Leave the poppy seed strudel at home if you’re heading to UAE

by Jamie Rhein on

Yesterday, while wandering through Westside Market in Cleveland, I passed by several stalls laden with baked goods, some sporting poppy seed. The poppy seed strudel was mighty tempting. This brought to mind the sidebar I saw that was attached to the article about Michelle Palmer’s and Vince Acors escape from jail time in Dubai after they allegedly had sex on the beach.

Before Palmer and Acor’s legal woes in Dubai, there was an earlier account about how people who bring poppy seeds into the UAE can also meet serious trouble. There could be trouble even if there are only a few seeds dribbled on a coat after eating a bagel before heading off to Dubai. Iva posted on that very situation back in February. There was one Swiss person who had eaten a bagel with poppy seeds and was arrested.

While eyeing the poppy seed strudel and thinking how yummy it looked, I also remembered that poppy seeds are not allowed in Singapore either. At least, you couldn’t buy them when I lived there in the 1990s. Perhaps Singapore has loosened up, but I think not.

The issue with poppy seeds is the same issue in Dubai. Instead of baking with poppy seeds, people could just get a notion to turn them into opium. The thing is, from what I understand, opium is not made from poppy seeds, but from the unripe poppy seed pod. Eating poppy seeds, however, can result in a false positive for the drug. Tricky.

Because this is an older story, I checked the U.S. Department of State page on UAE to see if poppy seeds are still banned. Yes, they are. I looked on Singapore’s page to see if I could find out about poppy seeds. I couldn’t find a reference to them, but the don’ts in Singapore is a mighty hefty list.

Sex on the beach couple out of jail in Dubai

by Jamie Rhein on

Remember the names Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors? They are the two Brits who weren’t really a couple until they met at a champagne brunch in Dubai, got drunk, and then proceeded to get frisky on a beach. Before that party, they didn’t know each other. After they became better acquainted after a cocktail or two, or who knows how many, their friskiness got them much international attention and jail time.

I sort of stood up for Ms. Palmer in an earlier post this summer before all the news came out that perhaps she had been warned by the police to stop her frolicking with Mr. Acors because what they were doing looked a like having sex. Instead of listening to the men in blue, or whatever colors the police wear in Dubai, she kept on with her male companion, who from the sounds of it, had about as much sense as she did. The two have claimed innocence to the sex part. Kissing? Yes. Nookie? No.

Regardless of what really went on, as Josh later posted these two were given a three-month sentence. I found out at Jaunted that these two are leaving Dubai after avoiding jail time. Instead of jail, their behavior will cost each them the equivalent of $272 and deportation. [Here’s an L.A. Times article with more info.]

That’s not such a bad amount of money, but I bet neither of them will look at an expanse of sand the same way again.

And for the rest of you who feel like a bit of friskiness on the beach, it can get you jail time. Really. Even in the U.S., sex on the beach can get you in trouble. If not jail time, there may be a world of embarrassment in your future.

Gadling Take FIVE: Week of Nov. 8–Nov. 14

by Jamie Rhein on

Today Gadling welcomed our newest blogger, Brenda Yun. Yun, who is tapped into the thrill of world travel without guidebooks, has looked for surf in a remote spot in Vanuatu and has traveled to where many haven’t tread.

Keeping with a theme of thrills in mind, here’s Gadling’s Take FIVE for this week:

This week also marks the end of our series, Catching the Travel Bug. The series offers personal accounts of various parts of the world where the kindness of strangers and newly made friends have resonated over the miles and years.

Sharks Get Violent at Dubai Mall Aquarium

by Josh Lew on

Come shop in the mall recently built in the shadow of the Dubai Burj, the world’s tallest building. You will enjoy over 1,200 of the world’s finest shops and a huge, glittery gold market…and see a 10-million liter aquarium in which divers and small fish are ravaged by gigantic sharks.

The aggressive sharks are part of a 33,000 specimen tank at the 12-million-square-foot Dubai Burj Mall. The tank includes an acrylic tunnel that people can walk through and gaze up at the aquatic life. The mall’s grand opening was marred when the large sand sharks attacked and killed nearly 40 smaller sharks. I doubt that the mall’s goal was to remind people of the casual brutality of nature before they began browsing through the world’s largest gold market. I’m sure the goal was spectacle, but naturally aggressive sand sharks do not mix well with other sharks in a closed environment. Divers performing maintenance on the interior of the tank have also been attacked, though no fatalities have been reported.

From the 140th floor: Hope you’re not scared of heights

by Jerry Guo on

That’s the view from the 140th floor of Burj Dubai, which will become the tallest building (that’s even including communication towers) in the history of mankind when it’s completed sometime next year. There will be a total of 160 floors and some 3.5 million square of office and residential space. And don’t forget about the $4.1 billion construction bill.

I recently had dinner with a couple of the guys who helped design the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, so I’m a bit awed by just how outrageous skyscraper engineering has become (as well as how fierce the competition has been getting–did you know there’s a committee to designate the world’s tallest skyscraper?).

Photo courtesy of burjdubaiskyscraper.com.