Dubai

What an exciting and long day!  Natalie, Cassandra, Paula and I left the InterCon at 8am for our trip to Dubai.  Kisha was planning on meeting us since she would be leaving from Abu Dhabi, but she wasn't feeling good this morning so it was just the 4 of us.  I was a little bummed that I wasn't going to get to spend the day with Kisha, but we'll go again.

We get to the bus station and get loaded on this tiny bus.  We got on the bus and had difficulty getting seated due to my long legs.  We were in the very back so I could put my legs in the middle, but they have these seats in the middle that fold down.  The driver wanted to put the seat down in front of me, but he discovered that there wouldn't be any room.  I was grateful that he left that seat up instead of making me squish so he could get one more passenger on.  The ride to Dubai was about 2 hours.  Not too bad, but very long when you're not comfortable.

bus to Dubai

We arrived in Dubai in an area known as The Creek.  The souks are on the other side of the creek so we had to take a water taxi.  That was so neat.  We paid AED1 to go across the creek and had a lovely boat ride.  Even though it was hot I enjoyed the sights and sounds of being on the water.  I was really looking forward to going to my first souk in Dubai.  These souks had a lot of fabrics and pashminas that were for sale.  I didn't buy any fabric, but I did buy some souveniors.  The souk was so crowded and it was exciting listening to the men trying to sell their goods.  I even tried my hand at haggling!  I bought a gift for Lexi that originally was AED45 and I only paid 35!  I asked for 30, then he said 40 then I went to 35.  That's where we agreed!  I hope she loves it:)

water taxi





After we had shopped for a while and were very hot and thirsty we stopped and got some fresh squeezed orange juice.  It was delicious!  It was sweet and cool and very refreshing.  What made it even better was the fact that we could enjoy it while enjoying the souk since Ramadan was over! 

We then decided that we needed to get out of the heat so we headed to the Mall of Dubai.  This is not just a mall; it is so much more.  They have a skating rink and an aquarium with an underwater tunnel and a glass bottom boat.  We didn't do the skating rink, but we did the aquarium, tunnel, and boat.  The aquarium has the largest glass tank in the world; according to Guiness.  It is huge and it just seems to go on forever.  You can even scuba dive in the aquarium!  Pretty interesting for a mall:)  The glass bottom boat was cool.  Lots of fish and we even got to feed them.  We also saw sharks and stingrays.  There was this huge king crab!  Cassandra and I thought of delicious crab legs:)

fountain in Dubail Mall

We had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays in the mall.  I know; sounds boring, but Cassandra and I were really in the mood for some American food.  My burger was delicious, minus the beef bacon.  I don't know how anyone could eat that stuff.  It's so tough.  The ranch dressing that I asked for wasn't really ranch but it was something for my fries. 

After lunch we went to the other side of the mall where we could see the Burj Kalifa; the tallest building in the world.  It is huge; 828 meters!!  I can't believe how tall it is!  Not sure what else to say about it other than it's huge!  We couldn't go to the top because they were all sold out for the day.  That's just something I'll have to do when I go back!

Burj Kalifa

We heard that the fountain show was at 4 on the weekends so we decided to wait.  We sat outside drinking lemon mint juice, but there was no show.  The first show wasn't going to be until 6 and we were hot and tired, so we decided that we should go home since we had a 2 hour bus ride in front of us.  The bus ride back was much more comfortable because I got to sit in the front seat!  I asked if I could and the driver wanted me to sit with my friends, but I told him that I had long legs and wouldn't fit so he let me sit up front.  Sometimes it pays to have long legs!  We got back to the InterCon at 8pm.  A very long, but exciting day!  Time for bed!