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!