[Travel] Arabian Nights 2018
Long story short, my long lost friend of 17 years, Kate, visited New York, and since she was an Etihad crew member, we entertained the thought of me visiting her in the UAE.
This trip was made possible thanks a lot to Kate, so a BIG shout out to Kate, who bought me discounted flight ticket, hosted me, walked me through all the local places, gave me all the tips/tricks, told me all the Arabian history, and even helped me bargain for some gifts.
- I went to Louvre museum after exchanging $300 for about 1000 Dhirams, buying Etisalat sim card, and checking in Kate's place.
- Fighting off the jetlag and museum's boredom, I almost fell asleep on my feet a couple times.
The Abu Dhabi Louvre museum was nothing impressive, and wasn't as grand as New York museums. The only part I liked was the museum dome.
I also had some nice view of the sunset from the museum.
- After the museum, I caught a cab back to World Trade Center mall, and walked around the mall a little bit, before having a biryani cooked in a clay pot.
- I was so tired from jetlag that I fell asleep right away in Kate's bed without making any bed sheet.
Oh btw, I bought a wrong bus ticket on the bus to Kate's apartment, and was fined 200 dhs. What a nice welcome lol.
Looking up at the dome
The call happened at around 4-5AM, and it made me appreciate the mightiness of the country.
I originally thought it was the prayers praying, but it was only the mosque calling for prayers.
- Knowing that Kate would be stuck in Vietnam for a while, i decided to visit the main places by myself, so I took the cab to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque.
I was so impressed by the Mosque that I spent a good 3 hours there taking photos and pictures. What beautiful and grand architecture.
- Kate called me and gave suggestions for the next couple places, so I went to a Souk (Arabian market) nearby to walk around and grab lunch. Tried some camel milk. It was very creamy and nutty.
- Lunch was Lebanese. I had mixed skewered and Mountabal (eggplant spread). Meat was good.
- After walking around the Souk, I took a cab to Emirates Palace and tried to access the beach but couldn't. I was surprised when they asked me if i stayed there. The interior of Emirates Palaces wasn't too special.
- I had the Emirates Palace Capucino with Gold Flake for 76 dhs. Some of the gold flakes were sweet, some were tasteless. Overall nothing special, but good for the gram I guess.
Etihad Towers were looking nice from Emirates Palace.
- I then made haste to the Etihad Towers to watch the sunset. I only was able to watch the sunset for a little bit before it got dark. Took a bunch of photos though.
- Etihad Towers' shopping area was pitiful, so I got home and slept right away just like the day before.
On the way to the Mosque in the morning, I realized that the pavement resembled Vietnam a lot, but the traffic resembled America, so it was kinda a mix of two.
I bought the tour on Groupon thanks to Kate's direction and there was some glitch, but enventually it was smooth. Only $51 for a half day tour.
- The driver picked me up in front of Marriott Courtyard hotel, and went to pick up some more people. My car only had me, Imran and Joanna, Baladeshi British from the UK.
- The dune bashing was fun but I wasn't overly impressed. The drivers' skills were very good, but the thrill wasn't as much as roller coaster. Some people couldn't handle motion sickness.
- We had a brief time at a camel farm. I took some photos and 360.
- We then stopped at a camp where I hurried out to do a camel riding. Had some 360 of course. The camel understood the guy's instructions. Impressive!
- After riding only once, I hurried to the sandboarding area. I was so excited about sandboarding cuz I had just snowboard the week before.
Turned out it was pretty boring cuz the the sand wasn't sliding much. After 6-7 tries, I realized I had to lift my front toes to keep the board from diving into the sand and gaining speed.
Couldn't do any of the snowboarding manuvre.
- I went back to the camp, had some tea with dates, tried on a Kandura and took the photo of the trip =))
- Wasn't able to try the shisha, so I sat down and talked to Imran and Joanna, before grabbing dinner, which was super similar to the Labanese lunch I had the day before.
Food was good. Not bad at all!
- Watched the belly dancer. She was beautiful, hot and thick, but I was more impressed with the Tanoura dancer. He spinned a good 20 minutes while doing a bunch of tricks.
