May holidays experience
perfect option for a 5-day trip during the May holidays
Youth rest
A large number of entertainment for every taste, shopping, bars, restaurants, water parks, parks, buggy desert dubai, etc., a city of opportunities
What to take with you on vacation?

1. Sunscreen
   
2. for those who do not like air conditioners jacket, scarf, stole, whatever - Mandatory
   
3. credit card with a limit
   

Where is the best place to stay?
Dubai has a huge selection of hotels and apartments, there are options both in the middle price segment, and in premium, premium +, luxury, etc. ad infinitum)
there is no need to talk about budget options here, it simply makes no sense to go here for a budget vacation. Of course, you can stay in Deira, but only if the purpose of your visit is shopping (fur coats, appliances), or if it is an intermediate travel point.
We like to stay in the Dubai Marina or Jumeirah Beach area (near the Marina) the best. There are hotels and apartments, as close as possible to the beach, a large selection of shops, cafes, restaurants, and not far from the DMCC metro
What to do at the resort?
Dubai is not a resort city, it is a huge metropolis, which is an attraction in itself.
In the morning and in the late afternoon, it is best to go to the beach. The sea here is very warm, I have never swum here, so that the water was at least somewhat cool.
During the day, I recommend visiting amusement parks, shopping centers, the famous Burj Khalifa tower and singing fountains. Or just relax in the hotel from the heat)
Excursion programs
In all my reports I recommend self-guided tours. Dubai is simply created for independent movement, everything is extremely simple and clear, almost all attractions can be reached by high-speed ground metro (also an attraction, by the way), taxi or bus. Compared to the average price level here, taxis are quite an affordable mode of transport, and no one will try to deceive you in doing so.
So what to visit in the city:

1. Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and singing fountains. Beautiful, crowded, expensive! but it’s still worth climbing the Burj Khalifa, you will find stunning views around, an interesting museum dedicated to the history of construction, inside and a high-speed elevator ride as an attraction. Of course, everyone recommends going up there before sunset to enjoy the sunset. but in this case, I recommend buying a ticket on the Internet well in advance and in no case be late for the appointed time. Singing fountains are more beautiful to look at from above.
   
2. It is inexplicable, but true, it is worth visiting the Madinat hotel. it is very beautiful very big and it is such a small Venice
   
3. Look at the Parus hotel from the side and sunbathe nearby on the beach
   
4. Dubai Miracle Garden is a kingdom of flowers and butterflies, very beautiful
   
5. Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Ferrari Park and Emirates Palace. It's already in Abu Dhabi. you can get there by bus, you can take a taxi, you can take a car
   

shopping
Shopping in Dubai is not cheap, here you will not see European sales and so on.
Here is a good place to buy equipment. earlier still came for furs in Deira.
BUT! If your goal is new collections of popular brands, exclusive designer clothes and shoes - you definitely need to visit Dubai Mall, here you will find absolutely everything.
Nutrition
A good dinner for two will cost at least $70.
Oh, and forget about alcohol.
Cons of staying in Dubai
you should not go here for a budget holiday, just to see the country. there are a million temptations and at least something I want to try.
it is better to come for a good rest and not limit yourself

After gaining so much knowledge from this group, I wanted to jump in with my first review in hopes of helping others with their purchasing decisions. As background I have ordered jewelry from Miss Chen, LeixLuxury and XY. I take accuracy, quality and price into the decision of who to purchase from. For diamond jewelry I like XY because of the option to use lab diamonds, which look similar to natural diamonds (from what I've read you need a device to accurately tell the difference between lab and natural) with a much lower price. While I know MC is considered by many as the best for Cartier, her price is roughly double what I paid for this ring.
Disclosure - I have not received any incentive to write this review
Seller - XY Jewelry
Contact Info
WhatsApp - +86 13710008058
WeChat - +86 13610002027
Instagram - xiangyao_jewlery
Price - 7500CNY (paid with PP F&F)
Shipping - Free shipping with promotion
Timeline
1/30 - Inquired about the item, along with a few others I bought along with the ring. I finalized my selection and sent the money same day.
3/14 - Items were finalized with PSP pictures sent.
3/21 - Received items
Pictures

• Factory photos - There were no factory photos sent ahead of time. I saw a video of the ring on their instagram, similar to my PSP video
• PSPs https://imgur.com/a/hncUpxC
• My Photos https://imgur.com/a/dqET6at

