Black Gold

It seems like everywhere you look inDubai a new building is going up. Some of the designs are weird!

It is a very rich place. They get their money by selling oil to the United States and other countries. We use it to make electricity, heat our homes, and to run our cars.

We have oil here in the US, but Congress and President Obama won't let the oil companies drill for it, so we have to buy it from other places. We also would not need so much oil if we built more nuclear power plants here to make electricity.

Winter in Dubai

It never gets really cold here in Dubai, so they built a ski slope inside a shopping mall. That's right, here it is


Every nite they make snow with a machine, and during the day people go inside and ski, or just play in the snow. We didn't go in, since Uncle Tom is afraid he will hurt himself if he tries to ski, and we see enough snow at home.


The mall is huge, with hundreds of stores, a movie theater, and two food courts. Here's Uncle Tom having a traditional Arab sandwich, called a shwarma.


The other food court had McDonalds, Subway, Papa Johns, Baskin-Robbins, and a bunch of other places just like home. (Do you see the Arabic writing on the right side of the sign?)

Signs

Take a closer look at the highway signs. Everything is written in English, and in a language called Arabic. That's what the squiggly-looking writing is.

Arabic is the language that people in this part of the world speak. Most everybody speaks some English too, so we didn't have any trouble getting something to eat or shopping.

Dubai

This building is called a mosque.
It is where people of the Moslem religion go to pray


You can see that there are a lot of new buildings here.
Even more are under construction.


Can you see the highway sign in this picture?
I'll tell you more about it in another post.



This is another hotel, maybe we can stay there next time.

A Nice Hotel

This is a great hotel. It is called Grosvenor House and it is a very tall building...44 floors. There are seven restaurants and a gym and a pool. As you can see, I have a nice big comfortable bed too. At nite they bring you chocolate candy...it's a great treat right before going to sleep.



I had a little trouble sleeping last nite because of the time difference. Here in Dubai the time is 9 hours later than Washington. That means it is bedtime here when it is lunchtime at home. It's pretty confusing.
The weather here is nice and warm. This morning there was a lot of fog, and this afternoon it was hazy, so it was hard to get any pictures of the city. Hopefully tomorrow it will be clearer.

A Long Trip

Tonite I arrived in Dubai. It was a really long trip, but it was fun, and there were a lot of things to do. We had a nice dinner, and watched a movie (more about that in a minute). While Uncle Tom took a nap, I hung out with the cabin crew. They are very nice people who make sure that everyone on the airplane is safe and comfortable during the flight.


Each seat has its own little TV screen for watching movies. There are about ten choices so you can find something you like. You can just listen to music too. One of the channels on the TV shows a map that tells where the airplane is during the trip. It also tells you about the airplane's speed and altitude. We flew about 550 miles per hour at an altitude of 39,000 feet. That's almost eight miles high!

Ready to Go!

I'm at the airport with Uncle Tom. Pretty soon we'll be boarding an airplane to fly to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates!

It's over 7000 miles away and it takes almost 13 hours to get there.

I'm pretty excited, but I really wonder how an airplane can stay up that long.

When we got to the airport we checked in and Uncle Tom got a boarding pass. I'm riding in his suitcase, so I don't need one. I hope I can come out of the suitcase for awhile on the plane.

We also had to go thru security...Uncle Tom had to take his shoes off, it was pretty funny. (I stayed in the suitcase). Now we're hanging out in the Red Carpet Club, it's kind of a waiting lounge for Business passengers.

I think we'll be getting on the plane pretty soon, so I better wrap this up. I'll send you some pictures tomorrow from Dubai.

Windy Weekend

I'm spending the weekend at Uncle Tom's home in Baltimore. On Saturday we went to the Inner Harbor. There are places to shop and eat, and a big indoor Aquarium with lots of fish and exhibits about how to protect the Chesapeake Bay. There are all kinds of ships here...even a submarine!

It was windy enough to fly a kite, but I was afraid that I might end up like a kite. I always have to be careful on windy days.

Welcome

Hi, I'm Flat Stanley and I have set up this blog so Benjamin and Charlotte's class can keep track of my travels. Their Uncle Tom is going on a trip next week and I get to go too!

I'm pretty excited. I will try to tell you about my trip every day, and show you some pictures too.