We spent the morning trying to figure out our future — such as where to spend the night tomorrow. Scotland is still our destination, though it seemed briefly like that might be dropped. Scotland’s rules are largely separate from the rest of the United Kingdom in terms of quarantine requirements and rules. We will still have to quarantine, but Scotland is handling the virus much better and competently than its southern neighbors. So while we can’t go driving around sightseeing and going to pubs, we can still rest our legs for a bit at a private Scottish cottage in the countryside run by a woman named Fiona. And on the plus side, we may not even need to quarantine because as everyone’s favorite relative on Facebook has stated, “THE QUARANTINE RULES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ARE TO MAKE TRUMP LOOK BAD!! THE VIRUS WILL BE GONE AFTER THE ELECTION! DONT BE SHEEP! STOP COUNTING THE VOTES!!! BUT ALSO COUNT THE VOTES!”
We decided to make it a “beach” day. Our first stop was near the Palm Jumeirah, which is an artificial archipelago made to look like a palm tree. It’s basically a way to flaunt the wealth and excess in Dubai bookended with massive hotels and resorts. Each of the palm fronds contain numerous high-rise residential communities. We went to the top of the Marriott Harbour Hotel for some overpriced drinks at their bar called “The Observatory.” We were hoping that we might see the shape of the palm better. Even from the 52nd floor of a high rise hotel, the massive palm still required a bit of imagination.
We did, however, have quite the bird’s eye view of Skydive Dubai’s activities, which appear to be around-the-clock. No sooner would one aircraft land before another would take off with jumpers. Every ten minutes, parachutes could be seen spinning down toward the landing zone. I suspect their view of the Palm was quite good. BUT, they didn’t have the added bonus of a branded rind to go with their overpriced drink.
As we left the Marriott’s bar, we worked our way along the coast toward the Burj Al-Arab. In our minds, we thought we could just walk along the coast on some sort of path or trail. Alas, it was not to be. Every building or compound along the coast had a massive wall or checkpoint that prevented peons like us from getting through.
Even after we took a tram to the end of the line in the direction of the Burj Al-Arab, we still had maybe a 4-5 km walk in the heat. It became clear that the various gated areas were never going to subside. Even after we took an Uber to the neighboring hotel, we were very kindly thrown out for not being actual guests.
This view is about as close as we got before we got too close to a private pool and private beach and were turned away (kindly). It was rather unfortunate that most of the beaches around here are private. The gentleman turning us away showed us how to get to a public beach, but the public beach was quite sad.
Not only was the sun in the wrong spot for a good view, a good view was not to be had. There were cranes and construction equipment obscuring the Burj Al-Arab in one direction and dredging equipment in the other. This didn’t stop some people from partaking in swimming and other activities, but it didn’t inspire us. We sat there briefly with our shoes touching the sand just to have a moment at the beach before calling another Uber. One has to accept that this city is just perpetually under construction. There are two separate projects happening just opposite our balcony view. This city just doesn’t stop.
We worked our way back toward downtown, and had plans to get some food at another rooftop. However, after getting there 30 mins before they opened and seeing the prices, we decided to get delivery from Paul’s, the French cafe in the Dubai Mall which was both faster and cheaper. We ate out on our balcony before packing our bags and doing some laundry. Tomorrow is another longish day of travel.
passports & pepto bismol 