Sister Fun

The past week has been so much fun and it went by way too fast. My sister arrived last Saturday afternoon. (Lucky for her, I got my own car a few days earlier). I allotted her 3 days of lounging and sleeping to get over her jet lag. Of course we had to have a game night one night:)

By Tuesday, we took the city by storm! First stop, Souk Madinat. We spent the day there shopping & perusing. My sister managed to find all of her souvenirs and gifts here on her first try. (I think I deserve a pat on the back). I also took her to one of our favorite spots to eat, Belgian Beer Cafe.

Chocolate made from Camel Milk! We tasted a spiced version which was NOT good. 

Tuesday night, we took her to our Golf Club to show her what Quiz Night is all about. Our friend Joe also joined us. Ram and I were SO excited to have more people on our team and we were sure that we would beat our past scores.  Unfortunately, four minds were not better than two. Joe is not allowed to join us for Quiz night again, lol.

Wednesday we hit up the world's biggest mall, Dubai Mall. We walked around and ate lunch at Ping Pong, a yummy dim sum place. Then we went to see the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.  The building is 800+ meters tall, which is almost double the size all of the other world's "tallest" buildings. It took 5 years to complete and is lotus-shaped. The building is part residential, has corporate offices & the rest is commercial. I would have loved to see a flat in this building but I could never live there, too much traffic. I did take away an interesting fact: they recycle the condensation from the A/C in the building which is enough to water the landscaping for the entire property. Pretty cool! We waited about half hour to go up to the 124th floor, but we were rewarded with 360 degree views of the city.

Wednesday night we went to Al Khayal (Arabic) restaurant at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. We've never been there before so we had no idea what to expect. Sure enough, we were in for a treat. They have a fixed menu that is priced per person and you get 6 appetizers, 4 mains, and 3 different assorted dessert plates. It was a feast that we were not prepared for! They also had a live band and belly dancer as the night's entertainment. We had plans to go to 360 bar afterwards which shows views of the city, but we were in a food coma and took our fat asses home after dinner.

This was just the beginning....

Random firework show during dinner

Thursday we decided to take it easy and pool hang during the day. At night, we met up with Joe and friends and ate dinner at Siddharta (Asian Fusion) and then went to Embassy bar afterwards.

Yummy drinks & great company

We couldn't let Shilpi leave Dubai without experiencing Friday Funday, so we took her to the Bubblicious Brunch at Safrron at the Atlantis Hotel & Resort. This hotel is insane. It's glamourous and reminds me of one of Steve Wynn's properties. The brunches here are on the level of Vegas buffets except they allow unlimited consumption of alcohol in a 4 hour time frame. The food options are also diverse: there's a sushi station, seafood section, chinese station, meat & cheese area, indian food & desserts galore. All that plus booze & a DJ = Friday Funday. After we stuffed & drank ourselves silly, we headed out to another popular after brunch spot, Barasti. There we soaked in the ocean views & smoked shisha till sundown.

Happy early birthday to me! 

Barasti

I still left a few things for Shilpi to see when she comes back until then, time to detox:)