2nd Posting - Old Dubai and Fujairah

Monday dawned gloriously clear with bright, blue skies for our tour of ancient Dubai. We started the tour with a little side trip to the beautiful Dubai Creek Golf Club where they hold the Dubai Open. It is such a pretty spot. If I were to "combine sand and salt water" I'm not sure what I would get, but it certainly wouldn't be the fabulous oases that Dubai comes up with!

Dubai Creek at dawn from our hotel, taken by Barbara Cook

The lovely Dubai Creek Golf Club

Reflections at Dubai Creek

Older skyline of Dubai Deira

The Bastakiya area has buildings from the 19th Century, built by the Iranians to further trade.

Dubai Museum

Dubai Museum

Riding the abra across Dubai Creek - a 'must' for every Dubai visitor!

Dubai Creek

One of the hundreds of stalls in the Spice Market

The Gold Souk

Gold gold gold!

Street scenes (with telephoto!)

Contrasting modes of transportation!

Jim, Don, Pat, and Donna at our welcome reception

Andrew takes good care of grandma Ruth and great Aunt LaVerne.

From Dubai we sailed overnight through the Strait of Hormuz(!) to the Indian Ocean side of the Arabian Peninsula. At 9:00am we docked in Fujairah, another Emirate. Much of the Emirates oil is piped to Fujairah, to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, so over 50% of all Emirate Oil is shipped from the port of Fujairah. The city doesn't offer nearly what Dubai or some of the others do, but it's interesting to walk around a bit.

Vegetable market in Fujairah

Oh No! "The Return of the Lettuce Ladies!"

Modern apartment building in Fujairah

The Falcon Roundabout

Several of us had lunch in Al Meshwar Restaurant. Delicious!

Babs found a couple men smoking their waterpipes who allowed her to pose with them!



1st Posting - Modern Dubai and Sharjah

Welcome to Dubai.

Flights arrived Saturday night ahead of schedule, due to strong tailwinds across the Atlantic. Strong winds complicated things for us in Dubai on Sunday, as we awoke to a raging sandstorm! The famous skyscrapers were barely visible, but we proceeded on our tour of modern Dubai. We were hoping the wind would die down so we could do our desert safari in the afternoon, but it was not to be.  So, in the late afternoon we boarded our coach and drove up to the neighboring Emirate, Sharjah. There is a fantastic, huge souk (market) in Sharjah with lower prices than in Dubai. We had no problem spending a couple hours there and then on the way home we all enjoyed a shewarma, a pita pocket filled with chicken, lettuce and vegetables. Yum.

The Atlantis Hotel out a the end of the Jumeirah Palm was inspired by the one in the Bahamas.

Believe it or not, in the hotel they had a 'Gold to Go' vending machine. You could buy Krugerrands and other types of gold investment pieces and pay with either cash or credit card! What was really amazing is that the actual price is updated every 60 seconds automatically as the world gold price fluctuates!

Inside the hotel is a fantastic aquarium with over 3,000 species and over 66,000 fish!

Atlantis Aquarium

In the Dubai Marina, this 2/3 finished skyscraper twists as it rises.

In the Madinat Souk, Ingrid poses with glass candle burners and water pipes.

The Burj al Arab over the canals of Madinat Souk

Ski Dubai in the Mall of the Emirates

Ski Dubai

This is not a palace! This is the Sharjah Chamer of Commerce!

Sharjah Cultural Palace

Sharjah Library

The entire two rows of buildings, first and second floors, comprise the Central Souk (Market)

Bargaining over pashmina scraves and shawls

Preparing our shewarmas for supper.

The Sharjah man-made lagoon, and the beautifully-lit mosque.

Sharjah new business center on the lagoon

Back at our hotel, the view out over the 'Creek'!