Next to the gold souk is the spice souk, you can find many loose spices and herbs here. The white bags at the top are salt, then there is hibiscus, frankincense and myrrh. The really blue stuff is indigo, the white looking rocks on the bottom right are alum and they use it as a deodrant, they wet it and put it on. There are cinnamon sticks and I don't remember the rest. The next picture is another shop, we stepped inside to cool off. Some of the shops are air conditioned. This nice looking man was happy to let me take his picture. He is standing in front of cardamon, they use it in or instead of coffee.
They do have some belly dancing attire, which I was happy to see, you don't find much of that in the newer malls. Some of these cost about 50 dirhams, which is about 15 dollars. I have not looked for classes, I seem to be able to fill my time without them. I did lease a car, I could not stand to take taxi's all the time and I really enjoy the freedom. I spend a lot more time at the beach collecting shells and just loving being by the water. Keep posted for more, I have more pictures and will try to get them posted.

We went to the beach one evening just before the sun went down and Mike took some amazing pictures. I couldn't stay out of the water, so I went and played in the waves. It was a beautiful sight. The pictures almost do it justice. The water was very warm, like taking a bath. As you can see many people were out enjoying it. For those of you that know Mike's love for water and how often he goes in, (other than a shower) he actually put his feet in. Yes, that means he took off his shoes! That is pretty rare outside.

Last Sunday, a friend from church took me down to the gold souk. It is located in downtown Dubai, in the Deira Center. The picture above is gold from India and they have very yellow gold. She told me that the gold here is 18, 22, and 24 karat. The gold from India is usually 24 karat. There are many shops like these, I have only put a few of the pictures up. It was very hot and so we only stayed for a few hours. I have some more pictures and will add more if the area in another post. They sell the gold by piece or by weight. They don't give it away. The lacey looking necklace is all gold other than the stones. They also sell gems, they have some loose stones too. There were many that I have not seen before, orange and yellow sapphires to name a few.

Last Sunday we went to Abu Dhabi.. It is only about 1 1/2 hrs from here. Along the way, you can see many mosques, there is usually one in each development. A little further along you come across another mosque. I don't think that this picture does justice to how large it is. We had to be quite far to get the whole thing in the camera.

Carl thought that this was where Mike is working but he told him, not yet. It does kind of look like a refinery with all the scaffolding and the domes kinda look like tanks at first glance.








The 2 pictures below are in Abu Dhabi, the first one is in the industrial area, this particular area is auto repair/ tires. The other one is of downtown, we were at the Abu Dhabi Mall, Mike and a coworker had a meeting there, so I mostly browsed.

This is where Mike is working, this is DUSUP. The existing building is on the right and the new building is on the left. The pipeline is behind these buildings, and is currently under construction. They don't allow me back there.

The restaurant in the picture is called Johhny Rockets, they have burgers, fries and shakes, they play 50s and 60s music, and they have the old style song selection that you used to find, where you could put your quarters in and pick songs off the juke box. It is all show, they don't have old technology, it is all computerized. The food is good, I know most of the songs they play, (even some of the words).

Have a great day!!

This picture is in Downtown Dubai, right on the gulf, it is a modest hotel (hehe) and has a revolving restaurant on top. Mike has promised a dinner there before we leave. I don't think we will try to stay at any of the hotels here, its really expensive.




These are some of the buildings along Dubai Creek, the one with the ball on top is the phone company. I am not sure about the others, you can see that they have some unique architecture, I guess the bean counters have not been able to interfere yet. They are working on the tallest building in the world, they call it the Burj Dubai. It is getting there, they have a lot of cheap labor and they work them day and night.



This is the beginning of Dubai Creek, the creek is pretty large and there are many large buildings along it, the gold souk is in this area and other shopping centers and of course, businesses. The opening to the right in the picture is the Persian Gulf. There are many small boats along side the creek, they move cargo to the larger ships in the port. It amazes me that things would go where they are destined, it looks pretty unorganized to me. But they have been doing things this way long before I was around so somehow it works.
















It is common to see shops on the ground floor and then apartments on the floors above, they have just recently started with the more western type malls, The Mall of the Emirates, which has the ski hill in it, and the Ibn Battuta Mall with themes and courts from different countries.
The area of town that we live in is really new and so it has more of the western style layout. Except for the roads. I guess it is pretty similar as they never have enough ways in and out of an area to accomodate the growth. I am hoping we leave before it becomes a bigger issue than it already is. I am talking about 3 lanes moving into 1 then 1 lane merging with one more and moving into 1. Sometimes it can be a test to get back into our area.


The night shot is of the Trade Center area, I had to go and have a blood test for my visa and we managed to pick the peak time for business. It took about 3 hours to get through the line... now I have a health card,( not sure what that will do for me) and a nice bruise from the blood test. But it was almost 8 pm and we were hungry so we found an Applebees and had dinner. The menu is similar to the states and we enjoyed it. I can say that I have not had many bad meals. I have another shot of the trade center area from the freeway.












The Madinat Jumeriah Hotel is in the foreground and the Burj Al Arab is in the background. I tried to get online and figure out what a night would cost there but to be honest, their web sites are not the best. I think if someone had talent in that area, they could make some real money here, or not, they just hire people who will work for next to nothing. We went to that complex to listen to Kevan and his Irish Band. He works with Mike and was playing there as part of a music festival. They started out at Jambase, a bar/restaurant. We went to enjoy them and to have dinner. The meal was wonderful, we sat in the no smoking section (way in the back) but it turned out to be great, the volume was tolerable and the food was delicious; and we didn't have to endure the smell of cigarettes while we ate. Mike found a sword to match the knives he got in Syria, and so it made for a fun night. Stay tuned, more to come!