Dubai

Dubai was fantastic! The flight over was very diverse with people from all over the world, loved it! I arrived in Dubai around 8am so I went to the hotel, check in, got some breakfast then headed out for the Big Bus Dubai tour!

The frame in the top left (above) is under construction and when it's finished you can see old and new Dubai through it by looking from both sides. Everywhere smells like flowers and incense, yummy! I saw a lot of men dressed in white kanduras and women in black burqas. They looked so beautiful and fancy! Everyone here either speaks really good english or good english which was awesome!

The Dubai mall was gigantic! I got turned around completely twice but just kept walking and eventually found my way out to the fountain (below). The buildings there were massive with stunning architecture! I just love to sit and stare at beautiful buildings and this is a great city for that! So many beautiful shapes and colors. The city is just dripping with money and shiny stuff! Buildings are going up everywhere. For every building that's completed there's another one right beside it going up. The growth here is incredible! 

                       

Old Souk

I used my great "haggling skills" to get a hookah, two teas and some camel pants at a great price! I saw a chandelier that was hand made in turkey that Stephanie wanted when I was in Manitou Springs, Colorado and it was literally about 1/10th the cost! I think it's because I was so close to where they're made. I ended up finding it at another souk later in the trip and got it! There were tons of little shops with super sweet people! I loved this part of the trip so much!

Literally rented an entire boat for 20AED (~$5)! Got a private boat because I wanted to go somewhere the free ones didn't go... or I got suckered into paying for a "free" boat, either way it was super neat! No life jackets, no seat belts, just get in and go!

 Gold and spice souk

In the summer it gets to about 120F so air conditioned bus stops are required by the government! So cool!

Jumeirah hotel is shaped to look like a breaking wave.
Burj al arab was the tallest all suite hotel in the world when it was built to look like a sail on a boat! It cost around 1 billion USD to build!!!
In June 2001 Dubai started to build the "Palm." They made an island shaped like a palm tree! They used "rainbowing" which means a machine sucked sand from the bottom of the ocean and by using GPS the sand was sprayed in certain areas to build the island. The island is one of very few man made objects that are visible from space! To get to the top of the palm tree island where Atlantis is you either go through a tunnel under the ocean, take a boat or your personal helicopter... because people here just have personal helicopters lol! The island has a wall facing the Arabian gulf that protects is from being washed away. The wall can withstand a 4 meter wave. The Arabian gulf is very calm so a wave this high is very unlikely. There's another project Dubai is working on called the World Islands. It's about 300 man made islands that are shaped like the world!

Ski Dubai

Ski Dubai was amazing! I love to ski so of course I had to try it! There were several indoor runs here including a black! I tried all of them and managed to keep all my limbs :) The ski gear was included in the price because who's going to bring ski clothes to Dubai?!? A lot of people thought I was from the U.K. here!

Ski Dubai

Jumeirah Mosque

There's a mosque at least every 500 square meters to allow all people who want to attend and pray to have the opportunity.

Call to prayer

                           

Burj Khalifa light show

The light show was amazing! So many lights! After the show I took the metro back to the hotel. I was only one of two women on the entire train from what I could see! And the train was spotless! No trash, gum or graffiti anywhere! Turns out gum, food and drinks are not allowed on the trains. Oh, and they're driverless!

Light show 1

Light show 2

Light show 3

Hotel breakfast

Souk Madinat

This souk was very beautiful but also very expensive compared to the souks I visited yesterday. I found a turkish tea kettle but I could only get the guy down to $216 USD and I'm super cheap so I left lol There was an artificial lake around the property that's also a sea turtle rehabilitation center!

Chandelier

I stopped at a little Lebanese restaurant called Chandelier for lunch and it was incredible! The owner told me they have great sheesha and he was right! I had lentil soup and a garden vegetable salad... delicious! Best salad ever! The restaurant overlooked the marina which was so beautiful and relaxing. I played some arabic music on my phone at my table while smoking sheesha and sipping on my peach iced tea (nothing like iced tea in the south but delicious)! 

Drinking alcohol is only legal in a handful of 5 star resorts here and sheesha (like hookah aka flavored tobacco but a lot smoother and doesn't make be cough) is only legal in certain places as well. 

