Day two started early. Since the hotel had given us some sweets and a slice of chocolate mousse cake, we stayed in and made some coffee and had that as our "healthy breakfast". It was Sunday and being their first day of the week, we had planned to go to the old part of town, the Souk district. Souk is Market. and they have several ones, The Old Souk, The Spice Souk, The Gold Souk.
In order to get there, we took the metro. DH20.00 gave each of us a daily pass to move around the city as much as we liked it, and we liked that.
First stop was the old Souk, very narrow streets, a lot of spices on stands and plenty of stuff to see. Very touristy, but still very interesting.
We were a little overwhelmed with all the vendors coming to get you, but thats how they make a living, right.
Once we were done in this Souk, we wanted to go the Gold Souk, and it was on the other side of the river. as we walked by the river bank, we noticed some boats that worked as a water taxi, from one side to the other, after asking a couple of people, I found out it cost DH1.00, yes, less than a quarter to cross the river, so there we went.
These boats look like they are 100 years old, and they may be., for all I can see, but they work perfectly. You get in, sit, and pay your pilot when you get to the other side, as you disembark.
The other side was another beautiful experience. You know the middle eastern like gold, but only when you see all these jewelry shops you get a glimpse of really how much. SO much gold, and there we are talking about 18k or 24k. No 14k gold anywhere.
That completed our visit to the Souks. Even though there was so much to see, we did not buy anything. But the temptation was everywhere.
We were excited because the second part of the day was to go to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Sitting with a total height of 829.8M or 2722 ft, it is an impressive feat of engineering.
But before we got to go to the top, we had to get the fuel for the day, and Vero had gotten a tip about a great lebanese restaurant that was at the foot of the Burj. The restaurant was called Abd El Wahab. What an amazing food. Coming from a Lebanese background, this food was amazing, not only it looked great, the taste was also out of this world.
Well, with our bellies full, it was time to go up and see the views from the top of the world.
Just getting there was an experience, as you can see in the elevator, in one minute we were in floor 124
Once up there, the views were spectacular, no photos can give a true account of how it is. and even though it does not look so high, it is because the other buildings are also very tall around it. Another interesting thing is you can see the curvature of the earth on the horizon, a terrible sight for the flat earthers out there. Another interesting thing I noticed in Dubai is that there is this fog like haze all the time. We could not find the conclusion if this is really fog or just pollution.
After this we were tired of walking so much in the city, we decided to just go back to the hotel.
When we got there, we just went to the hotel bar and got a couple of Gin and tonics, and called it a night. The next day we were exploring the other side of the city, and our flight to Zanzibar left Dubai at midnight, so we needed the rest. Sign up to receive the updates of the new published chapters. The best part is still to come.
After an amazing night at Zuri, we woke up and went for breakfast. A buffet style that had everything from fresh juices to an egg station and breads and cakes and everything you can imagine. At 9:00am the car that would be taking us to Stone town was at the entrance of the hotel and we began on an amazing journey through history. It was more than one hour drive and when we got to our destination, a stop on Creek Rd, the road that separates the old town from the new town, as they call it. Being from Brazil and knowing how Brazilians are perceived, i had strategically planned to wear the Brazilian National Team Jersey that day. Amazing how right I was. We stepped out of the car and I needed to exchange some money into Tanzanian Schillings so we could pay for things and buy any souvenirs we wanted. there was a small exchange right by the road and we exchanged $100.00, or the equivalent to TSH 230,000.00 (Tanzanian Schillings). Right after we got out of the exchange place, we go...
Day 4 started late on day 3. We received our Covid Test results about 8pm the night of the flight. Finished packing everything and around 830pm we called the reception for them to come by and pick up the luggage that would stay behind since for Africa we could only take a soft side bag with a max of 15Kg (33 Lbs). The hotel kept our 3 big suitcases until we got back about a week later. Once we got to the hotel lobby, a little stop at the concierge to print out the tests, since we were told we needed a hard copy of it. Taxi to the airport and we got there around 9-930pm. We were flying Qatar Airways, since the non-stop flight from Emirates was not flying the day we needed, making us add a stop in Doha, before getting to Zanzibar - Tanzania. Of course nothing happens easily, and it took us forever to finish registering into the Tanzania Health Dept to be able to get in, but at the end we were ready to go. A little snack in before boarding the plane and up we went, arriving at Doha an hou...
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