Road Trip Day 2
We enjoyed a leisurely start to our morning in Al Ain before hitting the road for Dubai.
Right away, we began watching for the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world located in Dubai. You know how some people give you directions to a place and say, “You can’t miss it!” I always hear that and think, “Challenge Accepted!” I’m really good at getting turned around. But in this case, you really cannot miss it! You can’t tell from this picture because your brain tells you that the other buildings are just short. Not so. These are NYC skyscraper type buildings. It’s just that the Burj Khalifa is so much taller than the brain gets confused.
We stopped for lunch at a fast-food-ish place and then arrived at our hotel. There was a bit of confusion and some back and forth, but we got it settled and are so glad we did. This place is delightful. The vibe is somewhere between American Old West and Disney’s Aladdin.
The hotel’s neighborhood has a similar vibe. This song from Aladdin keeps coming to mind.
Last night we did a little souvenir shopping before dinner then Trellace and I went over to the Dubai Souq, where traditional markets line the roads, one right next to the other. Jay and Sam–who unfortunately is fighting a vicious cold–headed back to the hotel. To get to the Souq, we took a boat. It was only a 2-3 minute ride, but still a real Dubai tourist treat.
We got back to the hotel more than ready to get cool and clean and said goodnight.
Breakfast today was at the hotel and was similar to the buffets we had in Abu Dhabi. The afternoon has been filled with shopping in the markets. It’s so different shopping in this part of the world, with vendors calling from every store front. I remember this from Israel and Egypt, but familiarity makes it no less annoying.
However, every person working in these shops is an immigrant, here with no family and few connections. They are just doing a job, trying to make money to send back to their loved ones. We get it.
Before leaving Dubai, we drove to the financial district to get a better view of Burj Khalifa. On the way, we travelled on highways with 8 lanes each way. That’s 16 lanes of traffic! Crazy.
In addition to Burj Kalifa, other buildings are architecturally impressive for different reasons. Round buildings and structures that seem to twist; buildings that bring to mind ancient Persian architecture, and ones that look as if they were dropped in place by aliens. And then, in the middle of all that is this massive half-mile-high tower of towers. My brain rebelled; it just could not process the information my eyes gathered. I think I got an error message.
Headed back to Abu Dhabi for two more nights. Now we’re down to a MUCH smaller road—this one only has 8 lanes, not 16. This ain’t Texas, but stuff sure is big out here!
