20231216 AAAA Trip - Dubai, UAE Day #4 - Cheers from Dubai!

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 91/105 - Dubai, UAE Day #4 - A Souk, A Burj, A Beach, Several Margaritas

Let me start out with something I forgot to mention yesterday. If you're an American and you're craving a taste of home, the Dubai Mall has you covered. Baskin & Robbins, Burger King, Caribou Coffee, Charley's Philly Steak, Cinnabon, Cold Stone Creamery, Dunkin', Five Guys, Gloria Jean's Coffee, Hardee's, KFC, Krispy Kreme, McDonald's, P.F. Chang's, Papa John's, Peet's Coffee, Pizza Hut, Shake Shack, Starbucks, Subway, TGI Friday's, Texas Chicken, Texas Roadhouse, Texas de Brazil, The Cheesecake Factory, Tim Horton's (OK - that's Canadian), Wendy's - they're all here. But, what really got us wasn't a meal, but a snack straight from Chicago.

Nothing hit the Midwest home spot like a big back of Garrett's caramel corn, straight off Chicago's Miracle Mile

Last night's late blogging session meant that we slept in a little longer this morning. After yesterday's marathon day, we decided to take it a little easier today. After breakfast, we hoofed it to the Dubai Mall to pick up our sightseeing bus for the ride west.

We have walked this way multiple times and never saw this deer - we're pretty sure they put this up last night

On the bus heading west to the newer areas of Dubai

Our first stop was at the Souk Madinat Jumeirah.

It is designed like a classic Arabian Souk but with modern conveniences like air conditioning

The styled entry

Right inside, we were greeted with a display of sweets

We sampled camel milk ice cream - it was nice and creamy

The vendors were much less pushy than in the old souk - it was nice

They had a whole Christmas village set up outside with lots of activities for kids

We caught a view of the Burj Al Arab

We decided to take a walk over to the Burj Al Arab for a closer look.

As we walked by the Souk's entry, a pair of stretched GMC Yukons drove by - this one was so long that it needed dual rear axels

There is a ton of housing in this area

The Burj Al Arab

The Burj Al Arab is the third tallest building in the world that is used exclusively as a hotel. It sits 280m off the coast of the UAE on a man-made island.  Access is via a private bridge and we didn't want to look into walking it.

We headed back to the Souk to catch the next bus. We were headed to Beach JBR, but first, the bus headed to Atlantis on Palm Jumeirah. If you're not familiar with the Palms project in Dubai, let me explain. Dubai started reclaiming land from the sea in the shape of palms. There are three with Palm Jumeirah being the only completed one. With all the palm fronds, Dubai has added roughly 50 miles of habitable coastline to the country. Crazy, right?

Atlantis, a hotel, waterpark, and amusement park sits at the tip of the palm. As soon as we turned onto the palm, the Burj Al Arab came into view.

This is all brand-new housing

The palm is surrounded by new ring islands reachable via tunnel

Atlantis

This mosque on Palm Jumeirah is extremely modern - check out the minaret

More new construction

We also caught a glimpse of this gold Lamborghini - checking with Google, it looks like this might have just been sold in the last month for $7.5M making it the world's most expensive car ever

Our next stop was at The Beach JBR - a beach and recreation area.

We were hungry and settled on Claw BBQ, DiveBar, Crabshack for lunch

Alcohol isn't common in Dubai other than in major entertainment areas and this was one of them - so...a pitcher of margaritas, please!

I had king crab rolls - they were tasty

Arlona had the brisket sandwich - she raved about it

Here's looking at you

Everything tasted great and it should. It wasn't cheap. Prices are a bit high here in Dubai and they get higher in popular areas. This was a $130 lunch. I'm not complaining, but just setting expectations if you go out and about in Dubai. The pitcher of margaritas was $62, so about as much as the food. Yikes!

After lunch, we wandered down and took a quick look at the beach.

There is an additional cruise port here

The world's largest Ferris wheel at 250M (820ft), but it isn't operating at the moment

We decided that we'd had enough fun today and hopped the bus for the return to Dubai Mall.

New construction is happening all over

This is a new mosque under construction - it will have two minarets

The Westin is absolutely enormous

Driving in pilings for another new building

The Mall of the Emirates

Ah...what a view from here!

A three-story Bentley store

A three-story Ferrari and Maserati shop

The Burj Khalifa was absolutely glowing in the late afternoon sun

On the walk back to the hotel - one more Ferrari

It was a good day and nicely a little bit slower than yesterday. We will likely return to the beach area and continue exploring tomorrow.