If it was excruciatingly hot to walk or bike around in the daytime at 43 degrees.  A 1km walk to a bus station nearly wiped me out.  So the logical thing to do was walk at night.  Well it wasn't much better at 36 degrees.  It didn't take long until I was drenched in sweat also.

All of this happened after I did an amazing workout at Orange Theory plus those healthy salads I ordered at the supermarket.  When it comes to the class, let me tell you, these coaches have fit bodies to die for.  This time we had an Indian teacher, and the hospitality was again off the chain.  She even stopped class to run out, grab me a water bottle, and fill it up saying on the microphone, "This is your free gift for the first time to Dubai".  Then everybody cheered!  I had never seen this in my life.

The coach brought this unique flavor to the class involving high energy yet friendly vibes to the class and got everyone to push themselves like crazy.  Her presence was intimidating in a good way.  Not surprisingly, after the class the staff again tried to sell me on a package of classes.  The price had come down substantially.  I didn't quite bite yet because I was on the prowl for other studios later, hence my night walk.

This walk had the aim of finding another competing fitness studio  (Barry's Bootcamp), inquiring about packages, then looking for nightclubs.  But to get there, I knew for a fact that the buses don't take cash and I wasn't sure how to call taxis without an app.  So unfortunately it had to be slogging it out in this insanely brutal weather.  That was probably more difficult than a workout.  On arrival, they were still open late and running classes.  They said, "We have this promotion package:  4 classes for 350 dirhams."  Sold.  I didn't even think twice about it, the gym slut that I am.  That works out to less than $20 a class.  Orange Theory is now going to hate me.  

But as a compromise since they were so nice to me on our earlier chat, I'm still going to buy classes and try to negotiate a package for 5 classes.  If not, then individual classes is fine enough.  Or maybe a better option is something that never expires.  Either way, for this trip, I'll most likely have to double up classes some days.  Now I was simply kicking myself for not planning a longer time in Dubai.  It was proving to blow expectations out of the water.

They even said during our original chat that if I bought classes, they would throw in a free comprehensive fitness test as well as body composition assessment and it would a good way to see progress.

After this, I kept on walking and bumped into one group studio after another.  This kind of threw my nightclub recoinnassance out the window, because of all the time now spent going from studio to studio and asking questions about schedules and packages etc..  People at the class I did prior also told me about other studios, and by now the count was approaching 10 or more.  This was really something else:  Dubai was also proving itself to be a fitness mecca.  Make no mistake about it, I will end up being fit as fuck too by the time this trip ends. 

The dots started to connect on this part as well by simply observing the bodies of the people here, male and female.  They have amazing bodies to prove everything above, and most people take their fitness super seriously.  This was also reflected in all the healthy food options at restaurants and supermarkets.  Now with a very reliable point of contrast, I couldn't help but become horrified at the stuff I saw in San Jose especially.  My hometown Vancouver was slightly better but not off the hook either.  It really makes you wonder what the fuck is wrong with North American culture when you see literally hundreds of people who are morbidly obese and have not the slightest interest in changing that.

Another friend who is a Shenzhen expat and traveling in Alaska now said the same thing.  She told me just now, "The food is fatty with large portions.  In a restaurant yesterday I asked for small portions but they said the servings are set.  There was so much waste.  They don't listen and this leads to overweight people."  To be fair, I explained to her you could always shop at the supermarket but the selection makes shopping for healthy food a challenge.  This was true on my trip also and it was more or less a balance of both restaurant and grocery store food.

Well that was that.  The hunt for nightclubs was not really panning out so I decided to skip those and find them some other day.  Instead, I happened to randomly pass by a 24 hour pharmacy.  Just out of curiosity I walked in and asked, "This is going to be a really strange question, but do you by any chance have pills to reduce female hormone levels?"  My current supply had run out.  I wasn't remotely expecting them to say yes, but they actually did.  If only you could have seen the look on my face.  It also made me ask them, "Well then damn, what else do you guys have?"  

They showed me all sorts of other stuff, and this place was truly massive.  Anything under the sun, any legal drug, you name it they had it.  At the counter one lady asked, "Do you want to sign up for a blood test?  We have this great package you can do for 270 dirhams, it includes testing for all commonly known diseases, fat levels, hormones, and about 25 other things.  Check it out."  I passed on it, there was no urgent need.  She then said, "Alright, well please leave me a great review on Google" and told me her name and number.

By then I was on the hunt for bars instead.  A hotel had one tucked way off in a corner somewhere and it was pretty much dead.  But there was a nice beer at least to enjoy it in this evening heat with the amazing vibes.  After all that, a grey taxi or a black taxi or who knows offered to drive me home and I made sure to negotiate first.  We agreed on 50 dirhams and that was that.