Since the blog about our trip to Dubai happened to be quite long, I've decided to split it into 3 pieces. Pictures can be found underneath each blog.
Day
1 – Utrecht-Antwerp
The
first day of our holiday started out with almost forgetting our
credit card before catching a bus to Utrecht's central station in
order to get the bus to Antwerp. After getting the credit card,
everything went smooth and after 2 hours we were dropped off in
Antwerp and walked the 5 minutes to our hotel, which was located 10
meter from the central station. Since we've been in Antwerp quite a
few times we just did some last-minute holiday shopping, some beers
and some Belgian fries, before getting to bed quite early.
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| Antwerp's centralstation, as seen from our hotelroom. |
Day
2 – Antwerp – Dubai
After
a delay-less train-trip to Schiphol airport we wanted to check in for
the flight to Dubai, but noticed we didn't get seats next to each
other, which gave us a little stress and caused us to rush to the
gate. At the end everything worked out fine and we had a nice flight
with half an hour delay, but nice food, drinks and personal in
flight entertainment. Upon arrival, we had to wait in line for the
passport check quite long, but eventually we spotted our taxidriver
at about 1:00. At first I thought all the fumes of the waiting taxi's
under a roof caused all the heat at the airport, but it turned out it
was Dubai, and during the whole trip, it wouldn't get any colder. At
the hotel we got a nice upgrade to a suite with a livingroom,
kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a huge bed and some complementary fruits and
drinks, sweet!
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| Almost there! |
Day
3 – Dubai
We
woke up early and saw the Dubai sun for the first time, HOT! Our
first task of the day was to get some Dirhams, which didn't seem to
be too easy, since I couldn't get any money at first. (At the end
this seemed to be nice, since everything was way cheaper than
expected!). We did some grocery shopping and walked in the direction
of the Dubai Museum. Halfway we stopped for our breakfast, curry with
some breadrolls or a nice omelet for about 2€! After the Dubai
Museum, quite interesting to see the massive growth of the city, we
went to the Old Souk and took an abra over the creek to some souks in
Deira. In most of the souks a lot of rubbish was sold by overactive
salesmen, but still it's nice to experience it. At the hottest point
of the day, we decided to take the metro back home (3 stops for only
40 cents) and check out the rooftoppool in our hotel, pretty sweet,
especially given the fact we were the only ones there!
After
a refreshing dive we took the metro back to Deira to check out the
gold souk and have some shawarma on a busy crossroad. 1€ a
sandwich, 40 cents for a refreshing coke and the rich variety of the
people living in Dubai passing by. Later on we walked back to the
creek and took another abra. What a nice way of crossing the creek.
Walk to a boat, wait until about 20 people are boarded, pay the
skipper 1 AED (20 cents) and off you go! Back in Bur Dubai we watched
the sun set in Bastakiya, an old neighborhood full with houses with a
patio, windtowers and narrow alleys. Quite a difference with the
neonletters, pushy Indians and shops full with rubbish just around
the corner. That said, the neonletters really gave another dimension
to Dubai, everything got way more lifely and it became way more clear
what was inside all those buildings. We
ended the evening with another dive in the pool and a meal in the
shoppingmall. 2 kinds of breads, 3 types of chicken, soup, 2 salads
and rice for about 7€ (no, not per person, in total.)
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| Dubai Museum. |
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| On an abra. |
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| Empty Burjuman Mall. |
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| Nice couches to chill in. Burjuman. |
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| Burjuman. |
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| Rooftop pool. |
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| Gold Souk. |
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| 1€ shawarma. |
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| View from Dubai Creek. |
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| Bastakiya. |
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| Bastakiya. |
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| Burj Khalifa from our rooftop pool. |
Day
4 – Al Ain
The
airco in the room gave us a good night rest and caused us to wake up
quite late, especially with our plans to go to Al Ain (140 kms away).
We decided to go away, to check out the zoo around sunset and the
souk, mall and oasis on the hotter moments of the day. From our hotel
we walked to the busstop (a closed little shed with airco!) and took
the bus to Al Ghubaiba busstation where we bought a ticket to Al Ain
for 4€. Quite a big difference between the busses: the local bus in
Dubai was really modern, with even a special section for women, the
bus to Al Ain was a pretty packed minivan, luckily the driver told
some Indians to get to the back, so we could sit next to each other.
After a journey with some nice views of Dubai and a lot of sand we
arrived in Al Ain.
In
Al Ain we were immediately approached by a lot of pushy taxidrivers,
but we just walked to the (boring) souk. From the souk we walked on
to the mall and since Al Ain is nothing like Dubai with widespread
lanes and low buildings, shadow was hard to find and therefor the sun
was quite present to say the least. Good to be in the airconditioned
mall, with next to loads of shops, an iceskatingrink and a mini fun
fair. In the mall we bought an umbrella to cope with the sun on our
way to the oasis, but since comfort level was about 50 degrees
Celsius and the wind resembled a blowdryer, not even an umbrella
could help us and we decided to leave Al Ain. Luckily we were close
to the busstation and we bought a ticket back to Dubai. If we go back
to the UAE in November or something, we will definitely check out Al
Ain again, for now, we could only think about the pool. After the
pool and some Indian food on our balcony we walked a bit through the
neighborhood of our hotel and had a really nice Pakistani dinner at
Ravi, at the giveaway price of 11€ for the both of us!
Go to part 2!
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| Fully airconditioned busstop. |
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| Icerink in Al Ain Mall. |
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| Dubai Metro. |
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| RAVI! |
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| RAVI! |
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| Positive discrimination? |
