Hello Guys!
Welcome from Iran! So, after a few days in Pokhara and Kathmandu, Nepal, we took a flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (one of the 7 Emirates in UAE). This was not in our initial plan at all to be honest, but it was the best opportunity to see really good friends over there.
The oldest friend of William took us directly from the airport and we needed just a few seconds to understand, how artificial is Dubai. It's like someone is playing Sims City in real life in the middle of desert with all the possible cheats (=unlimited money). It reminds us a bit of some places of US, but with a lot of sand, wider space (no serious traffic jam there), more expensive, much hotter and with stronger A/C. Without rushing to the conclusions, it's not like we didn't enjoy the place, but it's just a big city and a quick stop for us!
Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain
So, our intensive trip started next morning. We went to the "very high tower" … the famous Burj Khalifa. It's almost impossible to miss it wherever you are in Dubai. It's so high, so visible. We read we can see it from 95 kilometers.
We managed to find our way inside the huge shopping mall, paid like 35€ per person for the first level (yes, we could go higher for around 100€ …), and went up quickly (10 meters per second). Sure, even if the sky was not clear as in our dream (pictures we saw on Internet ^^), it gave us a great view of Dubai from above.
After a good burger in the Dubai Mall, we enjoyed the Dubai Fountains. It was nice 3 minutes show, but not worth to be your main thing in your tourist plan. Very similar to the ones in Las Vegas.
Then we enjoyed one of the Dubai beaches and the pool with a big screen and soccer world cup on it! We finished our day by drinking beers with good friends.
Abu Dhabi: Mosques, Palaces, and the Louvre
Next morning, we woke up early to take the road for Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. We started with the biggest mosque in the world, the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. It was really impressive and magnificent. They made one piece of carpet which is really huge as it covers the whole room and it took 3 years to made it. Everything is aligned at the perfection with the huge and beautiful chandelier. The floor is made of marble was very impressive, so many details graved on it.
We continued with the "Palace" before lunch. It is one of the fanciest hotels in Abu Dhabi. It was a nice walk inside to observe the excessiveness. I'm sure a night there is worth it but maybe too fancy for us…
The last thing we did in Abu Dhabi was to visit the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It's a new place there and the architecture was quite interesting. Finally, we motivated ourselves to enter inside and enjoy the beauty of arts and very old stuff. It was really worth it, just 2 hours to see everything (not like taking days for the one in Paris).
Ski Dubai and the North Korean Restaurant
On the way back to Dubai, we stopped quickly to see famous Burj Al Arab hotel, a 7 stars hotel they said. We even saw a helicopter landing on the top of the hotel.
Oh yes, and we went to the Mall of the Emirates (another mall!) to quickly see the Ski Dubai. The guys built a ski track inside the mall. I told you it was like in Sims City ;-)
We finished our day by tasting the good food and drinks in a North Korean restaurant (first time for us) with a bunch of good people. Last day, we could say we did almost nothing in Dubai. William managed to get sick (thanks A/C!). We just repair our drone (one more time…) in a very crowded mall. The rest was only resting ;-)
Next morning, we took our flight to go to Shiraz, Iran. We feel that a lot of stereotypes will be broken here ;-). Stay tuned!
June 19–23, 2018