Dubai – Around the City
We’ve been really busy since Nick and Alex got here, driving all around the city and only getting the bare minimum of sleep. It has been a lot of fun and we are seeing a lot. After they arrived around 4:30 AM we decided to head to the city for breakfast. It was neat to see downtown as the sun was rising.
We drove to Palm Jumeirah one of the palm islands, huge manmade islands that are full of luxury hotels and housing. We had to take a bridge to the island, and then went through a tunnel that went under the large Atlantis hotel to the furthest edge of the island. The place is unbelievably big, it is hard to imagine that it is man made. We got out of the car on the rim of the island and hung out, amazed that where we were standing used to be in the middle of the ocean. There are two more palm islands under construction, but are on hold due to the recession.
The Atlantis hotel, uber exclusive, we couldn’t get anywhere near it
The island seen from the international space station
We then drove to this marina area next to the palm islands and hung out on the beach there. This was an upscale area, the marina was created for people to park their yachts. The streets were all cobblestone and there were a lot of expatriates (Europeans) jogging around. We were amazed by the sheer number of brand new apartment buildings. It was hard to believe there were that many people around to stay in them. although they need to have a majority of the units purchased before they start construction.
The palm island and Atlantis hotel from the beach
A Hamann 6 series, nice!
Later we went to a market area called Karama Souk. There were many shops selling clothes, shoes, jewelry, and some traditional souvenir type items. I needed some sunglasses and wanted to get a watch so we talked to this guy in front of his shop. When he knew we were interested he took us upstairs to the storage room in his shop and through a low corridor. In the back he started pulling out boxes full of counterfeit watches. They were pretty high quality. I found a really nice looking one that was self winding and more subtle looking than some of the “diamond” encrusted ones. Since i was a tourist he tried ripping me off, asking 450 dirhams ($170) for the watch alone. Alex and I bargained the guy down to $240 ($60) for the watch and sunglasses, a pretty good deal. Below you can see Nick and Alex posing in front of a mannequin at one of the shops.
We checked out this area called the Madinat Jumeriah, a really interesting area built to look like an old market place. It held tons of shops, nice restaurants, and bars. The architecture was really interesting and was on a manmade river with small boats that could cart you around.
Another nice thing was you had a clear view of the Burj al Arab, the world’s only 7 star hotel constructed on its own manmade island. I’ve seen a show on the Discovery channel about how they built it and it is truly incredible. It was built to look like the sail of a ship. It is super exclusive, the new years party is over $2000 to enter.
Some photos from Wikipedia:
This is all for now. I have a few more posts coming up on the nightlife at Dubai and on the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world. We also have a trip to the desert with ATVs which should be a lot of fun. Thanks for watching.
