By Sienna Price, World Traveller
I have been to the UAE (The United Arab Emirates) two times now, and the first time (when I was ten) I did not love it. We stayed on the Palm Islands which are man made and a rip off with overpriced hotels. If you stay in the Palm, be expected to pay $40 for an average burger and $10 for a can of Coke. We went to the Aquaventure water park which was fun, but it only fills one of your days. The thing about the Palm is that it’s on an island connected by a bridge, so it’s hard to get anywhere off the island.
Over Spring Break, I travelled to the UAE again.This trip was a lot better despite the sixteen-hour flight time from LAX. We stayed in Ajman, which is an emirati around forty minutes drive from Dubai. The only downside to Ajman is that you need to rent a car to get around. You can get taxis, but it would cost a lot to get to the places you want to go. Most of the tourists in the UAE are European. There are a lot of British and Russian people. The common tourist goes places like the Burj Khalifa and the Souks. But this trip we thought of doing something a little different. The first couple days of my trip were full of sleeping and swimming. The jetlag was not fun with a twelve-hour time difference.
On the fourth day of our trip, my dad and I drove up to Ras Al-Khaimah. Ras Al-Khaimah is the emirati next to Ajman but Ras Al-Khaimah is mainly desert driving where you see lots of wild camels and tons of sand. But we drove to Ras Al-Khaimah to do the longest zipline in the world, Jebel Jais Flight. I thought it would be a good idea to do the longest zipline in the world with two hours sleep. Jais Flight is 2.83km long. I went down at 150 kmph for three minutes headfirst lying on my stomach down the side of a mountain 1,680 metres above the ground. First, I get altitude sickness; second, again, I had two hours sleep, so going down the side of that mountain… let’s just say my breakfast did not stay down! The zipline is definitely not for the fainthearted, but I would do it again, just maybe next time with more sleep under my belt.
We decided to do a Bedouin experience, where you get a taste of Arabian culture. It was fun. We rode camels, and I sand boarded down the dunes. One thing that was a little strange was that they were filming a Bollywood film, so I am now an extra in a Bollywood film that I don’t even know the name of! But it was cool to see the dancers and actors. Apparently the lead was famous, and everyone there wanted his picture. I googled him after and he has been in tons of Bollywood films.
Finally you can’t go to the UAE and not go to a water park, so we went to Wild Wadi at the Burj Al Arab. It’s not as big as the Aquaventure water park, but I prefer this one because it’s less crowded and you can get on a lot more slides.
Travel well, and do your homework on the plane.
Thank you!
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