We woke up around 8:30 (November 14, 2021) after a solid 5-6 hours of sleep. We slowly got ready as I was still sleepy overall, but also so excited to be in Dubai! For breakfast, we ate at the hotel restaurant which had a nice buffet selection. The view from the restaurant was beautiful and we spotted the Burj Khalifa in the distance. After breakfast, we spoke with the front desk about switching rooms, and they said they would send someone to our room to assist with luggage when the other room was ready. While we waited we packed up and go ready to go out. I also worked on sending out my last blog. We only brought Hunter's laptop which is a mac, and I absolutely hate using it because everything is backwards to PC, but I am getting much better at using it.
Hunter's Breakfast. They had an omelet station and actually knew what a Denver omelet was!
View from breakfast
Breakfast patio
Hunter eventually went down to the front desk to get the new room keys because it had been an hour since they called the room and told us someone would be coming to get us. When he got the new keys, they canceled the old keys, so I was stuck in the room with all our luggage waiting for someone to come get me and help me take the luggage to the new room. In this hotel, you have to use your room key to get to the correct floor. When Hunter asked how I would get there, they said "don't worry, we will send someone to collect your wife"! It was so funny. Eventually, I was collected and brought to Hunter. The room we were put into was much different and beautiful. It was on the 12th floor and the corner of the building. We had a great view of the Dubai skyline. It was nice to finally get one of their suites that we get as an upgrade for all my Marriott nights from work.
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Our New Room
Two bathroom!
The view from our window
Hunter really liked this art/table thing
The Burj Khalifa in the distance
The wife has been collected!
After getting the rooms sorted out and sending my last blog post out to everyone, we left for lunch at the mall the hotel is connected to, City Mall. We walked around a bit and decided to eat at Kitchen35 in Food Central food court. It was a delicious and cheap lunch. Hunter had a duck confit and apricot bagel and I had a spicy chicken avocado sandwich. We also had soup. I had a corn and chicken soup and Hunter had a mushroom soup. After lunch we explored a local super market in our never ending quest to get diet coke or as it is known here and in Europe, Coke light.
After lunch we got some cash at an ATM and then went out to see the city. We took an Uber to the Gold Souk and from there began our exploration following tips from an online guide. The Gold Souk lead us into the Grand Souk which has herbs, spices, and textiles. After walking through the Souks, we then took a ride on an Abra (wooden boat) at the Deira Old Souk Station. It only costs 1 dirham which is about 30 cents US. It was quite the ride. When we got to the other side of the creek, which is more like a canal, we walked along the edge towards Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's House. He was a ruler from 1912 to 1958. Around his house there are all sorts of winding back alleys and as the sun was setting made for a beautiful evening walking around. After visiting the house we then turned around and walked the other direction along the creek into Dubai Old Souk where we continued to be approached by sellers of all the shops trying to sell us anything they could. Nonetheless it was very cool to see everything being sold and what trinkets they think tourists want.
The approximate route we took, but we continued past the green box along the creek
The outside of our hotel, looks far less impressive!
Entering the Gold Souk
It was really neat to see everything and it was so shiny
A gold dress
Plenty of cats hanging around
The lamps are so pretty
Spices for sale
Hunter really liked this display as it was all labelled
One of the merchants showed us all his display and gave us some frankensence he asked me to guess what the dark orange spice in the top left of this photo was and I guessed saffron but it turns out I was wrong. As he put it, "no mam saffron is gold and you do not keep gold in the streets", it turned out to be some sort of dried flowers from Iran. With Iran being just across the Persian Gulf from us it seems like a lot of agricultural products are sourced there, everything from flowers to the marmalade on Hunter's toast has been labelled as being from Iran/Persia. Its definitely interesting to see how multi cultural this area is, at our lunch we saw groups with Indian, local, and European coworkers all out together and the variety of clothing options on the street is crazy, everything from women in headscarves and burquas to German men in short shorts and tank tops. We always try to blend in a bit when we travel but some people definitely do not!
Crossing the creek
On our 1 AED boat ride
Abra
A video as we cross the creek
Emirates A380 leaving Dubai, also seagull presumably staying in Dubai
Hunter said hello to this cat outside the shiek's house
This wooden door was over 100 years old and has a mini door cut into the bottom right
This was outside the perfume house. Oud is a vital component to perfume here.
After walking through all the Souks we decided to continue walking along the creek generally proceeding towards our hotel down Al Seef St. It was a gorgeous walk and a lot of fun going through all the alleys. We got some awesome pictures too. Once it got dark and we left much of the creekside area, we got took a taxi back to our hotel.
Prayers in Dubai
Using night sight on my phone makes it look like day in this picture
The alleys were so picturesque
Hunter found this in one of the public bathrooms he went into
Night along Dubai Creek with a feel for old and new mixing
Hunter and I both wish we could take this painting home
A Land Rover pickup, hunter was entranced by
When we got back to our hotel, we stopped by the pool to see the views, and decided to go for a swim. It was a lovely night and a great way to cool down after walking so much. The weather is about 85-90 F (30-32 C), so cooling down was really nice. The best part is, we had it basically to ourselves. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, the pool was kinda dirty, so we didn't fully go into the water.
After relaxing poolside, we got pretty hungry, so we went to a Chinese restaurant right by the hotel called Han Shi Fu. It was really cool and turned out to be an all-you-can-eat place. We had a great time and the food was delicious and included some authentic Chinese staples and not just Americanized Chinese like we get at home. We enjoyed the dim sum menu as well as sampling some delicious twists on classic dishes. The clientele were also heavily Chinese which is always a good sign that you're at a great spot.
Shrimp Brioche
Peach and Raspberry Mocktail
Blackberry Mojito Mocktail
Panda Baos that were so cute
Panda Baos
It had chocolate in it
Pan-Fried Dumplings
After dinner, we went back to our hotel room and took a shower before quickly crashing in bed. It was an excellent bonus day in Dubai and I can't wait to get to our full stay hotel tomorrow and explore the area around it.
What a delightful introduction to Dubai! Thanks loads for these fascinating blogs. Keep having a grand time! Love, Grandma Honey
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