Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Day 23

We started the day by heading to another mall, the WAFI. It was very Las Vegas with pyramid shaped buildings, the Sphinx, etc. In the basement of the mall, they had recreated an old souk with lots and lots of stalls for shop owners to display their wares. We unfortunately did not find anything to purchase so we headed over to the real souks. I was expecting something a bit more primitive but instead found what you see in the New York diamond district. There must have been thousands of store fronts selling gold. All had air conditioning. We walked the narrow streets from the gold souk to the spice souk to the aluminum pots souk to the party goods souk. We decided to head back to the ship for our 4:00pm departure.

We’re glad we got to see Dubai but we’re not sure we’d purposefully ever come back. While the audacious things they have built out of the desert were amazing, the whole place is way too much like home.
As we sailed away from Dubai, we now have a U.S. Navy frigate shadowing us for our protection through Pirate Alley. Also, the crew members that serve the buffet will be helping with the watch so the buffet has become self-serve for the next few days. Yo, ho, Yo, ho it’s off to the Suez Canal.

Hi all Jeff here
It’s about 430 in the afternoon on the Thursday the 22nd and we are just leaving the Emirate of Dubai
As I have mentioned several times during this trip there are advantages for the tourist in visiting a country ruled by military or family dictatorships
The streets are clean the crime rate if it does exist doesn’t seem to involve the tourists
The taxi drivers all speak English and bend over backwards to make you feel welcomed
The public restrooms are so clean it’s almost scary the malls are everything we have read about, shops that put Madison Ave and Rodeo Drive to shame
The smaller shops are friendly and welcoming including offering Ron and me beverages as we shopped
I managed to put on hold any comments about inbred anti-Semitism or anti Americanism and we enjoyed ourselves to the max
We treated ourselves to High Tea at the Burg Al Arab hotel, it’s the building that is always shown when Dubai is in the news Its shaped like a sail of a ship and has spectacular views of the Man made islands called Palm and the World
The tea went on for almost 2 hours with nonstop food and drink and considering we had arrived early and were invited to be their guests at the bar overlooking the sea we were both already feeling no pain as we were seated at windows some 30 stories above the sea
While we had taken the outside observation elevator to the bar with my other half holding the elevator doors until they reopened on the 30th floor we choose to use the inside elevator on the way down so I didn’t have to hear “son of a bitch” all the way down as I heard all the way up
Ever since our nephew Alex managed to scare Uncle Ron by running all over the observation deck of the World Trade Center I have enjoyed making him squirm in similar places all over the world
But he will be the first to tell you it was worth the agony the views were truly spectacular
Well enough of me I will let Ron tell you about the malls the ski slopes the endless array of gold and jewels