Wild Wadi

The best thing about waiting weeks between blog posts is that I have a lot to write about.

The worst thing about waiting weeks between blog posts is getting an earful from friends and family. (Thanks guys for keeping me on track.)

The weirdest thing about going to a water park in the Middle East is running around in a bikini, in the very country where I was afraid of showing my knees not so many moons ago.

I've never met a water park I liked. Actually, I really hate them. The water tastes funny and the ground is always slimy and people who shouldn't be running around in spandex are freely running around in spandex (myself included.)

But when a client gave me tickets to Wild Wadi Water Park here in Dubai and I saw triple digits on the thermometer (read: iPhone) a few weeks ago, slimy water be damned, we were going to the water park.

And though I hesitate to admit it, this water park is pretty amazing. Here it is:



My favorite part of the day was climbing up to a slide we hadn't thoroughly investigated but that had a clever name (the Jumeirah Sceirah) and even though we saw a countless number of people backing out, continued up because we're Bruces and we're not scared of water slides.

We soon discovered that mostly unsuspecting guests are placed in a scientific-looking clear cylinder where they're made to cross their arms and legs, but only after being forced to remove all jewelry and hold it as if that reduces the chances of it ending up in a drain somewhere.

Looking closely at the picture again, I'm not entirely convinced it wasn't one of those cryogenic freezing capsules in a past life.
Anyway, it counts down, "three, two, one" as if you're on an Apollo mission and the floor beneath falls out and you're shot through said tube. "This would never fly in the states," I thought to myself for what must be the ten thousandth time since we moved here.

Here we are in our only photo of the day. See how authentic? Anyone who says Dubai's not the real Middle East doesn't know what they're talking about :)