It was a long and tiring trip to Dubai from Melbourne and then Perth. However, we are here and enjoying it.
Our first impression was shrouded in fog but as the day woke up we realized what an incredible, almost futuristic-looking city we are staying for these few days.
There are so many unusual shaped buildings here, even the railway stations are something to behold!
We arrived this morning at 6am and after a nap and freshen up headed to the old city and port area where we wandered through the gold and jewelry souk (market) followed by the spice souk.
The gold jewelry had to be seen to be believed, very intricate, elaborate,and often heavily embellished with precious stones.
One shop we did venture in to for a further look had fascinating antique pieces from Iran - many with old glass beads combined with lapis lazuli, carnelian and other semi-precious stones.
The spice souk was smaller and less crowded but a lot more aromatic!
We actually saw frankincense and myrrh, indigo, dried whole lemons, and crystallized aloe. Too bad we can't bring any back home!
Some time was spent at the historical museum, based at a resored house originally owned by the Makhtoum family who still rule Dubai. We were treated to tea in glass cups whilst sitting down in comfort on lovely cushions. This was generously followed by delicious pancakes with syrup cooked on a little stove, all free and a part of the hospitality.
We then caught a local ferry across the river to the textile area where we browsed
through the silk and textile souk.
On our return we stopped at the Dubai equivalent of a fresh-juice bar where I had a pomegranate and mango juice drink and P had a coconut juice straight from the shell.
Here is a picture taken from our hotel window of the view down the highway and a railway station mentioned above. A shadowy thin figure in the top-centre of the picture is the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, almost lost in the misty haze.
We are having problems in adding photos direct from an iPad to the blog using the WiFi in the hotel (using either Blogger or Blogpress). It may have to do with the size of the photos but reducing the phots to about 200k still did not solve the problem. The picture above was added later from a hotel desktop computer.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to load photos from an iPad to a blog using (an hotel's) WiFi network?)
Cheers
Jenni
