*******

Our "base camp" seen from the airplane, check the blue lighted houses (Denim Tower a.o.) close to the Palm Island, there about is the Marina, where we stayed.

The view from the balcony: Dubai Marina including Yacht Club.
yes, it's real, the sky scrapers, the yachts, the blue sky and the turquoise water.

And that balcony is in the third building from the left.



DESERT experience.
HA HAA.
It was next to our building, also a view from the balcony. We did not do a desert safari.

Our friendly host ALI loves to rock!

Ali took us to some wonderful places, we had fantastic brunch and hot disco night at the newly opened Atlantis Hotel, he recommended us the bar Calabar at Address Hotel, we enjoyed sheeshas and drinks after a stroll in the souk at Madinah Jumeirah, we spent a sunny afternoon at the pool at Mina A'Salam ...

He also took us to the bar 360 from where we had a superb view at sunset.
That bar was rated as one of the top locations: cutest girls in town!

Probably not the cutest boys in town, but definitely some of the most working boys in Dubai build this enourmously fast growing city, day and nite. Do not ask for which conditions. Look at how many men there are alone at this building site!

Dubai's next wonder: the highest sky scraper in the world. Burj Dubai. Not yet ready, but already dominates the skyline.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_DubaiIn front of the pic the monorail track, train should start operating next year. A new era of public transportation in Dubai. Hopefully. Today you can travel by taxi anywhere with the price of an European tram ticket.

The view from the Palace Hotel in the middle of the city. Artificial, yes.

Talk about artificial!
SKI DUBAI.
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In the Mall of Emirates this skiing experience is the attraction.
Maybe it is necessary for all the expat kids, or the rich emirati children. Maybe.
By the way, we did not shop ANYTHING.

Actually there is an old town in Dubai, too, it is on both sides of the Creek, which you can cross by funny little wooden boats called abras.
Oh yeah, and we did even visit the Museum of Dubai.

In the elder parts of Dubai, like in Deira, you can find souks, but for heaven's sake do not compare them with the Istambul grand bazar ... these souks are quickly walked through, you might be able to make bargains if you were looking for Indian scarves or t-shirts. You might. The nicest souk was the spice souk.

Well, we did not really suffer, did we? NO! But it was interesting: even the luxury hotels were not allowed to serve any alcohol during this birthday holiday. Alcohol is anway a bit of a tabu theme in Dubai, it is an islamic country indeed. A country that wants to have tourists. Tourists want to celebrate on holidays ... the solution is to admit special alcohol licenses to the hotels. That is also where you find ALL ex partiots in their free time, spending ridiculously much money on drinks.
Another matter is no tolerance when drinking and driving. I guess the wealthy muslims get their kicks out of expensive cars, they do not need whisky to get high. I have never ever anywhere seen so many expensive luxury cars like in Dubai!

Did we like it? Of course, we had such a luxury holiday.
Did you know there is no crime in Dubai? You can leave your appartment doors unlocked!
Did you know there is a huge lebanese community living in Dubai? They are very nice people indeed, and make extraordinary tasty lahmacun until early morning...
Did you know it will be too hot to travel there in the summer months? Nobody can stand out 50° heat.