Right after we arrived the previous night, we had to confirm our excursions with the company we used for both, a first day in Dubai city tour to Dubai Museum, Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Mosque, Gold Souk, Spice Souk and then in the morning we left right after breakfast.
We only went walking around the neighborhood where our hotel was situated, as we wanted to check out what’s around us and we took a boat as we had time till i think 12 PM when they would pick us up for the actual city tour. So we had time to check around and luckily Dubai Creek was very close to us. So we went to check it out and tried one of their taxi boats which brought us on the other side of the Creek. It was amazing! Here a couple of pictures to see what I am talking about:
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- Funny how you can find super-duper expensive cars like this Dodge that are just left their collecting dust and never driven again
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- I love this old type of architecture of UAE before all this oil was found
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- OMFG we fell in love with MOGU-MOGU!!! ♥ We used to drink like 5 a day 😀
The amazing service of this company (Orient Express) included hotel pick-up and drop-out as well as lunch (if I remember well). We gathered a few more people, some of which slept at the Burj Al Arab 7-star hotel, so it was handy as we had to go see it anyway. Sadly, they didn’t allow us to go closer to the hotel, there were guards and all of the passengers in our van had to get out of it, so it can enter the restricted area to go pick-up the other guests (two sophisticated ladies.. well.. let’s pretend so), and then we headed to the beach close to the hotel. It was amazing, around 38-39 degrees, yup, a bit too hot, but amazing to be near places you’ve seen on the TV so many times. Then we ended up at the Dubai Creek, same place we visited earlier that day 😀 Just on the other side of it.
We then headed to the Dubai Museum. This was our first read ride through the city of Dubai. So we were amazed by the insanely huge buildings and I took 874238634785634 pictures of everything haha. Don’t worry, I won’t post everything 🙂 (maybe only 70% haha). In Dubai Museum you can see how people used to live before, what tools they used in their every-day life, how did they build their houses with a funnel-like hole that people used to “air-condition” their houses in the old times. In the museum you can also read that at the beginning of the 20th century Dubai was only 3 km long and 1 km wide and grew up around the Creek, most of the houses were made of palm fronds while along the edge of the Creek houses were constructed from sea stones. For the old city I will write more in Day 5 post and will add some awesome pictures too 🙂
Following the Museum, we visited the Jumeirah Mosque. Men used to go pray from the main entrance, which was very lavishly decorated while women had a teeny-tiny little door on the side of the mosque. Men and women pray separately. They also had separate sinks to wash their feet and face before entering and they used to leave all their shoes just outside the mosque before going in.
Finally we went to see the Gold Souk (market) and the Spices Souk. Places, full of people where you could find about everything you need, not only spices, but everything. And all these little shops full of gold 💰💎
They dropped us at the hotel and we went to eat. We found an amazing place just nearby with some amazing Arabic food where at first they give you a free appetizer which included two whole tomatoes, cucumber and something else, a small dish with olives and awesome Arabic sauces and freshly baked warm Arabic bread. We were full after eating this, but we always tried some new dish there, everything was top quality and amazingly delicious!
That’s if for day 2 =)
Now it’s time for some pictures:
With thanks! Valuable information!