Arabian nights - the final tale - September 4 to 7

The craftmanship on some of the jewelry is absolutely amazing


Today we took a taxi and visited the large gold Souk, and parts of the rice and spice Souks, on the other side of the creek. We could smell the fish Souk but decided not to check that out. Part of the gold souk is a another 4 story mall filled top to bottom with shops selling gold and jewelry. The maze of streets behind this mall contains dozens and dozens more shops selling gold, silver and jewelry. Honestly you get gold fever walking around. We wanted to buy some gold to take home, but with current gold prices we can't even afford a small item. Some of the jewelry we saw was awe inspiring, so delicate, so much detail, so beautifully crafted.

This is part of the old gold souk. All the shops both sides sell gold, silver and jewelry. This is one of many streets.


Just one of the window displays - they pretty much all look like this. Can you blame me for getting gold fever?



We certainly stood out as tourists, where ever we went stall holders would rush out saying copy Rolex?, t-shirts?, hand bags?, you need perfume? Stand still too long before a shop and the shopkeeper would come out to encourage you to enter and buy something. We bought some mixed nuts from one shop and tried negotiating on the price, to no avail. Upon completion of the transaction the shop keeper offered saffron (probably the single most expensive item in the shop) or did we want high quality viagra?

The historic house that was open to the public was very interesting to see, and offered a glimpse into Arabian customs and habitats. Surprisingly, it didn't cost a thing. Everything else in Dubai has been quite expensive, so no entry fee came as quite a surprise.


There are two 'public' rooms at the front of the house where the men discuss the issues of the day

House from inside courtyard











A glimpse of the womens chamber - men are not allowed in here unless they are less than 10 years old

Kids playing in the courtyard


We took a taxi to another mall, Dubai Mall, which according to the tourist map boasted an aquarium. Entirely true - a three story aquarium filled with a wide variety of fish, including medium sized sharks and rays. It is reportedly one of the largest tanks in the world at 51m x 20m x 11m and featuring the world’s largest viewing panel at 32.8m wide and 8.3m high, which holds the Guinness World Record for the largest acrylic aquarium panel in the world. Dubai Aquarium has more than 33,000 living animals, representing more than 85 species including over 400 sharks and rays combined. It also has a viewing tunnel passing beneath the aquarium. Two floors up is the water zoo, featuring all sorts of unusual, common, rare and sometimes on the brink of extinction species. We must have spend an hour or so exploring all of this (after paying an entry fee). The sheer size of the aquarium is astonishing.



Guinness World record viewing pane



The variety of fish is amazing







Shark!!! passing overhead


Deflated puffer fish and friends







George looking up through an underwater dome at scorpion fish








The Zoo hosts two types of penguin as well as all the other species

This mall also features an ice skating rink, a three story waterfall, and three levels of Sega games. It is not quite as big as the Mall of the Emirates with only 1200 shops. The mall is divided into different sections, including a fashion arcade and another gold souk. The Gold souk is a bit of a maze, and once you penetrate deeper into the maze most shops are empty. That is something we noticed quite a lot actually; the number of buildings that are empty or up for sale. Many of the sky scrapers didn't show any, or only very few, lights after sunset - indicating that they are probably empty.

Fountains and large areas of open water are a sign of wealth in the desert. This is a 4 story waterfall


Part of Dubai Mall - only 1200 shops - so a bit smaller than the Mall of the Emirates










Icerink in Dubai Mall


Even the sweet shop is huge. Those coloured pillars are full of sweets!





The star atrium in the Dubai Mall

With dusk approaching the number of people in the mall increased, including the number of women wearing burkas. Not all burka's are solid black, some have beautiful embroidery around the sleeves and neckline. From the glimpses we caught, the women wearing the burka's also wear designer jeans, expensive hand bags, high heels and big gold Rolex watches and shop in the most exclusive of the stores.

Not all burkas are solid black. These are quite pretty







An image straight out of an Arabian fairy tale - but it is all real!








These magic carpets would come around every half hour or so. Bit expensive to take a ride though

We hoped to have tickets to be allowed to climb to the top of the Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world. Unfortunately there were no slots available. So we took photos from the outside instead. The whole place is heavily guarded and we accidentally strayed within a forbidden zone (no signs to indicate this, although I did wonder why the decorative post beside the paths started talking Arabian to me), and were encouraged to leave by a polite security guard. Amazing building, but probably more amazing is the amount of open water and number of fountains surrounding this building. In these temperatures water evaporates quickly, so open water and fountains are a sign of affluence, because it constantly needs to be replenished.

A huge open pool near the Burj Khalifa. Not sure how much water needs to be pumped in everyday to maintain the water level


The Burj Khalifa











The Burj Khalifa reflected in a huge pool of open water

The Burj Khalifa at sunset


Early start the next day to get to the airport for the final leg home. We were awake for about 25 hours and it felt like a long trip. In Auckland we checked the bikes were OK and then took everything through customs. We made sure to declare the bikes and the fact that we'd visited a dairy farm and been through a forest. Other than an X-ray of all the bags customs didn't check the bikes at all. I had to go and stand on a pad of disinfectant with my shoes because I might have worn those on a farm (George's shoes were stuffed and he bought some new ones in Frankfurt) but once they heard that the bikes were road bikes they didn't even want us to open the bags. We were quite frankly a bit disappointed by that. The oafs loading (or unloading) stuff onto the Pacific Blue flight to Wellington dragged our bikes and have caused some damage, which is rather annoying, but not fatal for the bikes. George is putting the bikes back together at the moment. Hope that the damage won't affect the performance too much.

This is the last entry for this blog. Sitting here on the couch at home it all feels rather like I am suspended between one reality and another. We had a great time in Europe and in Dubai. Wish it could continue, but have to go back to work to start saving for the next holiday. Hope you enjoyed our travels.