- They then turned off the lights, and I laid down to watch the moon and the stars for about.. 3 minutes =)))
- They started driving us back at 7:30PM. Overall, the trip was totally worth it for $51. I felt a bit rushed but I could try a lot of things. I tipped the driver 20 dhs.
- I went to the World Trade Center mall to chat with friends and uploaded the Kandura photo before going home to sleep.
- Bus was fairly simple. I got off midway and caught the tram to Burj Khalifa stop. Took me a while to understand the system.
- There was a walkway from the tram station to Dubai Mall. I started seeing a lot of tourists here.
- The mall was indeed big. I was hungry so I circled the food court and finally settled with Arabian food again. After lunch, I was quite sick of the ethnic food lol.
- I then visited the aquarium (too expensive), the dinosaur, the souk, the waterfall, then the fountain. It was hard to located myself cuz the mall was indeed big. Bigger than any in America.
I didn't particularly pay attention to any shops cuz I wasn't shopping lol.
- I marveled a the view of Burj Khalifa and the water fountain. The Apple store was located so well to provide a nice view fo the fountain.
- I watched the opening show at 6PM. Didn't particularly like the music, and the show didn't impress me much at the time.
- I took photos and visited the Al bahab Souk, finding some other nice view to see the fountain show, and took some nice photos with the Burj Khalifa after sunset.
After sunset, the lights came up and the mall had a different look.
- I walked back to the mall to try the Camel Ice cream. It was nutty and delicious. Not too sweet.
- As advised by Kate, I walked back to see the fountain show at 8PM, which was supposed to be the best. And OH YEAH, it was good! I was more impressed with the Burj Khalifa light show than the fountain show.
Then I walked up to the Apple store and realized that was the best view from there. I watched the Power song and then started to walk back to the tram station at around 8:45PM
- After that it was a long ass wait (over an hour) for the bus to come under the cold desert wind. I suffered cuz i was in short and t-shirt. $35 dhs to go back.
- Got home, was very tired, took a shower and then Kate arrived home. I talked to Kate for a while and went to sleep at like 4AM lol.
- I drove slow as snails (steady 100km/h) to Dubai while watching the big spread-out road. You don't see a lot of 5-6 lane roads in America a lot.
I saw the fish market, the Yas Island, the spreading but isolated beach. The road was so big and empty.
Once we passed Abu Dhabi to Dubai, the highway changed color.
- We stopped at The Last Exit, a very cute container-car-themed food truck park, where we got some Starbucks and took some photos.
- We then continued to Dubai where we drove by the fancy The Walk at JBR (Jumeirah Beach Residence). If I had time I would have definitely walked there.
There were buildings with same yellow color one after another from the same hotel/company, and it was marvelous to look at.
- We then drove to Palm Island, watching the residential tall buildings while driving on the bridge, and stopped right at the beach walk behind the Atlantis Hotel.
We took some photos with the Atlantis, and then continued our drive along the whole crescent.
- After taking some more photos, Kate showed me the way to pass by some nice neighborhood, and stop at the public beach - Umm Suqeim to take photos with the only 7-star hotel in the world - the Burj Al Arab.
- We then had lunch at Bu Qtair restaurant, where they only served fish with rice and curry lol. It tasted really nice though. We saw wild cats roaming so free here.
- After that we checked in at our hotel, XVA, a really nice boutique hotel which had the Arabian theme. It was located in the artsy Al Fahidi historical district.
Parking was complicated so I left it to Kate lol.
- The hotel was REALLY NICE. I was awed while walking around enjoying the nice hotel.
- After resting a bit, we walked out to look around the town a bit, watching some art collections, and I was still in awe.
- We stopped at a cafe and I had some Arabian coffee, which was unimpressive.
- We then walked to the silk souk, which was full of ethnicity.
- At that point, my mind was already too full to process all the new scenary lol. So I just kept following Kate, which trying my best to absorb all of the experience.
- We walked past a bunch of modern old buildings, while feeling very safe. We also walked into some small markets where they sold Indian street foods. This area had a lot of Indians.
- We just roamed a round like that until late and then I just followed Kate home lol.
- She had instant noodles while i was still full from lunch. I researched airbnb for the upcoming Florida trip and went to sleep.
