Dubai - Leo's view

After our trip in Abu Dhabi, we took a taxi to Dubai. The journey took about an hour and a half – approximately 100 km, which is like from Dubnica to Bratislava, and it cost about 150e (a minivan, because there are 6 of us and we had luggage). I slept through the whole thing.

When we arrived, we were hit by extremely dry and hot air. We went to check into our apartment, which was accessed by a card. We took the elevator all the way up to the 23rd floor, and as we went up, our ears were literally popping.

We were welcomed by a huge, quite luxuriously furnished apartment. At first glance it looked great, but when we looked closer, we discovered mold and holes in the doors 😅 Simča didn’t like that at all.

Interestingly, on the ground floor there was a part directly connected to our building – like a huge shopping mall. You could buy literally everything there: food, electronics, jewelry, gold… The shopkeepers were tempting us to buy something from them, and the air had that typical “China” smell.

The next day, we decided to visit the Burj Khalifa. We took a bus from our accommodation and then the metro. When we got off, we were faced with an endless walk through corridors in a huge shopping mall. Those distances are unbelievable – even though there was a moving walkway like at the airport, it still took us almost 20 minutes to get to the place.

In the center, we had some delicious but quite expensive ice cream. Then we walked to the other side of the center, which is among the largest in the world. Outside, there was a huge artificial pool where people were sailing on boats and had a view of the Burj Khalifa. Plus a large fountain with a show and loud music.

When we wanted to take a picture with the Burj Khalifa, it was almost impossible to get it all in the shot. Even when we stood far away, it still didn’t “fit”. Gradually we approached it and enjoyed the view of those tall buildings.

The next day, we visited the Gold Souk – a huge district full of gold shops. People were haggling over prices, taking pictures and shopping. We also saw the largest and heaviest gold ring in the world there.

From there, we took a boat ride on the river near the Gold Souk and then went to eat at a great restaurant. The food was really tasty, the staff was very nice and recommended what to choose. At the end, they offered us Dubai pistachio chocolate – they say it was originally made for soldiers because it has an extremely high number of calories for a small portion. It was excellent.

Overall, I felt very safe in Dubai. There were cameras everywhere, the city is modern, scams are not very common there and they always tell you the price beforehand. If someone tried to cheat tourists, the owners would deal with it because they want people to return regularly.

Unlike in Abu Dhabi, almost no one wore traditional white clothes there. I had a more relaxed and liberal feeling from Dubai.

From the city, we then went to a beautiful sandy beach with palm trees, I felt like I was somewhere in Florida.

When we were returning from the beach to the city by metro, a nightmare began. During rush hour, the metro was so overcrowded that we couldn’t get in at all. People were standing squeezed right up to the doors and we were waiting for when we would be able to fit inside.

The trains were coming literally every minute, but every single one was completely full. We estimated that there are about 1200 people in one train, and since it lasted about two hours, around 144,000 people passed through there. We stood there tired and hoped that a space would finally open up.

Only after two hours did we finally get inside and rode back home.

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