We are winding down now on this Doin' Dubai thing, as I'm anxious to move on- back to things pertaining more directly to our work and lives here in our un-named Central Asian country. It HAS been fun, though, reviewing and documenting our most recent foray to a foreign destination. We've seen museums, had a taste of yummy Pakistani edibles, dune bashed in 4-wheel drives, watched exotic belly dancers, visited the ancient souks, and cruised on a wooden dhow along venerable river banks.
Let's go along now to Wild, Wild fun at Wild Wadi Water Park! Until recently, Wild Wadi was the largest and most developed water park in the world. Do you know where the newest, most fabulous one is now?? Yup, you guessed it, Dubai at the Atlantis Hotel.
Our group started out about 10:00 in the morning under partly cloudy skies and much cooler temperatures than we had anticipated and hoped for on this day. Yikes! The same weather system that had brought the sudden maelstrom down on us just as our desert safari ended ushered in a "here to stay for a while" kind of weather. Ah well, the bright side is that we wouldnt' bake and burn quite as much.
Let's take our first peek at where we're headed...
Picture a huge series of winding rivers interspersed with sections where powerful jets of water that "push" your innertube up and around a "track", roller coaster style. You see, at Wild Wadi, instead of a lot of slides you go down, you are squirted UP while seated on a single or double inner tube. It's a "real blast" !!! Okay, I just couldn't resist that one. I know it was bad.There were thousands of pool chairs all around to take a lazy nap on, and a lazy river to take a relaxing float down. The water was a perfect temp.- although, had it been about 10 or 12 degrees warmer outside, we'd have been infinitely more comfortable IN the water.
NariLoo and Macaroni had a SUPER fun time at the childrens' area. It had oodles of slides for little tykes and squirty pipes for them to splash around in. They both adored the wave pool, too, and spent hours wading around its edges. I think because it was quite a bit warmer. To be honest, we felt perfectly safe with them in the water at both places, as the park was literally overrun with lifeguards. And they were not just your average teeny-bopper who needed a summer job. They were ALL, very obviously highly trained 20 somethings from South Africa, Malaysia and other more developed countries who were VERY attentive and taking their jobs very seriously. You can see one in the background of this photo. Note also the variety of swimwear we found in this park. I guess not even the water would make a serious Muslim woman take off her head covering.
Are we hungry yet? The park had several eateries located here and there, and knowing it would taste like pretty crappy amusement park food, we opted for.................. The Cheapest! HA! For a whopping $40, we ended up with 2 orders of marinara spaghetti (AKA, Chef Boy-ar-Dee)k one chicken Ceasar Salad, and 2 orders of chicken stir fry with rice. Remember, for about 2/3 of that, we fed 12 people the MOST amazing dinner (and way more than we could eat) at Ravis. It was what it was...After lunch, it was more lounging around. More water fun, more watching the "surfers". Get a load of this: Wild Wadi had 2 huge surfing stations where powerful jets made perfect waves for practicing all manner of surfing moves. Most folks couldn't to diddly-squat and slid off to the side after about 40 milliseconds. But, they got an A+ for effort. You notice, none of us even tried :)
And what would a day at the park be without an ice cream treat?? We got fruit slushies just for fun. None of that business here on the steppe!Now we come to the piece de resistance-( I'm sure I butchered the spelling on that one- forgive me Jean et Marilyne) it was time to experience THIS:
At over 30 feet high, it felt like you were freefalling! Watch out for that monster wedgie at the end!It was a long day of super watery fun, and we were all tired to the core. But we had one more adventure to experience before heading home- the navigation of the complete insanity and completely underplanned extrusion of the guests from the property. The line had several hundred! tired and hungry people needing to be on their merry way. Instead one taxi about every 5 minutes slowly amble into the circular drive and load up a family. Luckily, we were only about 20 people back and didn't have to wait more than 30 minutes. I can only surmise it took about 3-4 hours! to get all those poor souls moved! Sad that such a top notch, well run place like Wild Wadi and the city of Dubai didn't plan better for getting their guests home!
That's it for our Wild adventures at the water park. I'd say for all the kids, it was definitely the highlight of our trip. I think for Mom and Dad, $56 was a lot to pay for a day of play there.
Next up, a day in Sharjah: A 3 for 1 museum look-see- Animals, plants, and Somalis, Oh MY!
Until Next Time,
Your SteppeSister
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