- I got up earlier and then went around the hotel to take some photos. Kate got up later (even though she went to sleep earlier lol), and then we went out.
- We ran into a nice cafe and sat down for breakfast. I loved the calm atmosphere there. Kate had a tasty carrot cake while I had a so-so acai bowl and cold Morocco mint tea.
- I walked upstairs to discover some nice view where I took some photos afterward. Then we walked past the Dubai museum into the silk souk where I had a better look at the souk from yesterday.
- Skipping all the "Ni Hao", and "my friend", we walked to the river bank to take a look, then took Abra - boat rides across Dubai Creek for only 1 Dhiram per person.
OMG, i loved the boat ride experience!!!!!
- Then we walked into another "Ni Hao" and "my friend" area - the Spice Souk. We stopped at a store where the owner guessed correctly we were from Vietnam lol.
We spent some time there buying some Frankenscene and sandalwood. Kate was sooooo good at bargaining and got everything about 30% off for both me and her.
The scents smelled really nice and soothing.
- We continued our walk across the Spice Souk to the Gold Souk, where a lot of the stores were closed because it was Friday - praying day over there.
At the Gold Souk gate, we heard a loud prayer, I was impressed at first, but then it got a little intimidating cuz the prayers was loud and lasted for a while.
It wasn't like the melodious call for prayers back in Abu Dhabi, but the actual readings. The prayers resounded the whole town.
- We then got to another historical district near the Heritage Guet House, where there were some nice views worth taking photos.
This area was dirtier than the historical district where we stayed.
- After that, we took the Abra back to the other side, and went to the restaurant built on the river bank, above the water. I had the lamb chop there, which was really nice!
Everything tasted great! The lamb chop was seared perfectly, the fries were fresh, and I became a fan of the Morocco mint tea right there!
Morocco mint was much more aromatic than regular mint, which made the drink much more flavorful.
I also had some Kunafa - fried cheese for dessert.
- After lunch was the Dubai Museum. I watched and read some while mostly listening to Kate's explanation. Thanks a lot for being a great tour guide!
- We took a cab to a dining/shopping area where there were big new Arabian styled buildings. Great area for photoshooting lol.
- Then I suggested visiting the Global Village so off we went. Global Village was some kind of amusement park where each building resembled a country.
- After paying 15 dhs, we went in and realized that in each village they just mostly sold unimportant stuffs. Wasn't much of an amusement park lol.
I had the chewy turkish ice cream, where the ice cream parlor played me like a piano. The Turkey village was interesting with exotic Turkish Delight sweets (chocolate mushroom), etc.
We also watched some fireworks there. Decent fireworks.
- We had light dinner at a Korean restaurant and went back to the hotel, where I felt asleep instantly lol.
- We walked around the Al Fahidi town to take pictures, and after finding out that the Arabian Coffee and Tea house was too crowded, we decided to drive home back to Abu Dhabi.
- We stopped at the Park Hyatt in Abu Dhabi to go take a look at the private beach near Saadiyat public beach. It was a nice beautiful beach where you wouldn't have access with regular means. Warm water too.
- We then had brunch at Asia de Cuba for 250 dhs per person. So some background info, according to Kate, they spend a bunch of time for brunch over the weekends in the UAE. It is an influence from British culture.
They could spend 3-5 hours or an afternoon to just sit and eat brunch.
Our brunch was delicious and we had a nice view of the Marina mall across the water.
We did spend 3 whole hours on our brunch, which included over 6 appetizers, 1 main dish, and free-flowing dessert.
- We dropped our luggages at Kate's place. I waited for Kate to dress up and we went out for an evening drink at the Fairmont hotel.
- Our table was really nice! We could see the Ritz Carlton, and the Grand Mosque across the water. I also tried Shisha peach flavor for the first time. It was nice and aromatic lol.
- Got home and i was super spent from driving so much the whole day so I collapsed and slept right away (which I pretty much did everyday on the trip).
- Anyways, after resolving the fine, Kate and I went to a Mongolian hot pot place, which was delicious and exceptional clean. The waiter was nice too!
- I then followed Kate so she could buy her new SamSung phone in the mall across the street. We just lazed around with Starbucks and Pappa Roti bread.
