Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Exploring Dubai











The elevator at our hotel ascends 6 floors per second. There are lots of biggest, longest, fastest things here. I made it over to the beach area and realized that all the talk about building isn't the 15 skyscapers under construction I can see out my window here in the business district. Its the 30 five star hotels being built at the first of three sucessivley bigger "Palm" islands being constructed in the Arabian Gulf. My guidebook says "ecologists are concerned" - oh my.
At the Wafi Gourmet I tasted some of the fantastic things that are done with dates.
At the Jumeirah Mosque I heard a talk from a volunteer for the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Understanding explain Islam thinking and traditions in a warm and welcoming way.

Traveling around Dubai on my own is easy and fun. It is like nowhere else I have been, with eighty-five per cent of the population from elsewhere. I am not noticeable , and people are helpful when asked. I love the scent (of ood?), the signs in Arabic, the women in abaya who smile and nod.







In honor of EE Kim, who so enthusiastcially posts food photos, I am going to post photos of my Iranian lunch at the Mall of the Emirates (the one with the real ski slope) and my delicious Arabic breakfast this morning.








4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Reposting because of my typos...

    I love the decor in that first shot of yours....and did you get a head rush in the elevator?

    I heard Gold is the thing to buy in Dubai so check it out and post pics of any purchases.

    ReplyDelete
  3. yes the elevators were amazing, I just could not pretend to be blase. Lots of gold around but everything is made somewhere else, and I am not the best shopper, so no purchase, but I loved wandering around the gold souk, merchants very friendly at this slow time of year.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Have a great trip! Looking forward to following your adventures... and enjoying more food photos. :-)

    ReplyDelete