurant, but honestly once in the Mall there was no time or energy to look for that particular restaurant, we needed to eat something pronto before heading to Burj Khalifa.

After saying bye to J, we took a cab to Dubai Mall. Once in the mall, I think first thing that catches anyone's attention is the GIGANTIC aquarium that can be seen from outside. It's HUGE. Anyway, next to the aquarium there is a restaurant called Rainforest or some thing like that. I wanted to get something from there, but the hostesses were busy chatting and when they asked me about if I wanted to sit and whatever...I lost it. I was like forget it and left that place. No time to wait for a table. And it wasn't the waiting that I had objection, I really disliked those hostesses for some odd weird reason. Anyway, took some pic in front of the Aquarium and then headed off to God knows where. We passed through a wonderful bakery and snapped some pics of those wonderfulness and walked ahead.

We then went to the food court on the second floor I believe and happened to see Karam Beirut Express. Got some lamb chops, which was quite cheap considering well, lamb chop. Ate rather quickly and then I headed toward the baby care room, where I nursed baby. They had a nice diaper changing station and a nice chair for I guess nursing.

Burj Khalifa

Once done with that we proceeded to go the ground floor to go to the Burj Khalifa. It wasn't too crowded, pretty quick line, and got there around our time slot, or probably just a little after. I don't know where on earth on TA once I read there were no restrooms on the Observation deck floor, so I decided to use the rest room to before getting on the elevator. And later found restroom on the OB deck floor as well. Anyway, 124 floor up we went and it seemed rather pronto.










     

View from the Observation deck at the Burj Khalifa

 What can I say? It was nice seeing things from up there but nothing earth shattering. We saw the big sun in its full glory and was getting ready to go down later. Enjoyed looking around, taking pic and baby fell sleep while my sis carried her. People were sitting on the floor and counting the time toward sunset I guess. Once I wanted to stay for that but then I was feeling really tired and wanted to get the hell out of there ASAP.

Once out, we hang out outside where the Dubai Fountain was. We were told the first show would start at 7.30. Since there was basically nothing else to do decided to walk over to Souk Al Bahar and check that out. It's an interesting little mall, almost too ghostly..don't know why I found that mall to be a bit strange. On second floor basically it was empty and all I noticed was the entrance of a restaurant and a hostess standing near by (?)...and even that is questionable caz I was too tired to even notice exactly what that was...

Anyway, got out of that mall and just waited outside near the fountain again. Got bit tired of the waiting and decided to have dinner. As I had a thing for Lebanese that day decided to go to Karam Beirut restaurant (The mistake of the entire trip)! I won't go into details here, as long as I am sane I can NEVER recommend this restaurant to any living soul on this planet earth. That's all I've to say about that. The whole experience there was a big joke. My sis hated it. So did I. And then I guess it was time to go back to hotel. We felt little bad that our such nice little trip sort of ended with a bad taste in our mouth (literally and figuratively)...so, got a Tiramisu from Starbucks and tried to make it up. And I think, it did a little!

And that's how our trip came to an end. Next morning we left the hotel and around 1.30ish we left Dubai!

Will I go back to Dubai?

I will never plan a vacation to Dubai only. That's for sure. Since I'm more a budget traveler and like to see/experience more of local life, culture etc Dubai doesn't fit that bill at all. I will however, definitely go back to Dubai on stopover for a day or two to break my usual long journey (from JFK to DHK) a break and breath a little.