A shopaholic's paradise

I've been here in Dubai now for 2 months and I've learned one very important fact...Dubai knows how to shop. There are a plethora of malls here...out door malls, in door malls, malls with aquariums, malls with indoor ski slopes, malls with ice rinks, malls with movie theaters, malls that are one floor and 2 miles long, malls that are 10 floors and take up numerous city blocks, malls with rivers surrounding them, malls with sand surrounding them, outlet malls, designer malls, foreign product malls, domestic product malls...I could go on forever. I haven't even scratched the surface of all the malls here. I've been to quite a few but I keep discovering more. This post is about the ones that I've seen and to see if I can give you an idea of HOW intense shopping is to Dubai. People come from all over the world for the Dubai shopping festivals that happen a few times a year, because the prices drop so dramatically. It's kind of strange. Some things are ridiculously expensive and others things you would think should be ridiculously expensive are super cheap. Take designer brand clothes for example. You can get Armani, Prada, Versace, Louis Vuitton and any other european hard to spell and even harder to pronounce brand for a very cheap price, but a flat screen LCD TV costs an arm and a leg. An iPhone costs 3500 Dirham here, that's roughly $800 bucks! In the states I can get an iPhone for $200 bucks. It's very strange. You can get high quality hand made furniture for pennies (I saw a 3 seater couch/2 seater couch/and single chair combo set made of cashmere for about $1000 dollars but a pair of Rayban sunglasses cost more. I don't get it. OK, let's go shopping...





This is outside the Mall of the Emirates...one of the biggest malls in Dubai. It's the one with indoor ski slope, called Ski Dubai. That's that big grey ramp looking thing in the background.

Charity and prostitution go hand in hand?

A couple weeks ago, I volunteered my time to help sort clothes that were going to be shipped to orphans in Afghanistan. It was organized by my friend Natalie at work. She collects as much clothes as she can and stores them in a friend's office that he doesn't use. The office is a really tiny room located in an old ratty building in old Dubai. The office is so tiny and Natalie has so much donated clothes that there was no room for us in it. We had to sort the clothes in the hallway outside the office. The office door also happened to be across the hall from this other apartment. And literally every 2 mins a different woman would walk out the door of this apartment and take the stairs or the elevator down and come back with a man. Or a different man would do the same on his own, either by stairs or elevator and knock on the apartment door, to be answered by a woman. The way we were located was exactly in the way...right in front of both the elevator door and the stairs.

We were wondering what was going on in there that so many different men kept coming and going, then Natalie tells us..."Don't mind those guys, they're just going to the brothel." Yes...I said brothel. There must have been 20-30 different men that came and went in the span of 1 hour. It was insane. And every time one of the women walked through she would curse in Arabic about how we were being rude and disruptive. WE WERE BEING RUDE AND DISRUPTIVE TO THE BROTHEL. Here's the video...watch as Simone, James and I sort through clothes and people keep walking between us and Simone can't stop laughing.

How dare we sort clothes for Afghani orphans and disrupt the business of the brothel!

Gotta love gramatical errors.

Man, am I sucking with these updates or what? Way too much time between updates...I am sorry...I truly am. Constant running around over here. Biggest update...I got my apartment! Yes, I officially have my fatty boom batty crib. I'll put pics and vids up soon. In the mean time I drove by it last night and snapped a quick pic. This should tide you over until there's more pics.

I know it's a little blurry. Sorry, I was driving. It's the one with the yellow lights.

In the mean time, I have to furnish it. Every single inch of it...over 800 square feet. I have to buy stuff I haven't had to buy in a while...stuff I never even think of. Like...spoons. I can't remember the last time I had to buy spoons. So far, every place I've lived already had spoons there. Most likely because I was living with someone who had already provided the spoons. Or curtains...I don't think I've ever bought curtains! A bathroom mat...where do I get a bathroom mat? Anyway, I'm looking at the classifieds online trying to find some deals and I came across this...



I'm not sure if that headline means the same thing in Dubai as it does in the states, but I think I'll pass on this one.

Dubai = SWEET RIDE DUDE!!

Sorry for the delay in updates...just been so busy with a lot of stuff that I haven't had a chance to put up any new blogs. I officially started hosting the morning show about 2 weeks ago and it's been a lot of work. Just getting used to the formatics and technical aspects of the equipment and programs used out here has been pretty challenging. Also just being on air here is different from what I've been doing for the past 11 years in radio, it's been a bit of an adjustment. Thankfully each day behind the board and mic gets easier and I'm getting more comfortable! And when I'm not working, I'm looking for an apartment...I've seen at least 50 by now...no seriously, I'm not exaggerating.

So this update is all about the rides in Dubai...with a country of people with a lot of money, there's no shortage in fancy cars...here's a few of the rides I've come across.

Coming out of one of the malls and what do I find just sitting there in the parking lot...a beautiful white lambo...Lamborghini in layman's terms. In NYC I see one of these every couple months...MAYBE. In Dubai, I see one at least every other day...in a multitude of colors...like skittles! I've seen white (pictured above), lime green (very ugly), black (sweet!) and red (of course).

I was driving in my car and this mazarati passed by me, thought I'd snap a pic. This is another car I see a lot of...beautiful.



This was outside the RTA (road transportation authority, their version of the DMV) Cherry red Porsche 911.

I'm not sure what model this Mercedes is, but I couldn't help but think, as I was walking by it, this must be that new 2009 Mercedes "BADASSmobile" I keep hearing about.



And it wouldn't be Dubai if I didn't post a pic of a cherry red Ferrari on here. See a lot of these too. I was leaving work and this was parked in the executive lot...ooohhhh, excuse me Mr. Executive. Please pardon me as I walk around your gadjillion dollar car so I can get into my 2007 Toyota Carolla! Did I mention it's silver...and it's got power windows. That's right! I said POWER windows.


Obviously this isn't a fancy car...this is a Dubai Taxi (or what I've come to call "unintelligible, learn a new language, figure your own way of getting there, might die on the way and pay for it transport pods") Just thought you'd like to see what the cabs here look like.

I see a lot more cars like lotus' and Audi's. Also Hummers and Land Rovers are a dime a dozen. But those aren't exactly exotic.

OK, back to work...I promise I'll be more on top of updating this bad boy. Next blog??? "apartment shopping"