14 October - UAE

Awoke to the sound of the 5am prayer call! Oh its so loud in our hotel!

Found the Spice Souks and Gold Souks in the "old town" (all of 50 years at the most!). Fabulous smells and colours and the gold is just amazing. I had previously visited the gold street in Bali, but that doesnt even equate to a back street of this area! There is tons and tons of gold lining these walls. Mostly traditional 24 carat gold, there are also lots of new european 18 carat gold and styled jewellery. Lots and lots of loose stones and lots of expats selling them too! One shop was even called "Aussie Mike", noice!

We also did the tour of the first School in Dubai as well as the Traditional Home exhibition. That was fascinating seeing the first attempt at airconditioning a couple of hundred years ago. they build these second (if one storey house) or third storey (if two storey house) floor box on each corner of the house. Its open on all for sides and they have these decorative poles through the sides that catch the breezes and draw them down into the house. Quite clever stuff.

Food is cheap if you stay away from the hotels. Found a faboulous vegetarian restaurant down the road. Had a great thali for about $4 which was so filling and also bottomless (as they appear to do here!)