We arrived in Dubai on September 26, the same day we left KL. We absolutely loved Dubai, three nights was not enough. A couple more night would have been great, I would have had a chance to skydive (which is on my list for next time)!! Dubai is a beautiful city, all the buildings are about the same color, either sand, glass, or silver. But they are all different and amazing. It was so hot there, but it was a dry heat, so it's not bad in the shade. I'm just happy we missed the dead of summer and caught just the tail end. We stayed at the Hilton Jumeriah Beach, which I highly recommend. The hotel was really nice, right on the beach, and near a bunch of restaurants. A little far from some other attractions, such as the malls and the Khalifa, but still a good spot. The beach and water were gorgeous, we were just down the way from the Palm Islands and Atlantis and that stuff, so we had a nice view. Our first day was spent at the beach and relaxing after our 7 hour flight in and watched the sunset over the water on the beach, stunning. We went to a kebab place for dinner, YUMM-O, the hummus was delish and the meat was phenomenal, after dinner we went for a drink at the hotel. The hotels are the only places that can serve alcohol in Dubai.
The next day was a long one. We slept in a little, fortunately, and then we took off to check out the Gold Souk and the Spice Market. The Gold Souk was crazy, it's a mall and strip stores and all of them are jewelry, mostly gold, but diamonds and everything else in between. I got a gold, white gold, and rose gold combined in one bracelet, a couple pashmina's, and some souvenirs. The Spice Market was a short walk away, so we decided to check it out. It was so colorful and the scents were so strong, it engaged all senses going through there. Indigo, frankincense, cinnamon and so much more. After a nice lunch we went back to the hotel to clean up and then awaited our ride for the desert safari! The desert safari was awesome! We got picked up from the hotel in a land cruiser and made one stop down the street to get two other girls and then we headed off into the desert. It was about an hour or so drive until we stopped in the desert and we were able to take a few pics and check out the view, our guide deflated the tires a bit before we started our dune bashing! The dune bashing was insane and oddly enough our guide told us we couldn't use our 'oh shit' handles. Cruising over the sand dunes, sliding all over the place, and crashing about. A little scary at times, I thought a couple times as we were sliding we might just tip over, but we never did, and even if we had the cruiser was outfitted with a roll bar of course. We made one more stop to see some of the sunset, which was a sight to see. I love sunsets, and I have been lucky enough to see some amazing ones all over the world. We hopped back in the cruiser to finish our bashing before heading to our camp sight. The camp sight was set up in a square with a very deserty feel to the outside set up. There were camels out front to ride, which we rode, duh. You can't go to the desert without riding a camel :) The inside was up with a huge concrete slab in the middle and surrounding that were tables with pillow cushions as seats for dinner, a bar, a smoking sheesha area, a henna area, and the buffet area. There was this guy dancer first on the concrete slab that spun for probably 15 min, around and around and around. He had some light up skirt and I don't know what else, but it was pretty cool. After him was a belly dancer, she was pretty good too. Dinner was local food and tasty, a little spicy, but tasty. I got a henna tattoo on my shoulder blade, it was my name in Arabic, at least I think it was :D and Eric and I smoked a little sheesha (tobacco) in the desert, how cool is that??
Our last full day in Dubai was awesome. I spent the morning at the beach catching a few rays while Eric went for a run for some strange reason. He joined me when he was done and relaxed with me for a bit on the beach. We got ready and took it to the malls. Dubai is known for their shopping and their malls, since it's 100 degrees or hotter a good portion of the year they have to have nice malls to attract people and get you out of the blistering heat, I mean it IS a desert. The Emirates Mall was up first, it's claim to fame is its indoor ski slope. We didn't ski, but took peek at it through the glass. It's cold, you have to wear a ski suit. It was a little winter wonderland, they had tubing, sledding, and a big bubble you could get in and get rolled down a little hill in! So cool, maybe another time when we have a few hours to kill we will check it out. That was the only cool part of this mall, otherwise it was just like any other nice mall. The Dubai Mall is a different story, we hopped on the Dubai Metro from Emirates Mall over to the Dubai Mall. The Dubai Mall is at the base of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world), it has an aquarium, a waterfall, and it's beautiful. And just outside the mall and the Burj are the Dubai Fountains. They were created by the same guy that did the Las Vegas Fountains. They were amazing, but more on that later. Eric and I walked around the mall a bit and explored. We made our way to the aquarium. It's this huge one wall glass that faces out towards the mall so everyone can see it. I believe it's the largest piece of that type of glass for an aquarium in the world. Anyway, so we decide to go in and check out the aquarium, pay to go in thinking there's a lot more to the aquarium, turns out it was all the same tank and you just walk underneath it and through. A little disappointed at first, until we found out we had to go up two floors to see the rest. It was more small tanks with different fish and some animals, bugs, and crocodiles. After we finished at the aquarium we headed over the Burj Khalifa for our slotted time. The Burj was stunning, an absolutely amazing piece of architecture (kinda reminded me of a Christmas Tree). It's 828 meters tall and they call it a vertical city. There's shopping, a hotel, fitness center, offices, and living apartments. The observation deck is on the 124th floor, and there are 200+ floors in all in the building. The observation deck was a decent size and offered 360 deg views from up there, they had indoor as well as an outdoor deck. From one side we saw 'the world', the world is a group of man made islands off the coast of Dubai. The views from up there were breathtaking. We spent a bit of time up there wandering around and taking in the sights before heading back down. We enjoyed a really nice dinner sitting by the fountains. Italian food and a show in the form of music, water, and lights. We were able to see one show with the sun still out and then 3 more shows during dinner in the dark. There was some local music to the fountains and even Whitney's I Will Always Love You! <3 It was quite an amazing night and a fantastic way to celebrate 5 years with my man!
WHAT A TRIP! CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK!!
I have now decided to make this a two part blog, A. so I can get something out sooner and B. because I'm lazy and don't feel like writing the rest of the trip home at the moment, so we will leave it at Dubai (which is enough for one blog I think) :D
Enjoy!
xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment