We've reached a milestone! Five years in Abu Dhabi and to the point where I struggle for topics because most of the craziness seems normal to me now. So, one weekend, wanting to get that initial feeling of excitement back, we decided to take the hop on/hop off bus tour of Dubai. We figured we would get a kick out of visiting some places again and hopefully find a few new adventures along the way.
The first observation is that big bus ticket includes enough stuff to do for a week! Which is actually a bit of a pain because we felt a bit obligated to do as much as possible to get our money's worth and still only managed a small portion over our 2 days. The second observation was that it was really hot to ride on top unless you get a bus with the small air conditioned section.
A lot of the tour are things I've blogged about before so I'll try to hit the highlights of the new adventures. The first was a dhow cruise on the Dubai Creek. It ran for about an hour and was really boring - the Dubai creek is somewhat interesting because you see some of the buildings and some of the old Dhow cargo boats still in use today, but it was too slow and too long. The most entertaining bit was the warning sign about litter. It didn't help that we had to wait in the sun for 45 minutes before the boat ride (I know, first world problems!)
Another adventure was the Dubai museum. Definitely not the Smithsonian, but a decent little place that highlights the old bedouin culture of the desert. The museum is set up like an old fort with a large courtyard in the middle showing some of the boats and other items used.
The inside is a little creepy as it's quite dark and feels underground. They have these little examples of bedouin life throughout that do bring the culture to life, but are a bit disturbing at the same time.
This is a Dhow they have on display outside the museum which looks pretty cool at night.
We did A LOT of driving around. First, it was a holiday weekend. Second Dubai traffic is very congested and slow on a good day. And third, we were in a BIG BUS! It took hours to get to the different places and by the end of the weekend, we had definitely had enough. Next interesting stop was the Atlantis hotel and aquarium - we've been here a number of times with visitors, but never get tired of it so, since it was included in the ticket, off we went.
Our last adventure was another boat tour, this time in the Marina area which is a large residential area of Dubai. We started not long before sunset and it was a gorgeous evening so a nice end to our tourist at home weekend.
No, this wasn't our boat - it was probably a high school graduation gift to some young, rich Emirati - ha ha.
The first observation is that big bus ticket includes enough stuff to do for a week! Which is actually a bit of a pain because we felt a bit obligated to do as much as possible to get our money's worth and still only managed a small portion over our 2 days. The second observation was that it was really hot to ride on top unless you get a bus with the small air conditioned section.
A lot of the tour are things I've blogged about before so I'll try to hit the highlights of the new adventures. The first was a dhow cruise on the Dubai Creek. It ran for about an hour and was really boring - the Dubai creek is somewhat interesting because you see some of the buildings and some of the old Dhow cargo boats still in use today, but it was too slow and too long. The most entertaining bit was the warning sign about litter. It didn't help that we had to wait in the sun for 45 minutes before the boat ride (I know, first world problems!)
Another adventure was the Dubai museum. Definitely not the Smithsonian, but a decent little place that highlights the old bedouin culture of the desert. The museum is set up like an old fort with a large courtyard in the middle showing some of the boats and other items used.
The inside is a little creepy as it's quite dark and feels underground. They have these little examples of bedouin life throughout that do bring the culture to life, but are a bit disturbing at the same time.
This is a Dhow they have on display outside the museum which looks pretty cool at night.
We did A LOT of driving around. First, it was a holiday weekend. Second Dubai traffic is very congested and slow on a good day. And third, we were in a BIG BUS! It took hours to get to the different places and by the end of the weekend, we had definitely had enough. Next interesting stop was the Atlantis hotel and aquarium - we've been here a number of times with visitors, but never get tired of it so, since it was included in the ticket, off we went.
Our last adventure was another boat tour, this time in the Marina area which is a large residential area of Dubai. We started not long before sunset and it was a gorgeous evening so a nice end to our tourist at home weekend.
No, this wasn't our boat - it was probably a high school graduation gift to some young, rich Emirati - ha ha.
Take a close look - can you see the sky divers?
