Monday, February 23rd, 2004: Mark and I made it back to Dubai early evening and departed for Dubai Creek with Samia around 7:30PM, arriving at “Al Boom’s Tourist Village” around 8PM. I find it very amusing to drive with Mark & Samia as they constantly trade opinions on the optimal route, while rarely agreeing. In a traffic-jammed environment the quickest path is not necessarily a straight line and the particular time of day plays heavily into the navigation. A key emphasis is avoiding nasty rotaries, and they have some lulu’s here --- we’ve endured several that have three lanes! Funny thing is that I can picture Kim & myself in their shoes with identical results. Driving is truly not for the light-hearted in the UAE.
We rendezvoused with Florian, another AUS architecture professor hailing from Germany, and Peter, the visiting architecture professor from Berlin who was escorting 20 female students on a field trip (the entire evening had been predicated upon taking the girls out for dinner…but they were apparently too pooped from daytime activities to join us). Chatted w/Peter some and it was enjoyed, though I struggled to find common ground despite his excellent English and time in the States. Florian was a card – alas, we were at opposite ends of the table, but I admired his quick wit and am certain I would enjoy getting to know him better.
On to the accommodations. We were on an enormous, three-story dhow crammed with dinner tables. Our table was aft on the top deck, which was excellent, since we were open air and the weather was delightfully cool. Small plates of numerous appetizers were already laid out when we were seated. A new experience for me was enjoying a sprig of mint by plucking the leaves and dipping them in hummus and subsequently chomping down the stem. What an amazing appetizer! Samia left me swig her lime juice drink which was exceptionally tasty….but I’m certain way too caloric for this diabetic!
Dinner on Dubai Creek: Florian, Shahwali & Peter on left; Samia & Vance on right – lime juice is the green stuff
About 8:30PM the dhow kicked off & headed down towards the gulf. Mark was kind enough to point out some sights for me (e.g., the Dubai Golf Course clubhouse, a phenomenal structure), though it eventually digressed into the architects debating whether or not certain buildings meshed with the art & culture of Dubai. I have learned from Mark how intimately the functional aspects of architecture are intertwined with artistic concerns, and while he has provided me with numerous examples of how he has personally dovetailed these concerns --- it wasn’t until my peep show of a gang of architects that I could appreciate the degree to which this is stressed.
About midway into our cruise they placed a huge rack on our table, which contained calamari, lobster, chicken tikka, kebabs, etc. and we feasted mightily. An amusing sidebar is that when they eventually returned to inquire whether we wanted a refill of anything, Samia asked for more calamari and got met with a blank stare…until she re-phrased the request for “more squid, please” --- and was then greeted with a smile and a quick re-stocking!
When the journey ended, Florian coughed up the 420 Dirhams (about $100-US) that we had rung up (they didn’t accept credit cards and we were cash poor, but Samia had accurately predicted Florian could cover us!). Geez, what a bargain. We returned to the homestead circa 11:30PM and everyone went to bed except for Mark & I --- we played two rounds of Spite & Malice until 2AM.
Spite & Malice is a card game Mark & I have played across twenty years for bragging rights to various exotic spots we have visited together. Whoever wins the most matches in any location is the ruler of that realm.
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