Around the World: Dubai

We were both so excited to go to Dubai and couldn’t wait to get off the ship. As it pulled in the first thing that we both thought was how unique it was. The architecture is so different with so many buildings being weird shapes and un-like anything you would see in Canada or the US. We decided just to cab around the city to the places where we wanted to go so our first stop was the famous Gold and Spice Souk. Essentially it’s just a covered shopping area where all they sell is 24k gold. You can get things as simple as a gold chain to the most elaborate necklaces I have ever seen. Prices are good because it is 24k and a lot of the India crew were getting off to buy their gold in Dubai because they said it was cheaper than in India. It took us a little while to find the spice souk and after walking through a few alley ways we finally came across it. They have big burlap bags filled with any spice you could think of... it was really neat to see. After the souks we got a cab to the United Emirates Mall...home of Ski Dubai. I wish we could have skied in Ski Dubai but we didn’t have enough time. The whole ski hill is inside and they give you coats and hats when you go in and you can rent your skis or snowboards. It was interesting to see the men in their traditional clothing with down coats over top. There is a huge viewing area inside the mall where you can watch the skiing or tubing. After the mall we went to the Burj Al Arab hotel which is the world’s only 7 star hotel. The hotel is built on a man-made island and is in the shape of a boat sail. We have seen so many pictures of it and it was really neat seeing it close up. We had planned going up it to be able to see the Palm Jumeirah and the World Islands but we didn’t have enough time so we headed back to the ship. We got back just in time because there was a sandstorm. We had a really nice view of the city in the morning but once the sandstorm hit we couldn’t even see the boat beside us. We both loved Dubai and thought it was so unique. We definitely want to come back here someday and maybe do a desert tour or something like that.