Dubai - the best that U.S. oil money can buy
Trip Start
Apr 10, 2010
1
13
Trip End
May 06, 2010
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Sunday, April 11, 2010
After a wait of more than an hour in Immigration our driver, Lobo, who had been waiting for us for two hours - took us to our hotel - we have a nice one bedroom suite - but we just want a comfortable bed at this time. It was about 3 am by the time we got to sleep. I was up at 8:30 and went off in search of Jeanie and Monroe - who had flown in just a couple of hours earlier. They were able to get into their suite early and were already in the Club Lounge when I found them. We had a nice little breakfast and then they went off in search of their luggage - which they had shipped from the U.S. a couple weeks earlier and were having a very difficult time locating. That story needs its own travelpod entry but we will just say that they now have their luggage and all is well.
I hailed a taxi and headed down to the Gold Souk. Dubai has one of the best prices for gold in the world and there are over 800 jewelry shops in Dubai to prove that point. Fortunately - or unfortunately - I do not like yellow gold so there wasn't a lot to entice me here. The Spice Souk was next - I found it by the aroma of so many wonderful spices and the burning of Frankincense. I will make my main purchases next week - but did buy 7 large Vanilla bean pods for less than $5.00 partly because I was so excited and had to have them safely tucked away in my suitcase. I then headed up to Dubai Creek to cross as the locals do via an abra. For 1 dirham - or less than a dollar - I was transported to the other side on a little 20 +/- passenger boat offering me nice views of the shoreline. I was dropped off at the Textile Souk where I found some charming little Arabian slippers - deciding on the color and style was the only challenge and I think I may have to purchase another pair or two before we leave. By this time I was thinking I should get back to the hotel and check on Jim - it was around 2 p.m. when I arrived and he was still sleeping and thought I had just left the room and had come back because I had forgotten something. That is what 34 hours without proper sleep will do to you I suppose. I of course can not sleep when there is sightseeing and shopping to do and I told Jim that he needed to get up and see the sights. Jim got ready and we headed down to the Bastakiya quarter where we had lunch at the Basta Art Cafe and then walked through this historical area that was originally settled by Iranians in the 1920's. We walked around the Grand Mosque and the Diwan - the government offices where Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum rules. I then took Jim on a walk back to all of the various Souks and on an abra ride across the creek. We had to meet Jeanie and Monroe for cocktails at 6:30 so back to the hotel we went and after cocktails we greeted Bob and Kathy - who had just flown in from California. We had dinner at Harry's Cigar Bar and Lounge and by this time it was after 11 p.m. and everyone was quite tired so we called it a night. Tomorrow we will head over to the Mall of the Emirates to check out the indoor snow skiing - we will see the Burj Al Arab and the Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world at 2,716.5 feet! Not sure how easy it will be for me to keep up on these travel journals and photos we will be quite busy and I am not sure how easily I will be able to access the internet but I will do my best.
Comments
You are off to a good start. Sounds like a fabulous journey.
Mom
Your photos are great! It doesn't look as populated as I thought--where are the crowds? Was your boat ride in the boat shown in the photos? Are you able to communicate very much with the locals?
Thanks for the pictures. We really enjoyed them. We were wondering some of the same things Marilyn wondered. We thought you were going to cruise to Dubai which was troubling us. We were conderned for your safety. Gosh are we getting old? Hope not !!! Send more pictures when you can.