I’m all packed, but my wife is busy trying to cram everything she has acquired over the past week into the larger suitcase I brought with me.  I was quite the pre-trip challenge to find a good sized bag for my stuff that would fit inside the larger suitcase that I had purchased in Mariupol last year.  (My wife wanted that suitcase so she could start packing her things to move to America.)

A quick note on Abu Dhabi before I get to today.  That was quite the bust from what my wife has told me.  In Abu Dhabi there’s this be Ferrari complex (“Ferrari World”), and apparently a couple of the tour people decided that they just wanted to stay there, which delayed the rest of the tour group, and as a result, they didn’t get to visit a couple of the advertised locations.  A couple of the sites were nice and impressive (I’m told), but overall, my wife was not pleased.  Glad I decided to pass on that one.  (Trust me, it wasn’t just because it was in Russian, but that was definitely a major reason why I didn’t want to go.)

Yesterday was yet another beach.  Oy.  I have had enough sand for the balance of the year (which was another beach trip).  Yesterday it was out to Al Mamzar beach, which isn’t one of the big ones that most tourists visit.  I liked that part of it.  It was, of course, hot; the water wasn’t back, but it was actually a little warmer that Jumeira Beach.  However, in all other respects, it was like any other beach.  After a couple hours of that, it was back to the hotel for a siesta, which was pretty good.

The evening was souvenir shopping, which I probably could have lived without.  My wife loved it, though, and got lots of goodies for her family.  I’m not really a souvenir guy, but I picked up a couple stupid things.  (I’m not sure “restraint” is a word in my wife’s vocabulary — definitely not the English one — but let’s see how her packing goes.)  After we got back, there was just enough time to visit the pool on the roof.  That I liked.  It still wasn’t cool, but with no sun, it was quite tolerable.  A nice breeze made for a pleasant evening.

Evening is usually the best time to do anything.  The worst time to do anything is 11am – 3pm, which is when the sun is the hottest and there is almost no shade.  My wife never caught on to this, which is why I was getting snippy when she dragged me over to yet another beach today.  This was the worst, not only because we had to take the Metro and then walk 20 minutes to get to it (in the blazing sun), but also because there were no amenities anywhere.  Most of the public beaches have a vendor or two around, selling water and umbrellas and whatnot.  This place, because it was surrounded by private beaches for the exclusive use of hotel guests, had none of that.

I won’t go into it all, but it utterly sucked.  I think today was the hottest day of the week, and I’m pretty sure I could actually hear my skin sizzling.  I managed to get us away from there after an hour or so (an hour or so too long), and after another long Metro ride and a mid-afternoon slog through the heat, it was siesta time again.

As our final outing this evening, we went fora walk along Dubai Creek.  Of the time we have been here, there have been two sweltering evenings, and this was one of them.  Last night, it was actually quite pleasant out once the sun went down.  Tonight, it was sooo humid, it was really oppressive.  So naturally we went to where there was even more water around.  It was actually kind of nice, at least when the breeze came along, which wasn’t nearly as often as I would have liked.  But the view was really nice.

The Old Souk and Textile Souk are right there, so we wandered through those as well.  Like the other souks, there were plenty of carney types calling out their deals and trying to get you into their shops.  It’s really quite the experience.  My wife was much better today, passing up nearly everyone, but did manage to get sucked into one textile shop, where she bought an Arabic headdress for her son.  (I doubt he will ever wear it.)

After that it was back to the hotel for packing.  We’ve got to get to bed soon, since we’ll need to get up around 7-ish if we plan to have breakfast before heading out to the airport.  I wonder what that flight will be like, since we still don’t have anything for my wife to read.  Oh well, back to Kiev, and after a few hours there, I’m on my way back to the US.