November 13, 2007

  • Skiing in Dubai

    When I texted my sister, telling her I had been skiing in Dubai, she asked me,"Is it like being in a big fish tank with people and snow?"

    I think that is exactly what it was like. When it's 35 C outside and you are putting on a slalom kit, you have this feeling that it all is a bit silly. Anyway, John, a friend of mine, and I put on a brave face and tried to act as if it's the most natural thing on earth walking around in snow gear indoors in Dubai.

    me and john

    But then, when you walk into the snow and it's -4 C and the snow is just perfect for skiing, it's a pretty amazing feeling.

    slope

    John did snow boarding and I did slalom. I forgot I was in the Gulf as soon as I walked into the snow, and I had definitely forgotten all about the desert and the heat as I was working on my turns. BTW, Hassan from Morocco (!) turned out to be a brilliant ski instructor.

    hassan

    I'm not sure what I had expected. I think the idea of skiing in Dubai is so farfetched that I expected the whole thing to be a bit of a Mickey Mouse experience - I mean the whole attempt at reproducing snow in a country with summer temperatures of 50 C. Instead, I found that it was extremely good. Very professional. Very real. I will definitely go back there.

    mennah 014

    Here's the website for SkiDubai.

    I was also struck by a sense of unreality when I was driving through the centre of Dubai on this seven-lane motorway after midnight. There were cars in every one of the seven lanes. After midnight! Quite a contrast to Nizwa, for sure. But I don't even think that the M25 (three lanes) around London is this busy at midnight.

    311

    Here we are driving fairly close to Burj Dubai, which is 585 meters at the moment.

    tower

    Even though it's not completed yet, it's nonetheless the tallest structure on earth. Amazing project. Not sure if I would like to live on the 156th floor, though.

    All in all, Dubai was great - including the Swedish meatballs at IKEA.

Comments (5)

  • A friend of mine is a pilot who lives in Dubai and he told me about the ski hill.
    It's quite an experience, I guess!

  • I love Dubai! My friends also wanted to show me Ikea for the Swedish food--it was fun as I had never been to Ikea before although they are starting to build more here in Finland.

  • the snow photos are a bit on the amazing side.  It's hard to think of snow in a desert area but there is similar here.  One of our favorite places is New Mexico and we loved Sante Fe and Taos.  Both are in what is probably upper desert but it is very much desert but gets very cold in the Winter months.  I think the drive to these spots is a slow encline up and you don't really notice it.  The ski slopes are in or outside of Taos.  You drive and drive in desert with very little around and then you make a turn that finally lets you know you are driving up and you may turn a single bend and be confronted with snow that is 12 or 14 feet deep or it appears that way.  Once you are in it, there is no mistaking what you are looking at. Home Page for Taos slopes and Photos Pages

    I can tell you had a good time.  Oh, another link, a present for you, a fun ski page.  I have enjoyed this page for about 4 or 5 or 6 years.

  • They don't worry to much about climate change, do they?

    It looks very surreal sking in the desert.

  • Just goes to show anything is possible. My son loves snowboarding not to mention body boarding and now sea spearfishing. It's a great life. Swedish meatballs and all the trimmings sounds very good right now. Wash it all down with some Snapps or Aqua Vit.

    Wishing you a happy holiday. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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