Dubai

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Dubai

 Middle East » United Arab Emirates » Dubai By saharanz
March 29th 2007 I arrived in Dubai on Tuesday after a very relaxing 19 hours of travelling at 5am where the temperature as a tropical 28degrees! Manages to get to my pretty scummy hotel without any dramas. My room was cleanish but that's about all I can say for it. After setteling in I organised a hop on/hop off bus tour of the city which was expensive but actually pretty good. It took us around all the main sites and souks in the city and I could get off at any of the stops and look around and then get back on the next bus in 1/2 an hour. I felt a little conspicuous wandering around on my own, sometimes I couldn't see a single other female even though the places were crowded with men.

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Photos

Dubai Museum
Used to be an old fort

Largest Mosque in Dubai
Can be used by up to 2000 worshipers. The domes on the roof are for sound reonance. Non-muslims are not allowed to enter the mosques

Random chickens
In the middle of the city-the first and just about only animals I saw in Dubai!

Dubai Creek
Looks like absolute chaos!! Along the shores of the Dubai creek are countless trade boats from the Middle East and Africa with their goods to be loaded or unloaded sitting unattended for up to a couple of days. There are harsh penalties for petty crimes so the goods are safe.

President of Dubai
Rather large photos of the president and other prominent politicians decorate the city. This building is about 30 stories high

Mosque
There are many mosques around the city but also other churches and temples for most religions due to Dubai's unique freedom of religion policys

Jellyfish
Had a paddle in the very warm Arabian sea. This is one of the many jellyfish washed up on the shore. I have no idea if they sting or not but was not game to find out!

Taxi que
The bus tour bus dropped us off at the City Centre mall at the end of the day and we were to catcha taxi back to my hotle form there. This pic is of PART of the taxi que. The que went for a good 200m inside the mall and when we got to the door I thought great, nearly there, only to go through to find the rest of the que!!! Took almost an hour.

Desert Safari
Went on a very tourist orientated "desert safari". About an hour of nerve racking "dune bashing" -trying to get the 4wd as close as possible to rolling , tipping or crashing into one of the other 50 odd 4wds as possible followed by BBQ dinner at a purpose built "camp" in the desert. At the camp a dubious looking BBQ tea was provided as well as henna painting, belly dancing and shisha "hubbly-bubbly" water pipe.

Desert Safari
Shisha water pipe. Kind of like smoking the steam of a fruit or aniseed tea.