Dubai INXS ("in excess" for those of you not lucky enough to be a child of the '80's)

When you start the morning by ordering a bottle of water, and the waiter asks you "what temperature would you like that. Madame?", you know you're in a high maintenance city. Meals are followed by hot towels smelling of rosewater, ladies purses' each get their own little step stool to sit on while dining (couldn't possibly let your Louis V touch the ground could we?) and everyone, and I mean everyone, calls your ma'am or sir.

The excess of the city is borne out on the diamond encrusted cell phones of the locals, the women's bejeweled veils complimented by Dior sunglasses and the "there are only five of these in the world" Ferrari's zipping in and out of the valet at the Burg Al Arab (the "sail hotel"). Every project is bigger, better and more excessive than the last. Speaking of excess, this is one we could get used to, using Matt for scale, check out the picture of him and the 103" plasma flat screen TV on display at Festival City!
If you need a break from leveraging your first born to pay for brunch at the Raffles, don't worry there is just one cheap alternative we've found so far! All the Swedish meatballs you desire…at IKEA! That's right, IKEA Dubai's cafeteria boasts the same cheap eats as its American cousin with some interesting alternatives available like salmon pie, for example - don't ask. It's comforting to know that no matter how far we travel we always will have easy access to a new MALM bed frame. We skipped the salmon pie, but of course couldn't resist ordering two vanilla frozen yogurt cones on the way out, for just 6 dirhams!

Void of any real explanation, or purpose, there was this awesome multi-colored camel statue on the way into the Swedish furniture store…Matt gave it some good American loving on our way in!