ThePassportPrincess

Wow what a day!
I’m currently writing this while I wait for my bagel at this place called The Bagel Bar in the Dubai Mall.

This morning I set my alarm for 8.05am. Mainly because I didn’t want to spend money on breakfast and it was already included in my hotel price. And also I was thinking of taking the hotel shuttle to the beach for the morning.

Neither of these things ended up happening haha.
I snoozed my alarm as I was so tired (may have had to do with the late shopping last night)
And then fell back to sleep until nearly 9.30am. Woops.
Breakfast finished at 10am so unless I just went down in my pj’s then it wasn’t happening for me.
I turned my air con off when I went to sleep so I woke up all sweaty and in desperate need of a shower.

I washed my hair and put on a respectable long-ish skirt. (Long at the back anyways) and popped on a scarf thing I used as a shawl.
In Dubai it’s respectable to cover up your knees and shoulders but not everyone does it. Especially if you’re a foreigner and you’re just visiting. I like to think Dubai locals are understanding as it’s so freakin hot I couldn’t even wear pants if I wanted to!

Once that selfie was taken, I went across the road to The Mall Of The Emirates and had a frozen yogurt for breakfast with granola and strawberries.
(That was the only healthy thing I had today btw)
Then went outside to enquire about a sightseeing bus.
As my phone doesn’t have data here (apart from in certain stores and the hotel I’m staying in) It’s hard to get around without my Google maps.

Usually I’d take the metro or something around Dubai to explore but I figured I’d never done a hop on-hop off bus tour before so I’d do one in Dubai. Plus it’d be too stressful without my fave Google buddy to try and navigate myself😦

I bought a 48 hour ticket so it expires midday on Sunday (which is fine as I have a desert drive thing at 3pm on that day)
The ticket cost about $95 NZD which isn’t too bad I guess with the exchange rate.

My first stop I went to was Dubai Mall. Which I know sounds a bit lame as I just came from a mall.
But I just wanted to have a quick look to see how big it really was and figure out how much time I’d need there later.

Well “being quick” turned into 2 hours. My sightseeing ticket included The Aquarium at The Dubai Mall so I went and checked that out while I was there.
I thought it would be bigger than what it was (like more to see) but it was still interesting to look at if you like the Sea life.

I’m not a big fan of marine life. Unless it’s a cute dolphin or some baby penguins so I didn’t spend a lot of time at The Aquarium. However, there were some penguins I took photos of! 😙

When I was finished looking at all the seafood, I went across from The Aquarium to the very large and colourful candy store!

I was going to buy my brother some caramel popcorn but I knew it would just end up getting all crushed in my bag so I decided against it. I actually left the store with nothing which is a first for me!
This year I did 8 months without candy and I actually don’t feel like it as much as I always used to. 🍬🍭 so that’s a great thing!

I decided to get some lunch so headed upstairs to the food court.
And wow was i spoilt for choice! I can never make up my mind about anything because I’m scared I’ll get one thing and then end up wishing I got something else so this was hard for me 😯
Anything you could probably ever imagine wanting to eat was avaliable at the food court. And to think they still had a whole other level of restaurants in the mall was just crazy!

I ended up getting a Thai curry as I hadn’t had one in awhile.
I should have gotten something else though because myself and like 5 other people waited ages for our meal. I was standing there as 2 other people pretty much yelled at the counter worker because they’d been waiting for over half an hour for their meals.
Eventually I got my food and it wasn’t even worth the wait. 😧

Even though it does look pretty good in that picture, there just wasn’t enough flavour and spice for me.

I didn’t want it to get too late so I hopped on the next Sightseeing bus and headed off to see some more places. We passed Union House which is where the documents were created and signed which created the Arab’s world’s historic federation of the states (The UAE).

Then we passed the Jumeirah Mosque which is the only Mosque in Dubai open to the public. And one of the most photographed in the world.
I didn’t actually stop here, I think I assumed since it was a Friday it would be closed (as Friday in Dubai is like our Sunday)

We then went through Kite Surf Beach, Suqeim Public Beach and Burj Al Arab which is one of the most luxurious hotels in the world.
When you think of Dubai you usually think of this building.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the beeest  picture of it because the sky wasn’t super clear but I tried!

The next stop I got off at was one of the many Souks Dubai has. A Souk is a traditional market where gold, jewellery, spices, textiles, womens garments etc… are sold.
It was nice to walk around the Souk I went to because it was kind of inside a small mall type area and it was nice and air conditioned! Haha.

Can I just say also, the amount of people that shop in Dubai is insane. There’s literally so many people coming to and from malls in their fancy cars and hoards of shopping bags. Do people not work??

I checked out Atlantis At The Palm after the Souk. It’s basically this amazing resort where I would absolutely love to stay at!!
I’ve looked into it before and it’s so bloody expensive I can’t believe I was even allowed to enter it without being told off for breathing in rich people’s oxygen.

It was the first resort to be built on The Palm back in 2008 and has 1,539 nautically Atlantis themed rooms. It also has two accommodation wings, also referred to as The Royal Towers which are both linked together by the Royal Bridge Suite. (That’s where you want to stay if you ever stay there! Haha)
It also has the Aquaventure water park and a beach called Nasimi Beach which frequently has concerts and other events. 😍

I checked out the mall downstairs when I was there but couldn’t really afford anything so left and waited for the next Sightseeing bus.

I ended my journey back at The Dubai Mall (the one 15 minutes from my hotel) as I wanted to watch The Fountain Show.
The Fountain Show started at 6pm and goes every half hour after that. It’s the world’s largest choreographed fountain system set on the 30-acre manmade Burj Khalifa Lake which is right outside the Dubai Mall downstairs. It was built at USD $218 million and made by the same company that did the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas.

I didn’t actually get to see the fountains until about 7pm coz it took me forever to find them going through that great big mall. Plus I got distracted in Victoria Secrets along the way….
Eventually I saw them and it was really pretty to watch. Very very crowded though so I’d defiantly get there a bit earlier to be up the front if you ever went. Personally I didn’t want to stand outside in the heat so happily watched it from behind hundreds of people haha. The perks of travelling solo, doing whatever you want.

Update: I finished writing this blog when I got to my hotel

Once I finished my bagel that I was eating at the start of this blog, I decided it was probably time to head home so grabbed a taxi about 11pm.

Thank god I had some cash with me because the ATM wouldn’t accept my card when I tried to get money out. I think it’s because the magnetic strip had come off and it only had the chip so the ATM’s wouldn’t let it go into the machine. It that makes sense…
Anyways, cabs here don’t do card so I just had the right amount to take me back to my hotel!

(These were not the fountains by the way, these were other small fountains outside the front entrance)

 

When I got back, I went and got some ice-cream after putting all my bags down in my room. What a day of shopping I’ve had!

Xx