After a pretty good first night’s sleep I had a scheduled day of rest before the workshop I was teaching started. I decided to keep it pretty low key and save any real touristy things until the day after my workshop. However, I realized that they probably played ultimate frisbee in Dubai. Sure enough, after a bit of digging I found a pickup game of ultimate frisbee on the beach. Perfect right? I wanted to see the beach anyway and so why not go play some beach ultimate, meet some new people, and experience the Dubai beach.
Turns out, it was the perfect decision. I took an Uber to the beach which worked quite smooth on the hotel wifi. Sadly, my international plan on Verizon didn’t do anything for me. It was just a waste of money even though they said I’d be fine in Dubai. The Uber was really smooth though. The guy arrived really quickly and I made it to the beach in great time. I was lucky we didn’t have traffic, because some other days I was on the metro and the traffic was awful. I guess I chose the right time and direction.
The beach in Dubai was awesome. It did remind me a lot of Waikiki in Hawaii. The beach was this nice white sand and the backdrop was this concrete jungle of hotels and stores. The ultimate on the beach was fun, but I forgot that it would be blazing hot and that I’d need a few gallons of water to really enjoy it. Luckily, the other players were really nice and shared their water with me.
We played until the sun went down and got to enjoy a great sunset. There were also fun things like a camel that was giving rides to people on the beach.
Right before the sun totally set, we decided to take a little swim. I thought it would be nice to cool off in the water. Boy was I wrong. The water felt like warm bath water. Pretty amazing that it stays so warm. I was told to also watch out for jelly fish. I guess they have a bunch of them. I was glad I didn’t meet any of them. The shocking thing was how cold you felt when you got out of the water.
After disc, my new frisbee friends who came from all over the world asked if anyone wanted to go for drinks or juice. I didn’t have anything to do, so I was game for doing something. As a mormon it was pretty nice to be offered juice. I guess the Muslim influence is strong there that they’d offer a non-alcoholic option after frisbee. Plus, the juice place sold some triple layered, chocolate, caramel, and I’m not sure what else cake. I bought it and shared it with the group. I loved their observation that the American desserts are always so indulgent. Yes they are! Pretty fun to make some new friends from Germany, Canada, Russia and the Philippines in Dubai.
