Palm Island

Archive for the ‘Palm Island’ Category

New Year’s Eve 2013

January 5, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

New Year’s Eve began with a drive to Dubai and lunch at the Special Ostadi restaurant. Then we went down to the Bur Dubai side of Dubai Creek. We walked through the old souk (market). The merchants were calling out to DaddyBird calling him “boss” and to BabyBird calling her “Shakira” to entice them to stop and see the wares. From there, we took an abra (water taxi) across the creek to the Spice Souk area.

The ride across the creek is always pleasant and it is much cooler on the water.

I haven’t even thought of looking up while on the boat before and was surprised to see the life jackets. If the boat runs into trouble, I doubt I would have time to get one of those, but the thought is nice, I suppose.

We stopped for fresh juice and BabyBird discovered that fresh apple juice is not like bottled apple juice. I had watermelon juice and was unpleasantly surprised to find that the seeds had been included. We walked through the Spice Souk and Gold Souk. To return to the car parked in Bur Dubai, we took the metro train.

The park area near the Shindaga historical area is quite nice and inviting to those who want to relax for a while. Next, we were off to Bu Qtair Restaurant for our traditional fish and shrimp dinner with friends followed by fireworks seen from Jumeirah beach.

In past years, all the fireworks displays started at the stroke of midnight – Dubai Marina, Burj Al Arab, Atlantis Hotel and the Burj Khalifa (all of which we can see from our beach location). This year the displays were staggered. Dubai Marina went first, slightly before the stroke of midnight. Then the Burj Khalifa was next. Burj Al Arab took it’s turn. (This is usually the best display from four barges lasting 15 minutes.)

This year, the world record breaking display capped the evening shooting off from the Palm Jumeirah island and the World islands. It took 2 hours to get out of Dubai and another hour to drive to Fujairah, but it was worth it.

Posted in abras, Burj al Arab, celebration, Dubai Creek, New Year's Eve, Palm Island | Leave a Comment »

The Boat that Rocks Afternoon

February 10, 2013

Posted by Kanga.

At the invitation of Rock Radio 90.7, we headed off to Jebel Ali for an afternoon on a boat.

The weather was perfect – sunny, as always, and a pleasant breeze.

DaddyBird dressed appropriately.

There were a variety of vessels out on water.

The posts in the distance are the unfinished bridge to the Jebel Ali Palm Island.

There’s no surf in the Gulf, so they do paddle boarding instead.

We got a few rounds of Guillotine card game in.

By the time the sun was reaching the horizon, our relaxing boat ride was over.

Posted in Dubai, Palm Island | Tagged boating, Dubai, Jebel Ali, rock-n-roll | 1 Comment »

Jumeirah Zabeel Saray

July 22, 2011

Posted by Kanga.

We recently took a trip out to nearly the end of the Jumeirah Palm Islands (Dubai) to an event held at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray hotel. So, here are a few pictures.

Posted in Dubai, fountains, Palm Island | 1 Comment »

February 20, 2010

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to a party at a villa on the Jumeirah Palm Island. Our friends Lara and Terry are on a one year adventure they are calling GranTourismo. They’ve combined their career as travel writers with HomeAway Holiday Rentals and are traveling around the world this year spending two weeks in each destination. Their first stop was in Dubai on the Palm, then to London, then to Marrakesh, then ???? If you like good pictures, good food, and good travel advice, you should follow their blog.

First let me say, our twitter friend Grace did a better job of documenting this party on her blog (than I am about to do). So, I recommend that you click here and read what she said and check out her pictures. Also, there is an entry by Terry detailing the food served and you can click here to read that. Extra points for those of you find us in the pictures on both the blogs.

Here are my pictures:

This is the villa on Frond E. It is a five bedroom home with a lovely kitchen, dining room, living room and den. (Five and a half bathrooms, by the way.)

This is the view toward the stem of the Palm.

This is the view toward the end of the fronds. It was atypically stormy. It didn’t actually rain, but was cool, cloudy and breezy.

There was a nearby cell phone tower disguised as a palm tree. Notice the fake dates hanging in the fake tree.

It was a beautiful evening with (in our opinion) perfect weather, good friends, and good food. We may never have another reason to go out onto the Palm, but at least we can say we’ve been there.