old dubai

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we didn’t have dubai on our around-the-world travel itinerary, but when we realized it would be free to have a three day layover there (and actually cheaper to fly over to south america a bit later via dubai), we decided to make the most of it! i’ve always thought of dubai as this weird, vegas-y, fake place … but we were both surprised by how much we liked it! our first day was spent half in old dubai and half in (very) new dubai, around the burj khalifa (the tallest building on planet earth!). we were delighted at what we found in both contrasting parts of town.

old dubai is colorful and lively and just really beautiful. i loved the soothing aesthetic of mosque domes and minarets against blue sky, the bustling and vivid energy of the souks (markets), the spicy smells that hung in the hot air, and the old/new collisions along dubai creek, brimmed with boats.

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^^ sights from the gold souk. such opulence! ^^
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^^ i personally find it a little crazy that people actually buy these tiny trinket souvenirs, but i love the way they look all lined up. almost everything in dubai has a little glitz about it. ^^
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^^ piles of shoes outside the mosque ^^
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^^ the spice souk! so awesomely aromatic. ^^
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^^ and the classic sight in every market we went to around the world – shopkeepers on their smartphones :) ^^
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^^ we loved our boat ride up dubai creek! i found the buildings and boats to be so interestingly pretty surrounded by the crisp blue of the sky and the water. ^^
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^^ downtown dubai in the distance. i love how the burj khalifa is about twice as tall as any other building – and those half as tall buildings are really tall skyscrapers! ^^
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an entirely different world from where we had been the day before! airplanes and the ability to be in such a vastly new place in the matter of hours blows my mind.

Comments

  1. Such a contrast to those London pictures! I love traveling the world through your blog! It's such a beautiful world. And I love seeing it through your eye. Fantastic photos, I especially love the last one.

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  2. Sorry, that was actually Saydi, your sister. Not Hazel your niece. Darn that Hazel always logged in on my computer. Love you.

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  3. Wsh I had a better documenting system so I could find our last trip to Dubai, where we did almost exactly the same things! Even looked like the same boat (although I have to admit that they all look the same:)
    What a place huh?

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  4. It looks dirty. Is it in real life?....It also looks like some have a lot of money and some are way below the poverty line.

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  5. I love reading about your travels :-) We are leaving for Cape Town via Dubai (free stopover) in three weeks (our honeymoon) and your posts are the best travel guide and made me even more excited.

    Thank you :-)

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  7. Did you ever feel unsafe in your travels?

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  8. There are too many things to be enjoy in Dubai but my opinion is Boat Cruise Dubai is one of the best outdoor adventure activity for all kind of people, specially for those who loves adventure and nature.

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