We left the flat and walked to the Metro despite someone having blisters on her feet from the day before! Having swiped into the station, we waited for 10 minutes with no sign of a train, so swiped out again and hailed a taxi outside a nearby hotel. Having made it to the Marina Mall (it seems our trip is being dominated by trips to Malls), we walked straight through and bought tickets for the ferry to Al-Ghubaiba on Dubai Creek. It cost £10 each which seems very reasonable for what turned out to be nearly a two hour trip.
We left the Marina, packed with expensive motor-yachts as you'd expect, and headed under the bridges that carry traffic and monorail out to the the Atlantis hotel and the artificial islands in the shape of a palm. It's an immense building project which is nowhere near completion, but it's not somewhere I'd want to live.
Carrying on northwards parallel to the coast, we could see in the distance, the Burj-al-Arab, the worlds first, self-proclaimed, 7 star hotel. It's a very striking building which dwarfs everything else on the coast near to it including the Jumeriah Beach Hotel. The Jumeriah Beach Hotel itself is very distinctive too, shaped like a giant wave.
Although it was hazy, which it seems to be every day, we could see the skyscrapers of the financial and commercial centre of the city in the distance too. The skyline is dominated by the immensely tall Burj-al-Khalifa. Much of the coast between Jumeriah and the middle of Dubai is being 'reclaimed' from the sea, so many huge stone jetties stick out like fingers from the shoreline. The ferry stopped at one of these which is also the entrance to the Dubai canal, another new feature of the city. Quite a lot of people got off here to take a tour along the canal.
Eventually, we started passing the commercial port and cruise ship berths as we got closer to the Creek. Not far beyond the Creek, another of the Emirate States, Sharjah, is clearly visible. We disembarked at Al-Ghubaiba and walked into the edge of the souk to a restaurant we'd seem from the other side of the Creek yesterday, called Bayt-al-Wakeel. We ate a selection of Middle Eastern dishes for lunch whilst watching the small water taxis, Abras whizzing back and forward across and along the Creek. The food was delicious and the restaurant recommended!
After lunch, we got the full brunt of aggressive salesmanship from the local sellers of textiles and associated tourist trinkets as we attempted to wander through the souk! It's a shame that the hassle is so intense as we'd quite liked to have browsed the stalls, sadly we were rather put off by people draping scarves over our shoulders in an attempt to sell us their wares.
After a short walk, we found an oasis of calm in a small cafe/restaurant, the XVA Art Hotekl and Gallery. He we drank coffee in the shaded and cool courtyard of a reconstructed old-style town house.
Then it was Mall time again!
Once again, we hailed a taxi to take us to the brand new Dubai Opera House. Sadly, our driver didn't appear to know where this was, but did drop us fairly close by. A production of 'Cats' is on there at the moment, but I wasn't inclined to take out a second mortgage to buy tickets!
Siobhan and Aaron had some errands to run in the Mall, but Lynn and I indulged in ice-creams instead. I also dispatched an iced coffee from Tim Horton's!
We then wandered around the huge lake between the Mall and Burj-al-Khalifa. The massive spire that is Burj-al-Khalifa, is quite astonishing from ground level. The lake plays host to a huge water display during the evenings. Apparently, it puts the display outside Bellagio's in Las Vegas to shame, perhaps because it was designed by the same person.
Finally, after wandering around a temporary outdoor market under the tower, we headed past the Opera House on foot before hailing another taxi to bring us back to the flat. As a footnote, taxis are plentiful, metered and cheap in Dubai. The drivers seem to be friendly and understand English.
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