First Days in Dubai

It has been a busy first few days for us here in Dubai. After arriving on Friday night, we have been adjusting to the time and the heat. On Saturday we found a bus tour of the city orient ourselves to the neighborhoods along Dubai Creek. Fortunately, this included a dhow ride on the creek allowing us an opportunity to cool off and see up close the dhows bound for places like Iran, India, and Somalia reinforcing Dubai's trade hub reputation.

My first impression of the city is that it is not what I was expecting. Dubai is not just the incredible buildings like the Burj Dubai reaching up towards the sky. The views from the top of the hotel bear this out, in one direction is the thoroughly new section of Dubai with the imaginatively designed skyscrapers I pictured as "Dubai" before my arrival. However, it only takes a 90 degree turn to see an older section of Dubai with much shorter and uniform-looking buildings. And that just begins to scratch the surface of the city...

As these next two weeks go on, I am excited to dig deeper into Dubai!
- Melissa