Well, we made it safe and sound to Dubai. We had the usual long, cramped and dehydrating, but uneventful, flight. The only good thing about it was that Michael Salini, Jason's friend from university, was also on our flight! Michael was heading to Paris via Dubai to spend some time with his French girlfriend, Gail. We're hoping to catch up with the Big M in France, which should be good.
After arriving at our hotel, we decided to check out the streets and shops close by, as well as trying to locate the Gold and Spice Souks. We found the Dubai Creek (Khor Dubai), buzzing with wooden water taxis (called abras) and strange-looking wooden cargo ships. We walked along the Dubai Creek for a while until we found the Gold and Spice Souks. The Gold Souk is quite cheesy with heaps of oversized, yellow gold necklaces, rings and bangles. The Spice Souk was a bit disappointing as only two or three traders had spices, the rest seem to sell cheap, plastic crap. We briefly got lost in the souk, however we ended up finding our way back to the hotel, where we had a brief 8 hour nap.
We woke up in the evening to find that Dubai had come alive with lots of locals and tourists walking the streets that were lit with flashing neon lights. The transformation from what we'd seen during the day was amazing! That night we had dinner at an Iranian Restaurant called the Green Olive, which had a very lively host called Mahmood. The fare was simple but delicious! We enjoyed hummous, pita bread, beef, lamb and chicken kebabs and some rather interesting salads and soups. We experienced our first cultural misunderstanding at the Green Olive - like the Americans, the Iranians eat their salads and soup first. We didn't realise this until Mahmood asked us point-blank if we didn't like soup or salad. When we told him we were waiting for our mains, he made it clear that we should eat the soup and salad first. Anyway, it was enjoyable.
