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A beautiful d
ay with Raju as our tour guide… Raju was the driver we met from previous day's trip to Burj Khalifa. I sent him a message and ask him if he could pick us up from the hotel and we would just pay him for the total number of hours he'd spent with us. It would be cheaper and we got more freedom rather than paying DHs220 per person for a city tour from the agency contact of the hotel. Had breakfast at 8:30am and left hotel at 9:00 a.m.
Highlights:
- Dubai Creek - "Feeling" Aga Mulach, John Lloyd and Claud
ine Barreto, strolling and taking photos, while imagining the scenes from the Philippine movie Dubai.
Opposite Dubai Creek is the Saudi Arabia Embassy.
- Bur Dubai Museum - Such a small place from outside but big sp
ace underground. Quite good, worth visiting for just DHs10. - Gold Souk – In the heart of Dubai's commercial business district in Deira where you can find jewellery retailers. Started to rain, so just quickly took some photos and back to the car. Good excuse not to shop :-)
- Raju took us to the place where one of the unfinished man-made islands is located. I can't remember what the name was. They had stopped the construction due to budget constraints and the reality that a number properties in Dubai had been built but were not occupied even after the price were greatly reduced.
We had to meet Peter (twin bro of Justin’s PS3 buddy... Lorenz, of course) at lunch time, so we asked Raju to drive us to places in our list, those we wanted to cover for the day so we can be finished early in time to meet Peter.
- We passed by Jumeirah Mosque and Jumeirah beach on the way… Good place to visit if spending more time. I read on the website that there’s a tour every 10 am inside the mosque… Already missed it by the time we passed by.
- Burj Al Arab, the famous seven-star hotel at Dubai. So what if it’s raining!!! We couldn’t miss the opportunity to have a photo taken with the ‘Sail-shape’ hotel here at Dubai. Photos would be enough for those who couldn't afford to stay there :-)
- Madinat, Jumeirah - One of the best... Raju was very accommodating…He even went out of the car and gave us a tour around. It's a 5-star resort in Dubai with waterways, water taxis (if you want to imagine being in 'Venice'), bazaar (Mon said, "This time it's real.. not just a model similar to what we saw at DisneyWorld Epcot at Florida), a courtyard, restaurants overlooking half of Burj Al Arab, etc.
- Palm Islands (Atlantis) - the famous, very ambitious, artifici
al archipelago in Dubai in a shape of a palm tree topped with a crescent. It's an expensive project but not quite profitable in return as a number of units were still vacant. So do you want to buy one? You might spot Beckham one day:-) - Vie
w of Marina / Buildings from Palm Islands
In the car, I found out that our video cam was running out of space and couldn’t store any more videos… Wahhh! Needed to do something, otherwise we won’t capture our desert safari tour scheduled later. Just thought I could delete some later when we return to the hotel before our Desert Safari tour.
- We met Peter at IBN Batutta… That was a good lunch treat. Thanks heaps, Tito Peter. One 'pogi point' for you! We brought an Australian wine for him
but later found out that drinking alcohol is only permitted to licensed places… so unfortunately we couldn’t hand it to him as it’s in our backpack with no plastic bag to cover it.
Hey Tito Pete, you seemed conservative when it comes to
laws and tradition in Dubai (Hehe.. quite the opposite of Lorenz personality)... who always defies rules (except of course the law of Jac-tice). He briefed us how we shouldn’t hold hands in public. He himself carries a copy of their marriage certificate always... Interesting... Justin told me that he read a sign in the IBN Batutta shopping mall saying … “appropriate clothing, no skateboarding, no smoking…" I guessed it depends on the place… Dubai Mall seems a bit relax as we could see ladies wearing skirts, shirts with plunging neckline, etc.
Raju strongly refused to come with us... Hence, after lunch with Peter, we bought chicken burger at McDonalds for him.
laws and tradition in Dubai (Hehe.. quite the opposite of Lorenz personality)... who always defies rules (except of course the law of Jac-tice). He briefed us how we shouldn’t hold hands in public. He himself carries a copy of their marriage certificate always... Interesting... Justin told me that he read a sign in the IBN Batutta shopping mall saying … “appropriate clothing, no skateboarding, no smoking…" I guessed it depends on the place… Dubai Mall seems a bit relax as we could see ladies wearing skirts, shirts with plunging neckline, etc.Raju strongly refused to come with us... Hence, after lunch with Peter, we bought chicken burger at McDonalds for him.
On the way back to the hotel… We stopped over to see the Palace of the Sheik. The place was really grand as expected.
Raju dropped us off at the hotel by 3:00 pm.
More Photos:
Desert Safari
**************************We arrived at the hotel around 3:00 pm. Saw a note under our door from Oasis Palm advising us that they’ll be picking us up at 3:15, instead of 3:30… I hurriedly transferred some old videos to my laptop… then just a few minutes later, our tour guide arrived.
We hopped in to a 4-wheel drive and picked up 3 more passengers at Jumeirah. Then our journey began. Drove for almost an hour… stopped by at one of the local shops wher
e tourists had the opportunity to buy souvenirs, turban, abaya, belly dancer costumes or take a photo with a falcon for DHs10.
After a few minutes, we continued our journey to the desert. The sand bashing was really cool… feelin like in a roller coaster… it was fun but felt a bit of nausea later on… Justin and Mon had tried the sandboarding.
The driving continued to Oasis Palm place where we experienced riding a cam
el… 'tried the traditional dress... and finally had my hand painted with henna. My first time to have it, so I was wondering... if I had to bear with it for a few hours until tomorrow... It was not what I expected. We had BBQ dinner after
wards along with the other tourists joining the tour. I felt bits of henna falling off my hands in my plate... Eeeww! And later realised that it was really meant to be removed and you'll see the art, beautifully painted in my right hand like a tattoo after the henna was removed... Pardon me for my ignorance.
el… 'tried the traditional dress... and finally had my hand painted with henna. My first time to have it, so I was wondering... if I had to bear with it for a few hours until tomorrow... It was not what I expected. We had BBQ dinner after
wards along with the other tourists joining the tour. I felt bits of henna falling off my hands in my plate... Eeeww! And later realised that it was really meant to be removed and you'll see the art, beautifully painted in my right hand like a tattoo after the henna was removed... Pardon me for my ignorance.The finale of this trip is the much-awaited belly dancing. It was entertaining... but I would still go for Kaylah, the belly dancer from Melbourne!!!
More Photos:
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Dhow Cruise Dubai come and join us on the lovely trip of Safari tour in Dubai
ReplyDeleteSeems like you have spend some great memorable time with your mates. Desert Safari Dubai is always been a great place
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