Dubai 2 Day Trip

Day 1:  Abu Dhabi , Dubai 

Our first trip to the Middle East! From the airplane we could see the beautiful desert that stretched as far as the eye could see. There wasn't much going on at the airport, however it took us a while to get out since before having our passports stamped we had to have an eye scan. So we went to the 'eye scan room' where there were about 10 computers to do the scan but apparently only one was working and even that one wasn't working so well because we had to undergo the process repeatedly until they finally got it right.

Once outside the airport we took a shuttle bus (from the airline) that took us to Dubai (about 2 hours from Abu Dhabi).

Dubai

First thing we saw were all those buildings and skyscrapers, some of them under construction and others recently built. It reminded us a little of Disneyland, all perfect, new and clean, almost as if it wasn't real.

A street in Dubai

The hotel (Raffles Hotel Dubai) was above our expectations, excellent facilities, good location and outstanding service. They really know how to make your life easier helping you with whatever you may need and answering your questions, no matter what it is, and when they don't know the answer then they go and find it out for you. For example, there was an interesting- looking fruit in the fruit basket of our room and I wanted to know it's name. The concierge only knew the name in Arabic so I thanked him and moved on. However, later that day he gave me an envelope including an enlarged picture of the fruit with it's scientific name and it's name in English. Wow that's what I call good service!

Raffles Hotel

Hotel lobby

Regarding location, the hotel is conveniently connected to a shopping mall (Wafi City Mall) where you can find tons of shops with clothing, souvenirs, restaurants and coffee shops.

We had a delicious meal that featured middle eastern delicacies such as hummus, baba ghannouj, dolmades and fresh pomegranate juice.

Akachan drinking pomegranate juice!

Food!!!

After lunch we went around the city and crossed the Dubai creek in a little boat called 'abra'.

'abra'

On the other side there was a market full of spices such as: saffron, turmeric, black lemon, curry, garam masala, peppers of different kinds, herbal teas, dates stuffed with almonds and covered with chocolate, figs, honey and a great variety of cashew nuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts, ah yummy!

spices and mortars 

carpets

To end the day, we went to the movies and watched "Iron Man 2". The movie had French and Arabic subtitles (in case you were wondering what language were the subtitles in.)

Day 2: Dubai

We jumped in the Big Bus to tour around the city and take pictures! pictures! pictures!

Our favorite buildings:

Burj al Arab: the hotel shaped like the sail of a ship.
Burj Khalifa: so far the tallest building in the world (828 meters high!)

Burj al Arab

Burj Khalifa

In Dubai you can't get bored, it has 7 large Malls, a hugh water park (Wild Wadi), and even a place where you can go skiing (with artificial snow and everything). Speaking of artificial stuff, Dubai has a Palm shaped island (The Palm Jumeirah) where you can buy a house (if you are rich, that is) and not only that, there is a project under developement now, of creating 300 artificial islands with the shapes of the continents in which they are planning to build private residences, themed hotels and so on.

All of this has been promoted by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. As said by him in a poem:"It takes a man of vision to write on water." So that is what he is doing, writing with sand on the waters of the Persian Gulf.

At night, we had dinner in a resort outside Dubai (Bab Al Shams Resort) about 45 minutes by car. There was dinner and belly dancing. On the car ride back to the hotel we had plenty of time to enjoy the beauty of the desert: it was all darkness except for the light of the stars above us and it was all quiet and still with nothing in the horizon except for a few date palms sprinkled here and there.

It was a wonderful trip! Even if you only have 2 days (like we did)  you should definitely visit Dubai!