Living Dubai

So the day started off quite slowly, we overslept and had really salty and fat breakfast at the hotel.

Antonio took the courage to step out of the hotel to withdraw some money, as we were informed that not all the taxi driver accept credit cards: even though the temperature was higher, the humidity wasn’t quite as much as yesterday night.

After a short ride taxi in a city without traffic we reached the Dubai Mall, and, after 5 minute walking inside we got to the entrance of Burj khalifa.

We went up to the top of the highest building in the world at the speed of 7mt per second!That’s 124 floors in barely 60 seconds…

The view from up there is absolutely astonishing. It’s unbelievable to think that this humidity collecting monster was built in just 5 years.

All around us the desert surrounding some of the most impressive buildings we’ve ever seen, and the Persian gulf.

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We then descented for over 120 floors and used our Burj tickets to visit the aquarium inside the mall. Yes you got it right. Inside the shopping mall there is an entire aquarium that spans 3 floors.

Sharks, mantas and sting rays welcomed us posing for some nice pictures.

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Also other creatures were kind enough to allow us to snap some other pics and videos!

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Overall it was a nice experience and the Burji Khalifa is definitely a must if you visit Dubai! Since my foot was crying for some rest we decided to stop for lunch in the mall’s endless food court. We enjoyed some delicious Lebanese food at Karam.

Filled and amazed by the food, we decided (Sara decided) to enjoy some of the mall shops and buy something more loose and fresh. Then we headed out (takes a good amount of courage) to look at the fountain and the pool surrounding the mall.

There a soft breeze allowed us to stay more than 5 minutes before finally taking cover under some artic AC. As we walked towards the metro at the second floor of the mall, we started to notice more and more people staring at Sara’s legs. Here’s her inappropriate outfit:

After 15 minutes of walking up and down we reached the metro and went straight to Al Fahidi district taking the red and the green lines. The textile souk awaited Us!

We were welcomed by a horde of merchants trying to put kefiahs over our head while yelling at us “Shakira” and “Jack Sparrow” (???). Maybe it was simply because there is a lack of tourists in this season, but they were way too much pushy! You could clearly notice they were triggered when our distance from them reached <10m, they all took their red and white scarves prepared to put it over our heads.

Regardless of Antonio speed I managed to stop his run to enter a silent shop, whose owner was really kind. We managed to get a good price for two gifts, halving his first request 🙂

We were really close to the creek so, following Lonely planet tips we chose to take a local wooden boat (Abra) to tour the creek and then be dropped off at the gold district. Abras are used by locals to hop from one side to the other of the creek, and are usually fully loaded. But if at the port they notice a group of tourists they will offer the private tour option. The boat tour costs 120 AED (roughly 30€), regardless of the number of people renting it. We took the boat for ourself. After all it’s our honeymoon!

The tour was very nice, allowing us to see the old price of Persia style buildings from the water side. A gentle breeze framed it all to be a very nice experience overall.

The Abra driver dropped us off at the gold district where even more scarves were ready to be thrown on our heads. Since it was around 3pm, the heat was close to unbearable! We promptly took cover under some of the market shades while searching for an atm and a taxi (credit cards are not very used here). On the way to the hotel we were surprised by the fact that even bus stops have AC!