Authentic
CRN4748700 - Juste un Clou ring - White gold, diamonds - Cartier
CRN4748700 - Juste un Clou ring - White gold, diamonds - Cartier
Quality 8/10 - For the quality I focused mainly on the weight of the ring and the appearance of the diamonds and metal. There is a decent weight to the ring, especially given its relatively small size. The diamonds are all accurately placed and have a nice sparkle, without looking overly sparkly and fake. The silver appears to be a brighter than the original, which I expect to tone down with wear.
Accuracy 9/10 - I have seen the authentic in person, though I have not had the opportunity to compare my ring side-by-side with the original, so these details are primarily based on online resources. The diamond pattern appears to have consistent placement with the authentic (there are three rows of diamonds with the center row aligning with the point at the end of the ring; the diamonds on the point of the ring, around the nail top and on the nail top all appear to be accurately placed). The width of the band and nail head all look accurate but take that with a bit of a grain as I'm comparing it to the online pictures. Slight reduction points because the engraving on the inside of the ring is a bit light, but that's not something anyone will see when I'm wearing it.
Rep Satisfaction Rating 9/10 - I'm extremely pleased with this ring. I think the quality and accuracy are both great. The main things I will be focusing on with wear are the silver toning down a bit and whether or not any of the diamonds are lost.
Seller Satisfaction Rating 9/10 - XY has always been a great seller to deal with. I think they were extremely busy after the new year, so there was a time when I inquired about the status of my order and it took some time for a reply. I've had 10/10 satisfaction purchases with them in the past.
CPR [Cost Performance Ratio] 10/10 - I think this is an incredible option for the price. For 1/13 of the price I got a ring that looks incredible and I will be proud to wear. This rating is subject to decrease if the diamonds fall out as I think they would be incredibly difficult to replace.
The Wrap Up 8
I would feel comfortable wearing the item into the boutique after letting the item age. I would not feel comfortable taking it off and letting the SA inspect it, as I think the engraving would be a pretty good giveaway. That said, it's not something you can see with everyday wear.

Let me just say that, as a parent of small children, this ALL rings absolutely true from my own personal experience in SGI - this is from 2009:
I know of many members of SGI that have offspring who won't have anything to do with the organization. The children grew up with parents who always were going to SGI activities instead of spending time with them. I still know of families today that are like that. In general, meetings are not oriented towards children. I remember adults in SGI advising me to get a baby-sitter so I, along with other parents, could leave the children at home during Kosen-Rufu gongyo.

That way, the meeting would be much more enjoyable for all of the adults. Most parents would strongly disagree with this, and the attitude towards children is one reason that SGI can't hang on to members very well. The children are to a great extent ignored, and the parents are mad at SGI's attitude.

I used to be envious of other religion's relationship with their youth. Take the Jewish faith, for example. The Bar and Bat Mitzvah are such a great way to teach and honor the young person. In our city, there is a wonderful Jewish Community Center, of which we are members (everyone's welcome there). There are so many great youth activities. They have several paid employees directing the activities. Compare this to SGI. If there are youth activities in SGI, they are all done by volunteers (often quite a bit older) and don't occur on a regular basis, or at least not for long. My husband got involved in a youth group several years ago called Z-Wave. It went for a few months and had fun activities for the kids, but it was run by volunteers, and SGI would not give any money to run it. So my husband and another lady tried to raise money by selling candy bars and other snacks after meetings, but when SGI found out, they put a stop to it. The reason was that SGI might lose it's tax-exempt status if the government found out that they raised a few dollars by selling candy to support their activities. My husband was disappointed (and disgusted) and Z-wave fell apart.
(Z-Wave was hyped in our publications; when we moved to a place it was happening, I was thrilled, but it disappeared after we'd attended just once.)
I have heard that SGI is starting a new campaign for youth called "rock the era" in which there are supposed to be 2 meetings per month for youth, on Sunday afternoons. I have also heard that there is going to be a giant youth conference next year for young people from all over. I guess SGI is trying to get youth involved so that it will be able to hang on to more members. We'll see how these events go.
(We saw, all right)
I agree -- SGI does not seem to know what to do with children and teenagers. In my area, the YWD (Young Women's Division) were often told to take care of kids, in another room, while the parents attended meetings. Frankly, as a YWD then, I felt that this was not fair. I don't have kids, so I get to be everyone else's unpaid babysitter? Young Men's, and Young Women's Divisions were really a huge age range anyway -- basically any member without children, so you could have thirty year olds in a division with fourteen year olds. That just doesn't work. The needs and interests are too different. Why would a fourteen year old want to hang out with thirty-year old me? It was probably boring for her, like hanging out with her mother's friends.
I had a friend, a YMD in his late 20's with Aspergers' Syndrome. He was successful professionally, programming computers, but he was asked to lead a group of teenage boys, and he just floundered with that. The poor guy meant well, and tried hard, but he just couldn't relate to teenagers...and to make it worse, these teenagers didn't even want to be there. Like many children of SGI members, they didn't like SGI, and were only coming because their parents made them.
There's a real art to working with kids. You can have smart, talented people who make lousy teachers -- or youth leaders. If SGI is serious about holding onto the children of its members, they need to rethink their youth activities. Forcing unwilling members to work with kids is not the way to go! SGI is certainly wealthy enough to fund activities like Z-wave, or even to pay people to develop some programs for children and teenagers.
(But the Ikeda cult EXPECTS everyone's automatic devotion and they're supposed to all feel just so very GRATEFUL for SGI existing so they can worship the mentor that they'll weep tears of joy and be eager to do whatever SGI commands.)
Again, though, I think that all of Ikeda's talk about the importance of youth is like the organization's talk about the value of democracy and the importance of each member. It's just talk. There will be some speeches and big activities, but nothing will really change.
I, too, have had to watch others' children at meetings many times. The parents would drop off the children in a "children's room" that was way too small to accommodate everyone that was there. We had no supplies except a few donated books and crayons. With no structure, it was pretty unpleasant watching these kids. As Tsukimoto said, most of the children did not want to be there, they were just forced to by their parents. So some of the children really acted up, and many got pretty wild. Or, at my own house I would watch the district's children (our district had many). Usually a YWD would watch them, (not fair, as Tsukimoto stated) but sometimes it was me. Some of the children would do their best to destroy my house.
One time several years ago, some of the moms decided that we were going to have a structured program for the kids--sort of like "Sunday School" at Kosen-Rufu Gongyo. We planned a curriculum and one child was chosen to lead gongyo. Then we had a discussion topic that was of interest to children. After that, we went into another room to do arts and crafts, and had a snack. (All materials and food for many kids were provided by a few moms, including me). For the first few meetings, things went really well. But then things started to go wrong. Parents were very unsupportive--they just dropped their kids off, most of the moms lost interest, and there were only a few of us to handle many more kids than we could. After a few more months, I dreaded going to Kosen-Rufu Gonyo, so I too stopped being supportive. It turned into a disaster, with only 1 person (not even a mother!) in charge and a few of us helping a little bit, watching everyone's kids (about 30 or so). The lady in charge was bringing her own games and supplies and it seemed to me that she became resentful (who wouldn't?). Finally, the whole thing fell apart.
(THAT is the SGI's "actual proof")
Once a year, our region would have a meeting for the elementary division--like a general meeting. Maybe they do that all over. Once my husband and I decided to be involved, so we went to the first planning meeting. The meeting was dominated by a few Japanese women. They insisted that the theme of the meeting be "mentor and disciple" relationship. We did not like that. Especially for kids! That did not seem something that they would be interested in. So we tried to voice our opinion, but the women were pretty aggressive, and we didn't have a chance. So we never went to another planning meeting. They had their agenda, and did not want our input, anyways.

