Ski Dubai

Hey friends,

One of the things my sister, her friend and I did was check out Ski Dubai. (One reason why I love having people over to my place- I get to do things which I would not do so otherwise!)

A lot has been talked about Ski Dubai. Why do we need a skiing slope in the desert? Is there really need for such a thing? You can argue for a long time for the pros and cons of a ski slope in the middle of Dubai, but when we were there, we were as excited as the little kids that showed up. The deal was that you had to know how to ski to get onto the massive slopes and ski downhill. Since I know how to ski, my sister and her friend didn't. So, instead the three of us went to what was called the Snow Park.

Even before we entered the Snow Park area, we felt like we were in some Swiss chalet as the entrance of the Ski Dubai is themed after a Ski Resort, complete with timber walls and wooden floors. We paid for the rental for jackets and pants, which we had to wear over our clothes. The girls went into the changing room and came back out after quite a while. My sister asked me " are we supposed to take off our jeans?" NO! I told them to get back in and put on their jeans as it will be extremely cold in there! So they went back in and took another good fifteen minutes to put their clothes back on!

The first thing that hits you when you enter the Snow Park area is the extreme cold. My nose immediately became red. My sister and friend claimed they felt like they were in London! We walked around the kiddie area, which was shaped like an underground cave. Once we ventured out into the real snow area, this was where the fun began. I made snowballs to throw at my sister, only to hear her scream out in anguish as the snow slid down inside her jacket! There was a small igloo in which the girls got in. A guy was there on the side sculpting out animal figures out of ice blocks. It was so cool (pardon the pun) to see him carve out a penguin!

We did the "slide down the snow chutes", sat on sleds and came down hills as well sitting on rubber tires and come sliding down the snow hill complete with a big bump at the end! Once inside, you also realize how massive the ski slope really is.



However, after about 20 minutes, my nose was running, my hands were freezing and we felt like going back out into the hot weather. We were ready to leave. Barely 30 minutes in there and we were freezing our butts off!

The funniest thing we could get over was how the girls had spent the earlier part of the day getting a tan on the beach under the scorching sun, and the same day, they were freezing their butts off inside this Snow Park. Talk about extreme weather in a day!

I would recommend Ski Dubai to any budding tourist, or to those who seek a little bit of fun. If anyone of you know how to ski, tell me, we can go together and come racing down the huge slopes!

Mansur