Author Topic: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR  (Read 14527 times)

Offline zow

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #20 on: November 22, 2017, 08:52:21 AM »
Amazing TR! Thanks so much for posting.
a pretty random question: did you/daughter eat the dates at the PH? Were they better then mejoul dates? Or whatever you have had elsewhere?
I ate the dates. They were tasty. Not sure about the kashrut but that’s what YK is for. Honestly though, they didn’t taste any different from or better than those that I buy at Costco. 

Offline chaim0m

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #21 on: November 24, 2017, 05:08:55 AM »
I ate the dates. They were tasty. Not sure about the kashrut but that’s what YK is for. Honestly though, they didn’t taste any different from or better than those that I buy at Costco.
Thanks! I have heard that there are huge differences in dates in places such as Turkey where they are supposed to be really good as opposed to the US where they are mediocre.
travelcm

Offline zow

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zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #22 on: November 29, 2017, 12:28:15 AM »
Friday: Arabian Adventures tour.

I already posted about this tour in the Trip Planning thread:

Greetings from Dubai. Will try to do TR at some point, but wanted to shout out Arabian-Adventures.com.  Daughter and I did the morning dune safari, about $60 pp, great value.  Picked us up from hotel in well maintained late model Toyota Land Cruiser — very comfortable.  Four others pax picked up at their hotels.  About 45 mibutes to the conservation area. About an hour total pounding the dunes —. Very, very fun.  Do not do if you routinely get car sick.  Saw oryx, impala, and “land fish” (kind of lizard). Five minute camel ride — was plenty for us, just wanted the pic.   Ride down the dune on a snowboard. Could have done several times but once was fine for us.   Breakfast at the “camp” was from a French bakery — people seemed to enjoy the croissant and muffin.  The fruit cup was fair — a little nosh. Soft drinks and water.  They had coffee and tea but no paper cups so I passed.   I thought it was good value. Maybe the only down side is the drive to the conservation area 45 minutes each way, but that’s the nature of this deal.

I will add a bit more detail on the logistics and some images.

In planning the dune bashing, I first inquired with the company that Dan had used (but ended up refunding his money when weather prevailed). I wanted to do a morning dune trip with camel ride.  Didn’t want to do the whole evening with belly dancer and dinner thing.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see a morning dune trip on the Platinum Heritage website.  Closest thing I found was a tour that included hot air balloon.  It looked really cool,  but was prohibitively expensive, like $500 pp IIRC. So, I saw Arabian Adventures recommended in one of my tour books and was very impressed with their customer service.   Excellent communication via email and WhatsApp. 

As I said above, I thought it was great value for this morning. 





I will try to post some video sometime but I don’t think I can do it from tapa. (Paging @somethingfishy?)

We returned to the hotel, worked out, had lunch, then lounged by the pool until Shabbat.

Offline sky121

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #23 on: November 29, 2017, 03:58:05 AM »
Thanks! I have heard that there are huge differences in dates in places such as Turkey where they are supposed to be really good as opposed to the US where they are mediocre.
If you want to good dates try 7hot dates or the date people.
Both are FANTASTIC and have great customer service. 
Also try  wet dates if you never have - those are fantastic as well IMO though not everyone's cup of tea.

Khadrawi and honey dates are some of my favorite. Medjouls are always a good pick.

I enjoy them frozen as well.
Usually buy dry variety packs.

Can't even compare them  to anything they sell at Costco.

Both the above sites might be out of certain varieties. September is the starting month for them really.
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline chaim0m

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #24 on: November 29, 2017, 04:48:50 AM »
If you want to good dates try 7hot dates or the date people.
Both are FANTASTIC and have great customer service. 
Also try  wet dates if you never have - those are fantastic as well IMO though not everyone's cup of tea.

Khadrawi and honey dates are some of my favorite. Medjouls are always a good pick.

I enjoy them frozen as well.
Usually buy dry variety packs.

Can't even compare them  to anything they sell at Costco.

Both the above sites might be out of certain varieties. September is the starting month for them really.
Thanks for the recommendations, will try
travelcm

Offline shwarmabob

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #25 on: November 29, 2017, 11:01:15 AM »
If you want to good dates try 7hot dates
thanks, I just ordered from 7hot dates

Offline hachover

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #26 on: November 29, 2017, 01:01:59 PM »
Thanks! I have heard that there are huge differences in dates in places such as Turkey where they are supposed to be really good as opposed to the US where they are mediocre.

I was able to get terrific dates (and fresh figs) for R"H on the street outside a major mosque in NY. Anytime of year I walk by there's a vendor. Gotta go where the demand is, like Chinatown for getting Asian fruit.
I'm an optimist; but only because life isn't going to give me any other good choices.

Offline zow

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #27 on: November 30, 2017, 01:03:51 AM »
Thanks all for the dating advice. :)

Offline zow

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #28 on: November 30, 2017, 01:09:55 AM »
Friday: Arabian Adventures tour.
I already posted about this tour in the Trip Planning thread:

Greetings from Dubai. Will try to do TR at some point, but wanted to shout out Arabian-Adventures.com.  Daughter and I did the morning dune safari, about $60 pp, great value.  Picked us up from hotel in well maintained late model Toyota Land Cruiser — very comfortable.  Four others pax picked up at their hotels.  About 45 mibutes to the conservation area. About an hour total pounding the dunes —. Very, very fun.  Do not do if you routinely get car sick.  Saw oryx, impala, and “land fish” (kind of lizard). Five minute camel ride — was plenty for us, just wanted the pic.   Ride down the dune on a snowboard. Could have done several times but once was fine for us.   Breakfast at the “camp” was from a French bakery — people seemed to enjoy the croissant and muffin.  The fruit cup was fair — a little nosh. Soft drinks and water.  They had coffee and tea but no paper cups so I passed.   I thought it was good value. Maybe the only down side is the drive to the conservation area 45 minutes each way, but that’s the nature of this deal.

