Dubai - Last Day- Sun., Nov. 20
We arrived at Dubai from Riyadh late Saturday
evening. With such a huge number of hotels in this city we assumed it
wasn't urgent to book a room in advance. Big mistake! It took our taxi driver
many stops before we finally found one opening at the Al Nakheel Hotel - and
that was a 2 bedroom suite. Tired and desperate, we took it. A medium
rated hotel, it wasn't bad and it gave us a chance to see a different part of
Deira Dubai. We even booked a second night in a little smaller suite so we
could rest up a little before our midnight departure for the airport and flight
home. After our grand experience in Riyadh, a long day in Dubai City
seemed a little anti climatic. We only wanted to rest, repack and ready
ourselves for the long flight home.
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| Just a block or 2 from
our hotel, we found ourselves in a neighborhood a bit more upscale than our
previous place by the old gold souk. This is the area of the huge Al-Ghurair
City "upmarket" shopping center. |
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| 2 |
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| However, we were familiar
now with the gold souk area, were not interested in "upscale"
shopping - so it was a taxi ride over to shop for some small souvenir gifts
to take home. |
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| 3 |
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| Back to the hotel, a bit
more rest and then it was time to go for a walk to explore this part of the
city more. This was the Al Muraqqabat district. |
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| We worked our way towards
Al Rigga Road, where we had previously experienced a great smaller Lebanese café. |
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| We find the
"Automatic" and enjoy great fruit drinks, some light snacks and
super friendly service. We will return later to their larger restaurant on
the next block for a full dinner. |
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| 6 |
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| We continue a long walk
down the modern neighborhood of Rigga Rd. until we come to this attractive
mosque. We then turn towards Dubai Creek & the bridge that crosses
it. |
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| After a short walk we
come to this elegant clock tower roundabout with the sun starting to set in
the west. |
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| We make a right turn at
the clock tower and get another view of the sun setting behind these modern high-rises. |
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| This is Al Maktoum Rd.
with more modern high-rises and office buildings. The street is
relatively quiet as this is after business hours. |
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| 10 |
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| After a late fine
"Automatic" meal plus Syrian pastries from across the street, we
head back to the hotel where Keith gets this night photo from our balcony of
the local tennis courts. |
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| 11 |
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| Time to kick the shoes
off and rest up for the midnight trip to the airport. Maybe not fair to
Dubai, but we are still basking in warm memories of our Riyadh experiences. |
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| 12 |
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On
this second night at the Al Nakheel Hotel, we
used our bed primarily as a space for repacking for our homeward bound
journey. We tried to travel light this time. We almost succeeded.
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We
probably tried to do too much in our two weeks in this part of the world - We
certainly would have enjoyed at least another week to explore and experience
more in the Riyadh area - but maybe this was just the right amount of time for
now - before we overstayed our welcome. Our original expectations were quite
limited and vague. Now we know more about the area and conditions
here. We have new friends here who have invited us back. We can now wonder, "Can we return...?" Inshallah
!
©2005
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