Dubai by night

When the sun goes down, the old town of Dubai comes alive. We emerged from the hotel to check out the old souks, or markets. After checking out the Bastakiya, the heritage area, we caught the abra, the traditional boats which serve as public transport, over the Dubai Creek to Deira to see the Spice Souk and the Gold Souk. Apparently, the gold in the Deira souk is the best quality and cheapest in the world. Pity I don’t like gold. Geoff sighs with relief.

Highlights

1.       The boat ride over the “creek”. Really a  river.

2.       The beautiful old timber covered souks.

3.       The Bastakiya, beautiful old buildings with traditional wind towers, which catch the breeze and direct it down into the house.

4.       Call to prayer broadcast from the mosques.

New Dubai

We checked out the amazing architecture of new Dubai. This really lends new meaning to the word oasis. It’s a totally artificial environment. It’s like living on another planet in a bubble. It feels very science fictionish. And some of the women look like aliens too in their black gowns and weird headscarves. The buildings are otherworldly – amazing feats of architecture.

Highlights

1.       Seeing Dubai from the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It was called “At the Top”. Geoff said it should have been called “ Three quarters of the way up”, because there was another 100 metres above us. Amazing to see sci fi city meet the desert. Star Wars (the aliens) meets Dune.

2.       The aquarium wall in the Dubai mall. A massive wall of fish, sharks, rays etc., while you shop!

3.       The Dubai metro. What a wonderful system. It’s mostly on elevated railways, adds to the sci fi look.

Observations

1.       Some of the young Dubai women who wear the burkah wear jeans and runners underneath. Who knew?

2.       Women in burkahs talking on mobiles. I wonder if it muffles their voice?

3.       City of shopping malls. Chadstone x 100 gone mad and taken over the city.

On Safari

This safari is totally amazing. On day one today we have seen an estimated 100 elephants, 500 zebra, 12 giraffes, 300 wildebeest, 100 impala, 20 baboons, 10 vervet monkeys, 5 waterbuck, 5 warthogs, 20 rock hyrax, one mongoose, one squirrel, bats, a fishing eagle, 5 ostriches, vultures, hornbills, kingfishers and a heap of other birds. The Tarangire Safari Lodge is the most fantastic place. We have a safari tent (with en suite).. On the walk from the tent to the pool I saw baboons and impala, and on the way back I saw dik diks and a mongoose as well as all of the above. I heard lions roaring through the night. A hotel porter has to accompany you back to your tent at night. The view here over the river is fabulous, you can see the animals coming down to drink.