Why does SGI not do something more for children?? I guess it's because adults donate money but kids don't. Of course, SGI isn't very nice to some adults, either, but not as bad as to children.

I had another experience with having to watch other's children. Did anyone go to the convention in Hawaii during the 1980's? I was in my early 30's, I think. Anyways, I was told by my chapter leader that I was to take care of his 13-year-old daughter. She was too young to go to an NSA convention without her parents, so I was assigned by them to watch her. I wasn't asked, I was told. I said OK. Then, when we got to Hawaii, they called in a few women (I was the youngest of the bunch) and we were told that we needed to watch and take care of the young girls that had come. So I was assigned to a hotel room with six 13-year olds, including my chapter leader's daughter. What a nightmare!
...this is all so familiar. My district leaders finally put a stop to YWD babysitting in another room during meetings. Both guests and members were taking advantage of it. They'd drop their kids off in the babysitting room -- and then sneak out, about five minutes into gongyo! They'd do errands or go have coffee without the kids -- and then pick them up at the end of the meeting (and sometimes well after the meeting was over!) Can you believe it!? The nerve of some people!
A talk on mentor-disciple for kids, ugh. I realize that SGI wants to indoctrinate the kids young, but boring them to death is not the way to do it. With SGI's wealth, they can afford to pay professionals to develop and carry out interesting and educational programs for children and teenagers. If youth really is the priority that Ikeda says it is -- why isn't SGI doing this? Sadly the emphasis on youth is like a lot of things in SGI -- all talk, no action. Apparently, it's more important to furnish another luxurious suite for Ikeda than to actually do something for members or their children.
As the non practitioner, my wife will often ask me to keep watch over the kids (including two of our own) during daimoku tosos at our house. The kids are very happy to be hanging out with me watching Spongebob, away from the chanting. We just moved into a much larger home so I expect the activity to increase, lol.
I agree with what tsukimoto said about why the SGI isn't funding more interesting Buddhist educational programs. I've been to many of my kids' Young Lions and Future division meetings and they just don't cut it - my kids will often not want to attend.
(My kids did not want to attend, either, and I DIDN'T force them)
It's usually just the same babble I hear at the adult meetings although at a more elementary level. I went to one of my son's recently where they were talking about the importance of financial contribution to the organization and its not even close to May!
Please tell me that you're joking. No, wait, this is SGI....you're not joking. So, the kids listen to a lecture on the importance of financial contribution to SGI. Then the kids get to play some lively and educational games like "Pin the tail on the donkey." Except that instead of a cut-out of a donkey, there's a life-sized cardboard cut-out of President Ikeda. And instead of getting blindfolded and trying to pin a paper tail on him, the kids are blindfolded and try to pin play money onto him. Hey, they're just preparing the kids to be good SGI members when they grow up!
And then there's the exciting darts game -- with the picture of former Nichiren Shoshu High Priest Nikken in the center of the dart board. From here
Hostility toward children is absolutely baked into SGI - considering how heavily SGI recruits damaged people from dysfunctional families (who don't know any better), that's hardly surprising, but SGI does NOTHING to foster healthy attitudes toward children.
Ikeda tells people it's better to neglect their children - HE certainly neglected his, and THEY turned out okay, right? RIGHT???