Dubai I

Pictures from the first day of Dubai tour.
Lets start with a camera-whoring picture on the bus, shall we?

Something worth taking a shot of. Some clock tower given by some British Queen some time ago. Bad angle. I was on the bus and it was moving... So there.
One of the many palaces. One prince has one palace (and I mean PALACE; with a huge plot of land). The king has like 17 sons. You do the Maths.

Peacocks, peahens and peachicks guard the palace. The peachicks are sooo cute!A view of the Creek (the older and eastern part of Dubai). I love the building with the huge reflective surface, the National Bank of Dubai. It looks really nice at sunset and sunrise (I know cause my hotel room has a lovely view of it). Again, it is supposed to look like the Arabic dhow.

Boat ride on one of the quaint boats along the creek.

Stopped at the old Spice Market and Gold Souk for some shopping.

Next, we went to the Dubai Museum.
Hot!!!!
Thank God for the underground air-conditioned part of the museum.
Yes, camera-whoring runs in the family. ;)
Next we headed off to the western areas where a lot of the developments are taking place.
The Burj Dubai (soon to be the world's tallest building).
Dubai's Emirate Towers. The shorter one is a hotel and the other houses offices.
Then it was off to Jumeirah Souk. Its a beautiful replica of an old Arab market with air-conditioned covered streets. Really beautiful and really fake. And its beside the Burj al-Arab.
I kid you not when I say this, but my camera died after taking this shot.

ARGH!!! I came all the way from Dubai to see the Burj al-Arab this close but my camera battery had to die on me...

Beside the Burj al-Arab is another beautiful hotel known as the Jumeirah Beach Hotel Dubai. The hotel is built in a startling shape that mirrors a breaking wave.

And they have a water theme park called the Wild Wadi. It was like 50 Degrees Celsius. Do you think we are crazy like those angmos to go there for a swim?

More pictures of the hotels can be found in the next entry on Dubai and Abu Dhabi (last few entries).

Next it was off to Saudi Arabia to perform the umrah. We would then return to Dubai (plus Abu Dhabi) after a week and a half in Saudi Arabia.

More pictures can be found here.