- We then caught a cab home and I started packing. Kate was on last minute standby flight so I was lucky to catch her ride to the airport too.
- After a tidious process to get my crew flight ticket, and to get past the U.S border control in Abu Dhabi, I finally got on my flight.
- While waiting to get on my flight, I suddenly had a nostalgic feeling of Montreal. Overall, Montreal was so great of a place to stay and live.
- Back in the U.S at around 5AM. Dropped my luggage in my apt in Times Square, and went straight to work.
This trip was made possible thanks a lot to Kate, so a BIG shout out to Kate, who bought me discounted flight ticket, hosted me, walked me through all the local places, gave me all the tips/tricks, told me all the Arabian history, and even helped me bargain for some gifts.
Sunday 2/25:
- After watching a bunch of movies on the flight, I arrived at Abu Dhabi at around 11:30AM.- I went to Louvre museum after exchanging $300 for about 1000 Dhirams, buying Etisalat sim card, and checking in Kate's place.
- Fighting off the jetlag and museum's boredom, I almost fell asleep on my feet a couple times.
The Abu Dhabi Louvre museum was nothing impressive, and wasn't as grand as New York museums. The only part I liked was the museum dome.
I also had some nice view of the sunset from the museum.
- After the museum, I caught a cab back to World Trade Center mall, and walked around the mall a little bit, before having a biryani cooked in a clay pot.
- I was so tired from jetlag that I fell asleep right away in Kate's bed without making any bed sheet.
Oh btw, I bought a wrong bus ticket on the bus to Kate's apartment, and was fined 200 dhs. What a nice welcome lol.
Abu Dhabi Louvre museum
The dome looked like a starry night
Sunset in Abu Dhabi
Monday 2/26:
- I was impressed in my sleep by the mosque's call for prayers. I was on the 13th floor, and I could hear all the sirens resounding the whole sky.The call happened at around 4-5AM, and it made me appreciate the mightiness of the country.
I originally thought it was the prayers praying, but it was only the mosque calling for prayers.
- Knowing that Kate would be stuck in Vietnam for a while, i decided to visit the main places by myself, so I took the cab to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque.
I was so impressed by the Mosque that I spent a good 3 hours there taking photos and pictures. What beautiful and grand architecture.
- Kate called me and gave suggestions for the next couple places, so I went to a Souk (Arabian market) nearby to walk around and grab lunch. Tried some camel milk. It was very creamy and nutty.
- Lunch was Lebanese. I had mixed skewered and Mountabal (eggplant spread). Meat was good.
- After walking around the Souk, I took a cab to Emirates Palace and tried to access the beach but couldn't. I was surprised when they asked me if i stayed there. The interior of Emirates Palaces wasn't too special.
- I had the Emirates Palace Capucino with Gold Flake for 76 dhs. Some of the gold flakes were sweet, some were tasteless. Overall nothing special, but good for the gram I guess.
Etihad Towers were looking nice from Emirates Palace.
- I then made haste to the Etihad Towers to watch the sunset. I only was able to watch the sunset for a little bit before it got dark. Took a bunch of photos though.
- Etihad Towers' shopping area was pitiful, so I got home and slept right away just like the day before.
On the way to the Mosque in the morning, I realized that the pavement resembled Vietnam a lot, but the traffic resembled America, so it was kinda a mix of two.
Sheikh Zayed Mosque
Sheikh Zayed Mosque
Walking along the corridor
Main Prayer Hall Entrace
Chandelier
Dates with Macadamia covered in caramel
Labanese lunch
Myself and Etihad Towers in the background
Cappuccino with 23-karat Gold Flakes.
Drinking juice from the top of Etihad Towers
Tuesday 2/27
- Cooked some instant noodles, durian coffee, hargow, and rested until the afternoon waiting for the Safari Dessert Tour.I bought the tour on Groupon thanks to Kate's direction and there was some glitch, but enventually it was smooth. Only $51 for a half day tour.
- The driver picked me up in front of Marriott Courtyard hotel, and went to pick up some more people. My car only had me, Imran and Joanna, Baladeshi British from the UK.
- The dune bashing was fun but I wasn't overly impressed. The drivers' skills were very good, but the thrill wasn't as much as roller coaster. Some people couldn't handle motion sickness.
