Deployment, Day 121 - Dubai

Last week we pulled into the port city of Jebel Ali for a four-day port visit. Jebel Ali is in the United Arab Emirates, a country in the southern Arabian Gulf. There’s not much in Jebel Ali; it is pretty much just a port facility for the city of Dubai.

Dubai is a 20-30 minute car ride outside of Jebel Ali, and is a really nice city. It is as Western as a city gets out here, with really nice shops, hotels, malls, restaurants, and tourist attractions. It has been built towards Western style comforts, and is a very clean and enjoyable city. I was out here about six years ago on my first deployment, and it is still pretty fun. They have an indoor ski resort (can you believe it, snow in the desert!) and a huge water park that actually has water slides that you go up, not down!

This city has expanded and is continuing to grow since I've been here. In a few years it is going to be probably the hottest (literally and figuratively) tourist destinations in the area. When you think of cities in the Middle East, you don't think of a place that Europeans and Americans actually go to as a tourist destination. There are plans to build an amusement theme park that will be bigger than Disneyland and Disneyworld combined called Dubai City, and they are actually building a series of small, personal islands off the coast for purchase by rich people! The funny thing is that the islands will be shaped so that they look like a world map from above. I heard that Rod Stewart purchased the island that makes up England.

Anyway, it was great to spend some time in a nice hotel room and enjoy some comfort after 42 straight days of being underway. We actually pulled out about five days ago.
Since then we’ve been doing the same old thing out here. I have been standing OOD with my own watch section since pulling out of Jebel Ali, and it hasn’t been a bad experience.

We only have two months left in the deployment, so the transit home is getting close. It actually seems doable nowadays. I’m counting the days.