Touch down at Dubai greeted us with the works on the weather front, haze skyline, hot sun, sand blowing in with the cool breeze. This is a fascinating place, in the sense of how they have managed to build all these sky scrapers in the desert. We have experienced the beautiful, clean, efficient train system, travelled a dhow boat ride up the creek river which is their major trading port, leisure cruising, promenades & cafes/restaurants along the banks of the creek river, personally driven around by our friend Ben a couple of times on a nail biting 2hr journey to the boarder of Oman & from the airport (sent me into numerous amount of praying), took very cheap taxis & the big hop on/ off bus. We have enjoyed the gold, spice, madinat, blue & old souk (which is their version of market places), where haggling is a must for purchasing the vast array of merchandise & jewellery, Lyn managed to get caught up by there persuasive manner. Dubai museum/fountain, Deira city centre, where walking the streets with original stripe shops bursting at the seems with products of all sorts to buy, shops so cramped & small. Above the shops are residential apartments, very cramped, no outdoor space, feel for the poor kids who have nowhere outside to play, got to view only from the outside the tallest building Burj Khalifa, the sail building that is on the water Burj Al Arab, Atlantis the palm shopping mall & hotel, Palm Island, walk the beach of the Arabian gulf sea, walked the promenade of the Dubai marina, toured the old city of Sharjah (meaning pearl of the gulf) heritage district, travelled to the creek lagoon natural mangroves to see the wild pink & white flamingos that migrate from all over the place, kept on having to meet for all our touring at the WAFI Egyptian mall & Raffles hotel, beautiful up market shopping & the Khan Murjan souk & restaurant, to which we tried the traditional Lebanese, Egyptian food (yum). This has been both mind boggling over the top wealth flaunting, with everything bigger & better than anything in the world, to the poor end of the scale with a 2hr drive to the border of Oman thru the desert & dry sandy mountains where the community villages live a simple basic life with very little material possessions, shed buildings for shops & the main greenery of trees are their date palms, then to the humble politeness of the people, the hard day to day life styles of the local working people who keep the towns clean & running for all the tourists. Unfortunately for me, I have been grateful for the experience, but would not want to work or live here as not enough green natural nature & wild life for my liking.
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