The World's Largest... Indoor Ski and Carpet

This morning, we headed out real early to go skiing! We had a small breakfast, threw on our warm clothes, and braved the heat while walking to the metro station. The metro, contrary to what I had expected, is actually above ground, leading to amazing views of the city.

The red line, the main line of the system, goes straight down Sheikh Zayed street, from Al Seef and across the creek, all the way past Business Bay and the marina. The trains are fully automatic, meaning that you get a wonderful view looking out the front into downtown.

Mall of the Emirates (MOE) is on the other side of Business Bay, and you can make it out easily, what with it’s giant sloped extension that is Ski Dubai. I was expecting Ski Dubai to fit cleanly inside the mall, but it got me excited to see that it extends out, giving me hope that the experience would be better than I had imagined.

MOE is, of course, a nice and luxurious mall with brands from Europe, Asia, and the US, however I was expecting something a little more luxurious than the quite average shopping mall vibe that it has. But either way, we weren’t there to shop, we were there to ski! Your AED 250 ($65) ticket includes rental skis and boots, snow pants and a coat, socks, and of course, a 2 hour lift ticket. Quite worth the money, I’d say, considering $70 just gets you a day of skiing at Pine Knob. Since we went during the day on a Wednesday, Ansh and I had practically the place to ourselves. We got right on the lift all the way to the top, at which point, I was amazed by what they had. Yes, it’s only two runs, but it feels like four since there is a sharp bend halfway through and you have the option of getting off the lift at that bend, or going from half way up to the top straight via a T-bar. There’s also a T-bar, which is much quicker than the lift, running the entire way up. We took the T-bar almost every time, since the lift was constantly stopping for first timers who fell at the bottom.   

The experience in Ski Dubai was so much better than I had expected. They had Christmas music playing, the place was decorated in fake pine trees and a log cabin style wood, and the usual array of ski signs, of course, in English and Arabic (my favorite part). I enjoyed skiing fast down the hill, but also skiing backwards and sitting down on the less steep parts. We just kinda goofed around for the two hours, and honestly, I never got bored of the two runs. I think the bend is a really clever visual trick that makes it feel longer and more interesting than it would be otherwise.

Afterwards, we headed to a restaurant Ansh has been telling our friends about for years—a restaurant he always goes to upon returning home—The Cheesecake Factory! And usually, when out of the country, I’d be disappointed by the idea of having Cheesecake Factory for lunch, but because (1) this is an Ansh classic, and (2) Dubai is such a cosmopolitan place, I didn’t mind one bit. When sitting there, I thought significantly about what Dubai really is. Being there, I wasn’t spoken to in Arabic. But that’s not just because I look like a tourist, but because neither our server nor I speak Arabic. I have heard so much more English just out and about than Arabic, and it seems to be the lingua franca here. Each family may speak to each other in their native language, but also may speak to each to each other just in English, like Ansh’s family. And if you have any doubt whatsoever about what someone else random may speak, English is the safest and easiest bet. No sign here doesn’t have English, and Ansh claims that living a life here speaking Arabic only and not English would be difficult at best, but more likely impossible. It really made me reconsider how I saw the city, how I felt about being spoken to in English in other places, and affected how I’ll see the city moving forwards. Our conversation about the languages was nice, and though we’ve discussed this sort of thing in the US before, it took me actually being there to internalize what he’s told me for years.

Ansh’s mom picked us up at the mall and we headed down Sheikh Zayed road to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque. And oh my, this place is stunning. Truthfully, there’s not too much to say about it, and I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

What there is to say is the over tourism here. Now, I appreciate that the larger, more pretty areas are closed off to tourists (I can only assume they’re opened for prayer time), but that has the effect of squishing the crowds of tourists to a small pathway where it’s difficult to move through at the speed you want. Either way, I don’t think the tourism really affected my experience of the mosque since what we were really there to see, i.e. the architecture, was completely visible. Ansh’s mom said, though, that when she visited it when it was just completed, you could go anywhere you wanted, touch anything in the building, and there was no ticketing, security, nor underground Louvre-like tunnel system to get you into the place. But I cannot blame anyone for wanting to visit this place though…

The mosque was started in 1996 and took 11 years to build, but it is certainly a piece of monumental architecture. A modern wonder, worthy of a seat next to the Taj Mahal or the Alhambra. The chandeliers, the carpet, the gardens, floors, calligraphy on the ceilings, and of course, the domes and pillars are all made to perfection with stunning detail, accuracy, and intent. Every square inch of this place feels to have been given equal thought, and it makes me curious about who was chosen to design the place and why. I mean, it must be any architects dream to be employed to create a building as magnificent as this one. We got there just after Asr and left minutes before Maghrib, the 3rd and 4th prayer times of the day, and of course, we may not be in the mosque during prayer time.

On the way home, we drove by the Abu Dhabi Yas Marina F1 track, and then once we got home, we watched some more Tintin and headed to bed. We were all exhausted from a long day.