I will add a bit more detail on the logistics and some images.

In planning the dune bashing, I first inquired with Platinum Heritage, the company that Dan had used (but ended up refunding his money when weather prevailed). I wanted to do a morning dune trip with camel ride.  Didn’t want to do the whole evening with belly dancer and dinner thing.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see a morning dune trip on the Platinum Heritage website.  Closest thing I found was a tour that included hot air balloon.  It looked really cool,  but was prohibitively expensive, like $500 pp IIRC. So, I saw Arabian Adventures recommended in one of my tour books and was very impressed with their customer service.   Excellent communication via email and WhatsApp. 

As I said above, I thought it was great value for this morning trip. 






I will try to post some video sometime but I don’t think I can do it from tapa. (Paging @somethingfishy?)


We returned to the hotel, worked out, had lunch, then lounged by the pool until Shabbat. I think I already mentioned upthread that the pool at the PH is beautiful.  Plenty of chairs. Great service by the lifeguard/towel attendant.  And the weather was perfect. Maybe high 80s to low 90s, not humid.  (Will add a pool picture later when I can get it from my daughter!)


Next installment: Shabbat in Dubai.
—-

Offline a good yeshiva bachur

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #29 on: November 30, 2017, 01:16:40 AM »
You posted same thing twice

Offline zow

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #30 on: November 30, 2017, 11:37:02 AM »
You posted same thing twice

It was SO great that it deserved reposting! Actually, maybe I should refrain from posting from my phone at 1am?!

Some new pix to make amends:

Pool area. 


Outside the fitness/spa.


Views from mirpeset.





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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #31 on: November 30, 2017, 10:52:17 PM »
Very nice, I was there a couple of times, had a great time.
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Offline zow

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zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #32 on: February 25, 2018, 06:29:32 PM »
Apologies if some of what follows is duplicative. I just found my notes from this trip and am pretty sure I didn’t finish posting about the activities.   This installment should round out the TR.

Shabbat in Dubai.

As mentioned upthread, there is a Minyan in Dubai that apparently meets for Shabbat morning.   Unfortunately, they don’t meet anywhere near the PH. (Dubai is a very spread out city.  “Nobody walks in LA/Dubai.”). So, daughter and I had a private Shabbos.  It was lovely.

The room was pretty easily prepared for Shabbat.  It was my first time trying the “taped room key blocking the latch bolt” trick. It works perfectly and is so easy.  We had brought two plug-in timers with us to plug the lamps in. However, as I’m finding more often now the lamps do not plug into the outlets but are actually wired into the wall. We ended up leaving two lights in the bathroom and Gerry-rigging a sheet as a shade for the window between the bathroom and the sleeping area.

We chilled for Shabbos, davening in the room overlooking the creek, walking the grounds of the PH and the marina residential area in which it is situated.   Motsei Shabbos, we went to the Dubai Mall, which was enormous.  We enjoyed the fountain/light show, saw what they claim to be the largest LED screen in the world, on the wall outside  of aquarium, and gawked up at the Burj Khalifa.

Sunday:
This was our last day in Dubai.
We did the tour of the Jumeira Mosque, which is run by the government’s cultural awareness department.  We enjoyed it quite a bit.  Mostly westerners on the tour.  Unlike the tour of the Sheik Zayed Mosque in AUH, which is really all about the mosque and only a little about Islam, the Jumeira tour is educational about Islam.   Some would label it more as propaganda than educational (I wish I had a nickel for every time the tour guide emphasized that Islam is a peaceful religion) but we learned about Muslim prayer rituals and the pillars of Islam.  I would recommend the tour. 

Photos will follow.

Afterwards, we drove to the old city area and wanted to walk around but could not find parking so we bailed.   We returned to PH for the last meal, then cruised over to the Burj Al Arab, where we had reservations in their first floor cafe for tea.  I would have reserved the bar on the top but my daughter is under 21, and I didn’t want to start lying about her age for a chance to snag a view.   So, like others have said and done, we pulled into the hotel, valet parked the car (free IIRC), gawked at the fountains and other gaudy decor, and then left.

Our next destination was the Burj Khalifa, timed for sunset.   The height of the building is incredibly impressive.  I didn’t feel it swaying as some people have noted.  We bought tickets to the second-highest level which was fine.   The view is amazing but the sky was very hazy. 

After sunset, we made our way to the airport.  We were more than four hours before our flight, so we couldn’t check in right away.  It gave me a chance to sit in Starbucks and help my daughter with her physics HW.   Eventually, we made it to the PP lounge which was very good but not much kosher.   Flight home was uneventful, save for missing our connection in YYZ, which I think is not too uncommon.

Hope some of the content here is useful to my DDF Associates.    Thanks to everyone who preceded me with advice and I information.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2018, 06:47:07 PM by zow »

Offline zow

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Re: zow’s father-daughter Dubai TR
« Reply #33 on: February 25, 2018, 06:51:39 PM »
Photos.
1. Dubai mall
2. Burj Al Arab
3. Outside Burj Khalifa
4. Sunset from Burj Khalifa observation deck.