06/02/19 I requested an Uber to get to the airport. My 1.5L bottle of water exploded on the floor before I got into the car and it leaked a little on the way. I had to trash it when I arrived at the airport. I landed on time in Dubai and took a taxi straight to a Korean restaurant that Cha’s friend has booked for tonight. We will stay at her place for a few days as she has an apartment in the downtown area, very convenient! It is very nice of her to welcome us both even without knowing me.
I was the first one there with all my luggage and it was funny because I didn’t know the booking name nor the number of people expected. I also didn’t know what Alexandra looks like so I just had to wait for someone to show up ?.
Alexandra came with 2 lovely girlfriends and we had a good time. One girl even offered to bring us home in her Audi TT ?.
Driving by night in Dubai is beautiful, a lot of lights and decoration everywhere, even some Christmas lights still up in Alexandra’s area. Cha joined us later at night as her flight landed around midnight.
07/02/19 Cha and I went to the grocery shop in front of Alex building (so convenient!) for some breakfast and we explored the downtown area on foot. We stopped by the famous mall and had lunch at Pain Quotidien, a nice Belgian brunch place we both like.
In the mall, Pierre Marcolini was there for the opening of his latest chocolate shop. We tried to take a picture of him but there were a lot of people around him.
Alex recommended us to explore the old Dubai so we took a taxi to get there. The area was really quiet it was nice to walk in the sun. We found an art gallery where I bought a sculpture made by a Jordanian artist and we enjoyed bargaining in the souks.
We stopped by the apartment to get changed and Alex took us to Nola, a nice bar in the Marina area where we met some her traveller friends, had some food and drinks.
08/02/19 We explored the Marina area by day and went to the top of Burj Khalifa, the highest tower building in the world. More than 800m total but our general admission ticket only took us up to about 500m high. The view is incredible from the top and we could see the Palm, an artificial island build on the sea, and the World Islands, a massive construction project made of islands that have the shape of the world’s map.
As we didn’t have time for lunch (we had to queue for about 45min to reach to the top of the tower), we were really hungry at 6.30 so went to a Sushi restaurant we found nearby, Nori Sushi which was delicious. Alex had a date that night so didn’t meet us for dinner but we met at the apartment later for a game night and met Taylor, her date, who was really good at geography, useful for the Lonely Planet game ?.
09/02/19 We all went together to Kite Beach to enjoy a bit of sun and take a photo of Burj Al Arab, the other famous Dubai tower, in the shape of a sail boat. Alex made a booking at Ketsuya, another sushi restaurant and as we were a bit early we had time to explore the souks nearby. I was intrigued by a carpet shop and Alex ended up buying a carpet after a long bargaining exercise. She is leaving the country in 3 weeks (so didn’t really need a new carpet) but got caught in the bargaining game ?. I loved another one hanging on the wall but it was too expensive for me, considering I already bought a souvenir yesterday.
We said goodbye to Alex tonight as we leave early tomorrow morning.
10/02/19 Cha and I shared a taxi to the airport at 4.45am as she is flying to Conakry for work while I am on my way to Kenya!