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a thing for middle eastern men. They're just so beautiful and they're all over Dubai driving their fancy cars that cost more than my house! I tried my hardest not to stare and drool too much lol

Desert Safari

We stopped at a gas station on the way to the desert to meet up with the other vehicles in our tour. I took a couple pictures of the magazines in the store. There was an entire magazine on camels for sale! Bottled water just outside the city was only 1.5AED (about 40 cents in the US).

Driving to dune bashing

The road we took to the desert safari split Dubai and Sharjah. Sharjah is building a new part of the city. There were lots of half built empty buildings along the road.

The driver told us to look to the right and have our cameras ready then flew down a huge hill! So much fun!

Camel! Sorry about the awful close up at the beginning! But totally got super close to a real camel! So exciting!

We arrived at the desert camp for the evening. They had camel riding available but I felt so awful about making a camel carry my butt around because it was sooooo hot and his little legs were so skinny :( so I just did the other stuff available around the camp site :) I went sand surfing, got a beautiful henna tattoo, smoked more sheesha and had some turkish coffee.

Sand surfing

Belly dancer

Dance show

The sheesha in Dubai aint no joke! I seriously couldn't stand for about 10 minutes after smoking it!

On the way back from the camp site we saw hundreds and hundreds of trucks traveling from Dubai to Fujairah. Cement is made in Fujairah and cement trucks drive to Dubai daily to deliver it then back to Fujairah each evening. Incredible to see so many trucks headed one way!

Beach and JBR walk

Originally I was going to Qatar for the last day here but I enjoyed Dubai so much and I still had things I wanted to see there so I ended up staying my last day. I'll save Qatar for another trip! 

JBR walk is a paved path along the beach about 1 mile long filled with restaurants and shops. I normally don't like the beach because it's sandy, I have to put on 7 layers of SPF 90 then I sweat like a man and the sunscreen gets in my eyes :( BUT I actually enjoyed the beach in Dubai for about two hours which is super impressive! It was just so beautiful and there was so much stuff to do!

The Dubai eye is currently being built (picture above in the middle). When it's finished it'll be the tallest ferris wheel in the world. 

Marina Promenade

Around the Dubai Marina there's a 7km walkway. This area is considered "new Dubai" and you're surrounded by stunning sky scrappers on the entire walk. I only saw two dogs while I walked around the promenade which I thought was odd. Honestly it's probably too hot for most dogs here!

I had the most amazing lunch at the marina at a restaurant called Latino Garden. They had a beautiful patio to sit on and stare at all the sky scrappers while eating and smoking more sheesha!

The above two pictures are probably my favorite from the trip. The twisting building is the tallest "twisting building" in the world. It's one of Dubai's most sought after residences because every room has incredible views due to it's shape.

Decided to rent a bike after lunch and continue around the promenade. The marina idea was launched in Dubai in 2005. Before that it was just a couple hotels and the beach. Now there's hundreds of beautiful tall buildings and tons of restaurants and shops. Amazing!

Big Bus Night Tour

I just loved this part of the trip so much! The buildings are beautiful during the day but are even more beautiful at night all lit up! Everything is about the tallest and biggest here! We learned a little bit about the water on this tour. Water in the tap is desalinated from the Arabian Sea and water for plants is "recycled water" meaning "recycled pooh water!" If you're walking in a garden and the sprinklers come on, run! lol

I felt super safe the entire trip and didn't really realized why until I took the night tour. The guide said that there are cameras everywhere in Dubai! Dubai has a very low crime rate (0.01% if I remember correctly) and no pickpocketers! 

The Chandelier Story

After the night tour I wanted to head back to the "old souk" to see if I could find more camel pants and the chandelier for Stephanie but it was already closed so I went to another souk and found it! Originally the guy wanted $162 USD but I haggled him down to $100 USD! After we decided on the price we had to find five brown globes in the store that looked good together which took about an hour lol I also found a turkish tea kettle here for a great price! I carried the chandelier and tea kettle back in bubble wrap in a carry on bag!

I had such an amazing time in Dubai! I just loved how there were people from all over the world and you can literally find any type of food you like here! Such an amazing experience getting to talk to so many people from so many countries that all come together in this tiny beautiful country to live together in peace :)