In Dubai

Ugly Dubai photo...
We arrived in Dubai on Saturday night after a day of diving in Oman and then a nice long drive and really weird borders. you "exit" Oman, drive for a while, and then "enter" the UAE, lots of stamping and waiting is involved. Anyway, we got here safely and are nestled in to the Sofitel Hotel.

Yesterday we went around on the "Big Bus" which is like a tour bus, but you can get on and off wherever you want, and new busses come every half hour. It's actually a really good way to get around and see things. We stopped at old dubai, which wasn't as interesting as it sounded, and we stopped at the famous "Gold Souq", which is a souq involving only gold sellers. And being in DUbai, I just had to buy gold, so I spent a lot of money yesterday on an 18KT gold necklace, but it was fun to buy because they offer you a price, which is totally ridiculously high, and then you haggle for it. I managed to knock off 200 dirhams from his asking price (which is about equivalent to $60 Canadian), so I didn't do too badly at all. We had lunch on the way at some really random non-tourist restaurant, and I didn't know anything on the menu, so we pointed to something on the menu, hoping it would be good. we discovered that we had ordered a couple different indian curries. they were actually delicious, but it was nervewracking not knowing what the heck we ordered.

Brandon and I signed up for a desert safari, and we had an awesome time. We got picked up from the hotel at 4pm, in a land cruiser, where we went dune bashing, which is really fun. they drive you on to the desert, go over dunes, slide around, and you basically hold on for your life. At the end of the dune bashing, you end up at a bedouin camp, where there is camel riding, ATVs (and we rode both), and many other activities. I got a henna tattoo on my hand, we partook in a little shesha activity and other such traditional things. Then they served us a yummy dinner, which was followed by a belly dancer show. Then the land cruiser picked us up and took us back to our hotel. I'd recommend this "desert safari" to anyone wanting to come to the area. It was really fun.

After the safari, I fell asleep instantly. It was a good day. Today will be spent shopping and whatnot, and our plane to Amsterdam leaves at midnight.

By the way, if anyone is wanting to travel to the Middle East, don't come to Dubai. It's honestly really, really ugly. Muscat, Oman was so much more eye pleasing and has so many more "heritage" things to see like forts and whatnot. Dubai is this gross conglomeration of ugly Western style architecture, and honestly, this city is not all it's cracked up to be. 2 days is really all you need here. So go to Oman instead. You can do desert safaris there too. :D That being said, I am glad we stopped here for a couple days, now i know what it is like.