Day One in Dubai

I'm having trouble uploading the pictures I've taken. I'll try again tomorrow, but for now, you are stuck with my words. :)

The staff at my hotel are truly wonderful - all of them - I've encountered at least 10 of them so far. Top notch.

Cabbies are okay...they don't know the city as well as I thought they would, but they are fine. I heard it's really hard to get a cab here, and that the cab drivers are terrible, dangerous drivers. I haven't found that to be the case at all. I was in NYC last week, and those cab drivers make these cab drivers look like the most polite drivers I've ever seen!

For a full breakdown of all of my vendor reviews, visit my service rater blog. I'll give more details there, as they will go toward my research on friendliness by geography. :)

The mall here was big, but it was just like any other mall to me. Sure the floors were marble, but I'm so used to fake marble, I don't really care about the difference. The same stores in NH are here (sprinkled with some high end stores I've seen in NY and Beverly Hills), but really, nothing was all too different from what I'm used to in the states.

The ski area was unique, but as someone who as enjoyed the outdoor beauty of skiing in New England, it pales in comparison. I walked the whole mall, and I didn't spend a dime..or a dirham... ;-)

I didn't see anything I couldn't find in the US, and I was just a bit bored overall. It was 9:30AM EST and 5:30PM here, so I went to the movies and I saw a cute flick called the accidental husband. I got a little sick partway through, and I went to the bathroom and noticed that there are water sprayers next to each toilet in Dubai. Interesting!

...more to come... :)