Dubai Summer Surprises & Modhesh world

Imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago, I was invited by Dubai Events & Promotions to visit Dubai last weekend to experience the launch of the 15th edition of the Dubai Summer Surprises event? So, this past weekend Mrs Sythe & I went up to Dubai to make the most of the holiday, tour parts of Dubai we'd never been to before, and see just how much punishment my credit card could take in the sales.

The summer event known as Dubai Summer Surprises is in it's 15th year of operation, and kicked off this last weekend on the 14th June and will run until the 14th July. If you happen to have children who are not running away to cooler climes for the summer, there really is quite a lot on to keep the little ones entertained and happy. Obviously, this DSS is not just for kids, it's also for big kids too - lots of sales in the malls and special offers on hotels and spas.

In a nut shell, the Dubai Summer Surprises event consists of: Free kids shows in most of the malls in Dubai (Ice Age 3, Spongebob Squarepants, Barbie, The Smurfs and more..), special promotional prices in hotels all over the city, some incredible deals for some of the many spa's in Dubai. And, of course, the indoor theme park for kids known as Modhesh world.

A brief round-up of some of the events in the next month.

I went to the launch of Modhesh world on Thursday evening and was impressed by the sheer size of the place. Think of the kids play-area in Muscat City Centre, multiplied by a factor of about 35 and you may be starting to get into the right size of this place. The best bit is the price: it's Dhs 10 to enter (kids under 2 are free) and if you were a kid I'm fairly sure you'd find more than a few things to do that would leave you totally exhausted (a happy parent is one with a sleeping child right)? This years version of Modhesh world runs until August 25th and is situated in the World Trade Centre.

Modhesh world is open daily from 10am, except on Fridays where it opens at 2pm - it closes at 10pm except on the weekend or Eid where it closes at midnight. Ramadan timings are 6pm - 1am. I walked around this place for about an hour and still did not see everything that there was to do there, for about $2.65, I think it's exceptional value for money.

Now, back to the big kids and their needs. I visited the following malls: Festival City, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai Mall, Mirdiff City Centre, Ibn Battuta Gate, Mercato Mall & Burjuman. Every single mall had shops offering sales - not every single store, but a lot of them. Also, in some malls (for example Mercato) if you spend over a certain amount of money you get an entry into a free prize draw for a car. So if you are going up to Dubai for a weekend of shopping, its worth while to know about some of these offers.

All in all, it was a fun weekend, I got some killer deals in the sales, had a little visit to a spa (more on that another day) and saw hundreds of kids with the biggest smiles on their faces having a great time. Hopefully I have helped some of you with kids here in the summer months find something fun to do on a weekend. Dubai is, after all, only an hour's plane ride away.

le fin.

I'm back. And what not to do in Dubai.

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend, and those that went to the Westlife gig had a great time! I was taking a week of much needed R&R and sampling some of Europes finest beverages. It was very refreshing!

Now, on the plane flying back to Muscat, I read with some interest the story of the British man, Lee Bradley Brown (39) died in custody at the Bur Dubai police station on Tuesday April 12, 2011.

He was reportedly staying at the Burj Al Arab hotel on a last minute holiday - I wonder what kind of deal he got? In this article, it stated that he ran his own maintenance business and traveled on his own. He was arrested for verbally abusing a chamber maid, and apparently attempting to throw her off of a balcony at the hotel. I wonder just how drunk the guy was.

So it then appears he was arrested on the 6th of April (and he died on the 12th of April). Now here is where things start to get a little questionable. It's certainly not alarming that the guy was arrested for being drunk and verbally (and physically) assaulting someone, and I'd expect him to be arrested and put into a jail for processing.

But here are where I start to have questions:

1/ How long does it take to process a person for being drunk/disorderly? I'd suggest that it does not take 6 days to arrest someone, let them sober up, put them in front of a circuit judge and have bail set. Upon further reading in The National, it appears that he was denied bail due to the severity of the charges.

2/ The man's family contacted the British Embassy to say that he was in jail. Not the other way around. This means that the Dubai Police failed to notify the British Embassy that they had arrested one of it's citizens. That, to me is a problem. As an expatriate living in the Middle East I've always been told that in the extremely unlikely event of being arrested here, my Embassy would be notified automatically. Again, the article in The National states that the Embassy was notified on the next day, the 7th - yet the Embassy did not know anything about it when contacted by Lee's sister (as reported in the Daily Mail).

3/ Regardless of the fact that I find it odd that the guy had a photocopy of his passport in his cell with him, other prisoners there still contacted his family, who notified the Embassy of the situation - so for those saying that the beatings were a "pack of lies", they are just not quite getting their heads around it are they - the family contacted the Embassy, not the other way around, meaning that someone in that jail saw what happened, got a number, and spoke to the man's family.

4/ Dubai's Attorney General stated, “The initial forensic report attributed Brown’s death to asphyxia. The deceased choked on his own vomit". He then went on to say, "The report also pointed to traces of hashish in his blood and urine samples.” So I guess that's ok then? And I assume he meant traces of THC and not hashish, and that he neglected to consider that THC stays in a persons system (when testing the blood) for months after exposure.

5/ Again, according to the Attorney General, Lee started vomiting the day before but declined medial assistance (perhaps they asked him telepathically?), and he subsequently died choking on his own vomit. Surely that's a sign of negligence from the Police as they were fully aware the guy was ill, and yet still left him to die.

So, to sum up:

Don't go to Dubai, get drunk and attempt to throw someone off a balcony and have 'Hashish' in your blood, you might just die from it.

le fin.