6 hours in Dubai

We flew Emirates to Rome, and scored ourselves a 9 hour stopover in Dubai on the way there. We had friends who very kindly picked us up from the airport, brought us around Dubai, and sent us back to the airport.

They brought us to eat camel burger at one of the restaurants near the Creek. We were pretty intrigued by the idea, and were looking forward to seeing how exotic the meat was.

When we got there, honestly, the food didn't matter - what mattered was that they had air-conditioning. It was absolutely SWELTERING.

No prizes for guessing what they serve

 

As my friend said, the Camel burger tasted like a cross between beef and chicken...and it was true. It was slightly drier than beef, but still enjoyable and I'm glad we tried it.

We also had time for a ride on an abra, from the silk souk to the spice souk to do a bit of shopping. I managed to buy saffron and fresh vanilla pods from the spice souk.

And we also managed to make it to the Dubai Mall. The scale was insane - even all the large in-your-face Chinese developments could not have prepared me for this - buildings and buildings (albeit of varied heights) set around this man made lake, with every single shop in the world you could ask for (even Brunetti had a branch there!), and this crazy 3-storey aquarium with almost all varieties of marine life, from sharks to snappers. We were pretty overwhelmed.

We had booked our tickets to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa a few weeks before the trip, and were really looking forward to being at 620m AMSL. Ok, I don't know what the MSL in the Middle East is. It's got residential apartments, a hotel, and an office tower. I wonder what the efficiency of the building is; that's a lot of space being taken up by different service cores.

 And we were on our way.

The same pond looking so tiny from the 120th storey.

Heck, everything looked tiny. And there were so many spaghetti-like traffic junctions. I think that main thoroughfare where all the buildings were was Sheik Zayed Road.

It was almost surreal to be up so high.

Our friends also brought us to Zaatar W Zeit, which is a 24 hour joint serving something like a naan or flatbread, with stuff wrapped up inside.

This was the version with haloumi cheese - I really liked it. It was slightly chewy, not too salty, and the bread had a really nice soft texture with a slightly crusty outside. 

 

 With chicken, tomato and salad

This one had minced meat - not sure what it was, possibly lamb. Ok but nothing to crow about. 

This one was my favourite - the Zaatar, with sesame seeds, thyme and possibly a bit of lemon. You can't go wrong ordering the dish that is named after the house. 

And at Dubai Airport, we also got to try Pinkberry Yogurt (photos not available). Apparently my friend has spotted Thaksin Shinawatra at various Pinkberry outlets in the city - and Thaksin's absolutely right, Pinkberry yogurt was good!