Again, my body decided at about 4am that it did not want to sleep anymore! So I waited for the sunrise again and then woke Andrew up and we went downstairs for breakfast. I really like staying at Marriott properties as they have good awareness of Celiac Disease in general and know what is safe or not. Usually, they stock GF products if you ask for them too!
Due to the lengthy time it took my French Toast to appear yesterday, I focused on protein and Mediterranean foods this morning. Some of the items that I ate were veggies with hummus (excellent hummus here with sesame seed oil), some cheeses and tomatoes, fruit and yogurt and my omelette of cheese and tomatoes. As my body still has not figured out why I am feeding it at this time of day – it is still in training – I am just trying to ensure I have enough protein so I do not run into the problems that I had in Italy where not enough protein was provided at breakfast to sustain me throughout the busy part of the day.
The Get My Guide tour company bus picked us up at 9am and we were on our way! The bus sat about 10 people – it was not a mini van and not a huge highway bus but one sized just in the middle. Fairly easy for me to get into. We picked up a Spanish couple, a family from Cypress and a couple from India – so we were a very multicultural group from around the world!
So, this tour was going to drive us around Dubai a bit so some sights, including Jumeriah Palm and the beach area and then bring us to the souk area that we had visited on yesterday’s tour. As Maha, my friend in Vancouver wanted a new hijab, I had done my research overnight as to what colours she wanted after seeing a variety yesterday at the souks, and I was in buying mode today! I had selected this particular tour as the “frond” islands that Dubai had created fascinated me – they basically dredged the bottom of the sea and built up the 17 “fronds” or arms of the palm leaf as a feature for a place for people to live (very expensive place to live) or to stay as a visitor. Originally I had wanted to stay at a Marriott hotel on Jumieriah however changed my mind due to cost and location – it is a bit of a ways out of the city and the Marriott hotel that was in the “semi affordable” price range it seemed you would be taking a lot of taxies to and from. That is how we ended up at the Sheraton at Dubai Creek instead! Also the Sheraton is way closer to the airport for when we arrived.
So we saw Palm Jumeirah, which is the man made island shaped like a palm frond, and also stopped at a beautiful mosque on the mainland of Dubai before going to visit the beach and taking in the view of the Burj Al Arab that is a 7 star hotel – the only hotel in the world with this ranking. It sits on its own island. In fact you cannot just go “visit” – you have to have a reservation to go there – such as for tea or dinner or to stay overnight. It is shaped like a sail with a helipad near the top of it. Our tour guide actually told us a story that for a stunt, a Red Bull pilot actually landed and took off from the helipad – took a couple of tries but he was successful with his small plane! Some other facts are they have a selection of 17 pillow types for you to choose from for your bed, there are more than 200 uniquely decorated suites ($1000 US a night or more) with the largest being the Royal Suite at $28,ooo US a night or more , the hotel was built do that it does not cast a shadow on Jumeirah Beach nearby and the hotel has an underwater restaurant!
Now, we started driving back into downtown Dubai and heading to the souk area. Along the way, the tour guide saw a car roar by with the license plate number of 17. He then told us about licence numbers in Dubai – the lower the number the more prestigious you are! The sheik of Dubai owns number 1, his son 11 and his grandson will probably take 111. In fact to get a low numbered licence plate in Dubai you buy it! Often the licence plates, which are a status symbol, cost more than the car that they are driving.
Eventually, we found ourselves back at the textile souk getting on an abra and guess what? Again I had to go down the stairs and up again to get to the spice and then the gold (which we did not bother visiting) souks. However this time I was a lady on a mission! It is hijab shopping time! The tour guide recommended a shop to me and introduced me to the owner/employee (not which) and they had WAY more colours than the photo that I had sent Maha the night before – peach and pink! What to do? Luckily Maha was awake and suggested that the pink one would be best. I also bought some tea and saffron at this store and a “sock” (forgot actual word) that goes under the hijab for Maha – it is pink too! The man was really nice and gave me an extra black sock and some stuffed dates as a gift! Perhaps I should have negotiated down the price and that is why I got the gifts – I just hate negotiating! I feel that I am robbing someone of their income. I do not pay extravagant prices however!
The bus then took us back to the hotel where we then decided to hang out at the pool for the balance of the afternoon. This hotel, while I was not in an accessible room, did show that it kept accessibility in mind. That was until it came to accessing the pool area. That was one STEEP ramp that I had to go down! I am glad they had anti-slip stickers on it as if it was wet that would be dangerous! After the sun set, we went back up to the room and decided to go to the Sheraton Lounge which Elite members of Marriott are able to visit or if you are staying in a certain (expensive) room type. This lounge advertises that between 6 and 8pm they have complementary appetizers. Lets just insert the word “gluten” before appetizers and that was the reality that we found! Compared to the lounges in the USA and Canada though, they provided free alcohol during this period of time which was very nice – the lounge was also VERY full!
I was able to eat the veggie sticks and the humus and that was very good, however on the buffet were other things like chicken pot stickers, mashed potatoes (had gluten on top of them) and an assortment of other finger foods that were not Lynda friendly! Then one of the waiters recognized me and went and got the chef who came to the table and offered to make me a salad with chicken slices on it. Oh my, what customer service! Azul, the chef, did an amazing job preparing my salad and when he brought it to me, he asked if I wanted French Toast tomorrow morning again! I said that would be awesome and so he said he would make it so! Amazing service.
