Sunday, November 29, 2009

A visit to Dubai


Burj Al-Arab at Night
Originally uploaded by Cajie.
I've been to Dubai on couple of occasions - but it was always for business purposes and I never really got a chance to see what Dubai has to offer in terms of photography.
This was my first visit with the family and the first thing I did at the airport was rent a car. Having our own car meant that we were free to visit whatever place we felt a fancy for. I also carried my Garmin GPS, which meant that we did not get lost while travelling.
Our trip was short. Just 4 days and 3 nights but we managed to visit quite a few of the Dubai attractions. The cool thing about Dubai is that it is a tourist friendly place - which means photography is considered normal - unlike Kuwait which has a very conservative approach to photography.
Some of the places we managed to visit are:
- The Dubai Mall (one of the largest in the world and home to one of the largest aquarium).
- The Musical water fountains at the Dubai Mall
- Wild Wadi (water theme park)
- Dhow Cruise dinner. A 2 hour trip in a boat with a buffet dinner. Highly recommended.
- Desert Safari. This is not for those who feel dizzy. The wild bumpy ride on the desert dunes made me sick. However, the dinner/entertainment at the end made it worthwhile.
- Zabeel Park. An enormous park for families to just chill out.

What we wanted to do, but missed due to limited time.
- Visit to Hatta mountains.
- The Atlantis (Dolphin bay, water theme park etc.)
- Dubai Marina
- A ride across the Dubai creek on traditional boats
- A ride on the metro.
- Mall of Emirates for skiing.

Which means, we need to visit there again. Here are some more pictures of Dubai.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cajie/sets/72157622887394930/

8 comments:

Marzouq said...

Its great you had a good vacation! And your right Dubai is very Photo friendly!

Jason Sparks said...

beautiful exposure. nice composition. excellent capture.

Eden said...

Dubai is an amazing place to shop, relax and see new big things

Amanda said...

Dubai Desert safari
Dubai desert safari is one the marvelous place to spend your free time. The car racing, night dinners, belle dances, all are very good. You can not compare it with any desert safari. I have planned to visit it again. .. Wish me good luck. :)

Anonymous said...

I cudnt find a search option for you blog... was looking for the trip u did to mutla ridge.

Thanks
AD

Cajetan Barretto said...

Thanks for the heads-up AD. Just added the search option.
The Mutla ridge post is here.
http://cajie.blogspot.com/2010/04/geocaching.html

jony said...

Dhow cruise dubai right choice for the right peoples am also book mark your blog for the latest updates, kindly update you blog.

jony said...

Dhow cruise dubai is a really fun place. I like it so much.