Prayer calls started at 6:15 am.
We started the trip in Dubai with a briefing about the history of UAE, Dubai in particular, and other countries in the region.
We had a business visit at Nakheel–real estate company that developed the Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali, and World–artificial islands with lots of luxury hotels and resorts. It is a state-owned so it doesn’t have to worry about being profitable in the short-term. They gave an interesting presentation. We got to ride the monorail out to the Atlantis resort.
Some of Nakheel’s properties
We spent some time at a gold souq or marketplace.
One window in the gold souq
Then we went to a spice souq.
One merchant at the spice souk
Crossing the Dubai Creek on a dhow
The Dubai Museum, formerly Fort Fahidi
We got to have dinner at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding. http://www.cultures.ae/index.php/ouractivities/cultural-meals Nasif is an Emirati business man. He spent 2 hours talking to us about culture, religion, showing how the abaya (black robe and headcovering) is actually preferred by women. He demonstrated on Phebe. We sat on cushions and ate traditional food.
The next day we had a business visit to Emirates Airlines. Pretty impressive company.
Wearing the uniform hat
The new Airbus A380 is enormous!
We got to go on a desert safari https://www.arabian-adventures.com/en/tours-and-safaris/find-tours-and-safaris/tour_details.aspx?loc=Dubai&id=682823&curPageid=1 with sand dunes, a falconry demonstration, dinner at a bedouin-style camp (even a belly dancer).
Tom and Andy with Oman in the background
Desert sunset
We had a business visit to DPWorld, one of the biggest shipping companies in Dubai. http://web.dpworld.com/
We spent some time at the Ibn Battuta mall, designed to have different parts of the mall for each of the areas he traveled to: Persia, Egypt, China, India, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta. He traveled even more than Marco Polo.
We had lunch near the Burj al Arab. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Al_Arab
We got to go to the observation deck (125th floor) of the Burj Khalifa–the tallest building in the world (160 floors). http://gizmodo.com/5917230/did-you-know-that-the-burj-khalifa-is-so-tall-that-you-can-watch-two-sunsets-on-the-same-day
I went skiing at SkiDubai with Jonathon and Tom from BYU. 25 degrees inside the snow park within the Mall of the Emirates. 78 degrees outside at 7 pm. My fingers got freezing cold after a few hours, so it felt like a real ski day. SkiDubai
lunch at the Shake Shack in the Dubai Airport
herdaughteranderson 