Dubai: Day 4 (11/02/19)

I lazed around until noon before catching the metro to the Mall of the Emirates. Not quite as large as the Dubai Mall, bit it’s got something special - Ski Dubai! The Indoor ski hill/winter wonderland in the middle of the desert! As expected it’s also crazy expensive so I opted not to partake but I saw lots of kids having a great time sledding and whatnot.

Near the ski hill was also a special escalator up another floor into an area deemed Magic Planet, which turned out to be a massive carnival and arcade with complete with everything from Skee-Ball to spinning rides and even some VR games like Beat Saber. Again, paradise for the kids but not for a 22 year old solo backpacker.

I continued exploring the mall for a bit and once I was feeling tired of capitalism, (and WIzards Unite if we’re being honest) I took the metro to the last stop and walked 40 minutes thru the industrial zone to Alserkal Avenue. Dubai wasn’t giving off a lot of personality to me beyond capitalism, so I wanted to get at least a bit of exposure to the arts in hopes of digging into the local culture. And man was it worth the sweaty walk over! Alserkal is a repurposed warehouse district that is full of shops, coffee houses, and art galleries from around the globe. I visited easily 6 or 7 different galleries while I was there. Some were full of paintings or small sculptures for sale and were obviously there mostly to sell art to tourists. But a few of them were super bizarre free galleries that explored feelings and ambiance rather than concrete ideas. One of the last ones, and easily the strangest, I visited was the 1x1 Art Gallery. It was exploring faces: what makes a face and face, where does a face stop being human, etc. There were 8 foot tall projections of faces that would remain perfectly still until you moved and then suddenly scream at you. It was freaky and I DID NOT LIKE. But I consider it a good experience anyways.

I hung out around Alserkal several hours, listening to the live music (pretty sure I heard some Joe Hisaishi songs at one point which made me happy since he’s my favorite composer) and just hanging out until it was getting dark, at which point I walked back to the metro and returned home. The day after tomorrow I’m flying to Kathmandu, Nepal, and I’m incredibly excited!! Trekking in Nepal is one of my big hopes for this trip! Also, I’m dying to get out of this city because I’m not nearly rich enough to experience anything besides walking around.