Dubai Marina & Mall of the Emirates
Last full day in Dubai. We decided to take the metro to the Mall of the Emirates and then to the Dubai Marina. Getting to the metro from the Dubai mall is a serious walk, luckily in the air conditioning. We bought a day ticket for metro-bus-tram. There were wagons for 1st class, women and then the rest. We took the ‘rest’ wagon because we wanted to stay together.
The wagons were well packed with mostly men. The ride was quite long (we thought that it would have been much faster). As soon as we entered the Mall of the Emirates, we knew that it was not our thing. There was way too much noise, totally not pleasant. Also for breakfast, we had problems in finding something that inspired us (we did not have that issue in the Dubai Mall).
In the end, we only did a quick visit. We wanted to see Ski Dubai because it felt a bit unreal to have this in a country where the temperatures were so high.
We continued by taking the metro to the Dubai Marina. This looked like a really nice place! We walked a bit along the Marina but there was too much sun so we had to look for shadow. We found a nice terrace and had some refreshments to cool us down. Then we returned to the hotel for a rest before getting ready for our last dinner.
Souk Madinat
We took a taxi to the Souk Madinat. Here we were going to look for a restaurant for our last dinner. We wanted to say farewell to Dubai and the UAE with an appropriate meal ;-)… We were foodies after all !
Upon arrival at the souk, we had a fantastic view of the Burj Al Arab, the most luxurious hotel in the world.
The souk was located in a recreated Arab city with here and there cafés and restaurants. It was located in the Madinat Jumeirah complex, one of the most beautiful places in Dubai.
We chose a Lebanese restaurant and the food was super delicious: Humus, Baba ganouch, kofta, grilled fish, fattoush salad and as a desert our new favorite ‘Umm Ali’’. The latter was made of puff pastry, coconut, cream, milk, almonds, raisins and pistachios. We had tasted it at our last dinner in Abu Dhabi and since then we were hooked. Satisfied and happy with our last supper, we drove back to the hotel.
Bye bye Dubai
Our autumn holiday in the UAE was over. It was a great vacation, the batteries were again fully charged. We would probably be dieting for the next year now to get the kilo’s gained off again.
The new attractions, Louvre and Qasr Al Watan, were really worth a return, but it was a pity that there was still so much construction going on.
From a budgetary point of view, it was a very expensive trip. The cost of living in the UAE was much higher than in Belgium, but so were the salaries… The public transport was reasonably priced, but it was often more efficient to take a taxi (or to hire a car.
The driving style of the taxi drivers ? No comment :-). But we have seen worse in other places in the world.
Whether we would return? Maybe one day, when the Guggenheim would be finished or at the time of the World EXPO ! But for everyone that did not yet go to the UAE, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are that kind of places that you should have seen once in your life :-).