- We had a brief time at a camel farm. I took some photos and 360.
- We then stopped at a camp where I hurried out to do a camel riding. Had some 360 of course. The camel understood the guy's instructions. Impressive!
- After riding only once, I hurried to the sandboarding area. I was so excited about sandboarding cuz I had just snowboard the week before.
Turned out it was pretty boring cuz the the sand wasn't sliding much. After 6-7 tries, I realized I had to lift my front toes to keep the board from diving into the sand and gaining speed.
Couldn't do any of the snowboarding manuvre.
- I went back to the camp, had some tea with dates, tried on a Kandura and took the photo of the trip =))
- Wasn't able to try the shisha, so I sat down and talked to Imran and Joanna, before grabbing dinner, which was super similar to the Labanese lunch I had the day before.
Food was good. Not bad at all!
- Watched the belly dancer. She was beautiful, hot and thick, but I was more impressed with the Tanoura dancer. He spinned a good 20 minutes while doing a bunch of tricks.
- They then turned off the lights, and I laid down to watch the moon and the stars for about.. 3 minutes =)))
- They started driving us back at 7:30PM. Overall, the trip was totally worth it for $51. I felt a bit rushed but I could try a lot of things. I tipped the driver 20 dhs.
- I went to the World Trade Center mall to chat with friends and uploaded the Kandura photo before going home to sleep.
Myself @ Camel farm
Camel Riding
Me in a Kandura
Belly Dancer
Tanoura Arabic dance was impressive! 
Dinner at the camp
Abu Dhabi at night
Wednesday 2/28
- Kate was still not back yet, so I decided to catch a bus to Dubai to see the Dubai Mall after having rice with salted egg. The apartment still seemed pretty ghostly with nobody home.- Bus was fairly simple. I got off midway and caught the tram to Burj Khalifa stop. Took me a while to understand the system.
- There was a walkway from the tram station to Dubai Mall. I started seeing a lot of tourists here.
- The mall was indeed big. I was hungry so I circled the food court and finally settled with Arabian food again. After lunch, I was quite sick of the ethnic food lol.
- I then visited the aquarium (too expensive), the dinosaur, the souk, the waterfall, then the fountain. It was hard to located myself cuz the mall was indeed big. Bigger than any in America.
I didn't particularly pay attention to any shops cuz I wasn't shopping lol.
- I marveled a the view of Burj Khalifa and the water fountain. The Apple store was located so well to provide a nice view fo the fountain.
- I watched the opening show at 6PM. Didn't particularly like the music, and the show didn't impress me much at the time.
- I took photos and visited the Al bahab Souk, finding some other nice view to see the fountain show, and took some nice photos with the Burj Khalifa after sunset.
After sunset, the lights came up and the mall had a different look.
- I walked back to the mall to try the Camel Ice cream. It was nutty and delicious. Not too sweet.
- As advised by Kate, I walked back to see the fountain show at 8PM, which was supposed to be the best. And OH YEAH, it was good! I was more impressed with the Burj Khalifa light show than the fountain show.
Then I walked up to the Apple store and realized that was the best view from there. I watched the Power song and then started to walk back to the tram station at around 8:45PM
- After that it was a long ass wait (over an hour) for the bus to come under the cold desert wind. I suffered cuz i was in short and t-shirt. $35 dhs to go back.
- Got home, was very tired, took a shower and then Kate arrived home. I talked to Kate for a while and went to sleep at like 4AM lol.
The Aquarium
The Dinosaur
The waterfall
Inside the mall
The fountain
Burj Khalifa
Panorama view of the fountain with Souk Al Bahar on the left
Fountain view from the Apple store
Burj Khalifa at night
Camel Milk ice cream
Thursday 3/1
- Got up and ran some errands, while Kate called some car agency. We finally picked up the cheapest option which was a run-down Mitsubishi Lancer from World Trade Mall.- I drove slow as snails (steady 100km/h) to Dubai while watching the big spread-out road. You don't see a lot of 5-6 lane roads in America a lot.
I saw the fish market, the Yas Island, the spreading but isolated beach. The road was so big and empty.
