On our way back to China we decided to spend some several days in Dubai, including New Year’s Eve. What a great choice that was. China has its third world moments and Egypt only had a few non-third world moments, so we were ready for a modern and as it turns out very Western location.
We did not know what to expect with Dubai, only hearing about the expensive hotels and desert tours. Because the hotels were so expensive we stayed at a fairly reasonably priced “4-star” hotel. Being used to having to stay in “5-star” traveling in third world countries, we were a little nervous, especially since we were going to arrive at the hotel around 1 am. Well, “4-star” in Dubai was excellent. Our “room” ended up being a two bedroom luxury apartment that was huge. The service was fantastic and the price was more than reasonable…a good start to the trip.
As it turns out Dubai felt very much like staying in California. It was warm, but dry and a night it was very comfortable. We were nearby two huge malls (one with a indoor Ski resort, the other an aquarium in the middle) and lots of Western restaurants…our first meal was at Chilis and it was the real deal!
As it turns out, Dubai is mostly shopping and desert. We skipped the desert part, having gotten enough of that in Egypt. In terms of shopping we did some of that, including visiting the Gold Suk. Lets just say we were window shopping there, after checking out a couple of the more reasonable looking pieces, which turned out not to be so reasonable. It was amazing to see how many people were buying bags full of extremely expensive jewelry.
The kids favorite store at the mall...
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