Once we passed Abu Dhabi to Dubai, the highway changed color.
- We stopped at The Last Exit, a very cute container-car-themed food truck park, where we got some Starbucks and took some photos.
- We then continued to Dubai where we drove by the fancy The Walk at JBR (Jumeirah Beach Residence). If I had time I would have definitely walked there.
There were buildings with same yellow color one after another from the same hotel/company, and it was marvelous to look at.
- We then drove to Palm Island, watching the residential tall buildings while driving on the bridge, and stopped right at the beach walk behind the Atlantis Hotel.
We took some photos with the Atlantis, and then continued our drive along the whole crescent.
- After taking some more photos, Kate showed me the way to pass by some nice neighborhood, and stop at the public beach - Umm Suqeim to take photos with the only 7-star hotel in the world - the Burj Al Arab.
- We then had lunch at Bu Qtair restaurant, where they only served fish with rice and curry lol. It tasted really nice though. We saw wild cats roaming so free here.
- After that we checked in at our hotel, XVA, a really nice boutique hotel which had the Arabian theme. It was located in the artsy Al Fahidi historical district.
Parking was complicated so I left it to Kate lol.
- The hotel was REALLY NICE. I was awed while walking around enjoying the nice hotel.
- After resting a bit, we walked out to look around the town a bit, watching some art collections, and I was still in awe.
- We stopped at a cafe and I had some Arabian coffee, which was unimpressive.
- We then walked to the silk souk, which was full of ethnicity.
- At that point, my mind was already too full to process all the new scenary lol. So I just kept following Kate, which trying my best to absorb all of the experience.
- We walked past a bunch of modern old buildings, while feeling very safe. We also walked into some small markets where they sold Indian street foods. This area had a lot of Indians.
- We just roamed a round like that until late and then I just followed Kate home lol.
- She had instant noodles while i was still full from lunch. I researched airbnb for the upcoming Florida trip and went to sleep.
Last Exit
The Atlantis at JBR
Burj Al Arab
Bu Qtair restaurant only serves 1 single dish
Our hotel
Al Fahidi historic district
Silk souk
Silk souk
The historic town at night
Got back to hotel at night
Friday 3/2
- I was impressed in my sleep when hearing a lot of bird chirping and singing early in the morning. It was so nice!- I got up earlier and then went around the hotel to take some photos. Kate got up later (even though she went to sleep earlier lol), and then we went out.
- We ran into a nice cafe and sat down for breakfast. I loved the calm atmosphere there. Kate had a tasty carrot cake while I had a so-so acai bowl and cold Morocco mint tea.
- I walked upstairs to discover some nice view where I took some photos afterward. Then we walked past the Dubai museum into the silk souk where I had a better look at the souk from yesterday.
- Skipping all the "Ni Hao", and "my friend", we walked to the river bank to take a look, then took Abra - boat rides across Dubai Creek for only 1 Dhiram per person.
OMG, i loved the boat ride experience!!!!!
- Then we walked into another "Ni Hao" and "my friend" area - the Spice Souk. We stopped at a store where the owner guessed correctly we were from Vietnam lol.
We spent some time there buying some Frankenscene and sandalwood. Kate was sooooo good at bargaining and got everything about 30% off for both me and her.
The scents smelled really nice and soothing.
- We continued our walk across the Spice Souk to the Gold Souk, where a lot of the stores were closed because it was Friday - praying day over there.
At the Gold Souk gate, we heard a loud prayer, I was impressed at first, but then it got a little intimidating cuz the prayers was loud and lasted for a while.
It wasn't like the melodious call for prayers back in Abu Dhabi, but the actual readings. The prayers resounded the whole town.
- We then got to another historical district near the Heritage Guet House, where there were some nice views worth taking photos.
This area was dirtier than the historical district where we stayed.
- After that, we took the Abra back to the other side, and went to the restaurant built on the river bank, above the water. I had the lamb chop there, which was really nice!
Everything tasted great! The lamb chop was seared perfectly, the fries were fresh, and I became a fan of the Morocco mint tea right there!
Morocco mint was much more aromatic than regular mint, which made the drink much more flavorful.
I also had some Kunafa - fried cheese for dessert.
- After lunch was the Dubai Museum. I watched and read some while mostly listening to Kate's explanation. Thanks a lot for being a great tour guide!
- We took a cab to a dining/shopping area where there were big new Arabian styled buildings. Great area for photoshooting lol.
- Then I suggested visiting the Global Village so off we went. Global Village was some kind of amusement park where each building resembled a country.
- After paying 15 dhs, we went in and realized that in each village they just mostly sold unimportant stuffs. Wasn't much of an amusement park lol.
I had the chewy turkish ice cream, where the ice cream parlor played me like a piano. The Turkey village was interesting with exotic Turkish Delight sweets (chocolate mushroom), etc.
We also watched some fireworks there. Decent fireworks.
- We had light dinner at a Korean restaurant and went back to the hotel, where I felt asleep instantly lol.
My hotel
My hotel
My hotel
Some 2nd floor in the historic town.
Some building in historic town
Lost in Arabic Lamps
Walking the historic town
Gold souk
Historic town
A hotel in the historic town
Dubai creek
Morocco mint tea
Lamb chop
New town
Global Village
Global Village
Saturday 3/3
- Woke up and was impressed by the bird chirping again. We packed up and went around the hotel to take photos for the last time.- We walked around the Al Fahidi town to take pictures, and after finding out that the Arabian Coffee and Tea house was too crowded, we decided to drive home back to Abu Dhabi.
- We stopped at the Park Hyatt in Abu Dhabi to go take a look at the private beach near Saadiyat public beach. It was a nice beautiful beach where you wouldn't have access with regular means. Warm water too.
- We then had brunch at Asia de Cuba for 250 dhs per person. So some background info, according to Kate, they spend a bunch of time for brunch over the weekends in the UAE. It is an influence from British culture.
They could spend 3-5 hours or an afternoon to just sit and eat brunch.
Our brunch was delicious and we had a nice view of the Marina mall across the water.
We did spend 3 whole hours on our brunch, which included over 6 appetizers, 1 main dish, and free-flowing dessert.
- We dropped our luggages at Kate's place. I waited for Kate to dress up and we went out for an evening drink at the Fairmont hotel.
- Our table was really nice! We could see the Ritz Carlton, and the Grand Mosque across the water. I also tried Shisha peach flavor for the first time. It was nice and aromatic lol.
- Got home and i was super spent from driving so much the whole day so I collapsed and slept right away (which I pretty much did everyday on the trip).
The hotel
The hotel
The hotel
The historic district
Driving back
Sadiyaat beach
Sadiyaat beach @ Park Hyatt
Great Brunch
Great Brunch with a nice view
Great Brunch
Arabian nights be like
Arabian nights be like
Sunday 3/4
- Last day! Since my flight was delayed until late night, I was taking it easy and slow. I went to return the car and was fined 250 dhs for parking overnight looool- Anyways, after resolving the fine, Kate and I went to a Mongolian hot pot place, which was delicious and exceptional clean. The waiter was nice too!
- I then followed Kate so she could buy her new SamSung phone in the mall across the street. We just lazed around with Starbucks and Pappa Roti bread.
- We then caught a cab home and I started packing. Kate was on last minute standby flight so I was lucky to catch her ride to the airport too.
- After a tidious process to get my crew flight ticket, and to get past the U.S border control in Abu Dhabi, I finally got on my flight.
- While waiting to get on my flight, I suddenly had a nostalgic feeling of Montreal. Overall, Montreal was so great of a place to stay and live.
- Back in the U.S at around 5AM. Dropped my luggage in my apt in Times Square, and went straight to work.
Last of me in Abu Dhabi
Last meal in Abu Dhabi was mongolian hotpot, which was fresh and clean.
Having Papparoti while enjoying the view from Kate's apt
![[Travel] Arabian Nights 2018](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW-7EgsJzOLUytl2o4TO5lvGWWkwAby4fhK9Bv5z_bppJI8bxXWGTWrEeKJprtbqQOlO_nOa5OGcNm8zKpzaBdSW0jjUsXpchyphenhyphenzusw6vYFYWjum85LRVUV8fnXUbRXfGEyyNO6lhoSGwoQ/s72-c/IMG_20180302_132759583.jpg)
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