Day 2 of Dubai Trip: Souk'd and Mall'd out

On day 2 plan was to go to Dubai Museum early. My intention was to leave the hotel by 10 a.m. and get there and roam around, get lunch at the Basta Art cafe. And then go to other side to Gold and Spice souks.

But. My baby had another plan. After getting up early in the morning and playing for a little while she decided to take a nap. So I thought. As she was sleeping, I thought okay, so may be after she gets up then will go out and on our way get something to eat. I waited and waited and waited...that nap seemed to turn into a full blown long sleep. When the clock hit 10, and she was still in deep sleep...and I was mad hungry I lost it! I asked my sis to order breakfast and just be done with it caz I couldn't take the hunger anymore. So, she ordered breakfast, which was meant for one person apparently(on the menu). It was a continental breakfast that had bread basket (had breads and pastries), a gigantic omelet, tea/coffee/ and orange juice and something else. When we got the food and started to eat (we shared) I kept asking my sis how on earth one person can eat all of these??? Seriously! She said, may be they eat this and skip lunch? Well, guess what? We both ate that and skipped lunch. So, her assumption wasn't right. Unless, that person didn't eat for days or saves stuffs to eat later. Anyway, after we were done analyzing how one person can eat all of these while eating, we waited some more for baby to get up. Then I used my trick to get her up, which was to change her diaper. And I knew she would be up in no time. She was up, and well, cranky. And then she got quiet.

Ski Dubai

We left the hotel probably around 11.30. We took a cab to MOE. And took some pics in front of Ski Dubai and proceeded to look for a floppy hat for baby, one important thing that I forgot to pack for baby. Saw my love H&M, and of course had to go there, but didn't see any summer floppy hat! boo.. but saw one cute little dress and knew had to have this for my sweet girl. Then off we went to Metro and  got the tix from vending machine. Btw, didn't get the credit card charge receipt!











I was very happy to see the Women and Children car. It just made me happy, that's all. We went to Al Ras station and asked someone where on earth was Gold souk. He showed us the direction rather hesitantly. And I learned my lessons from previous experiences that when asking someone for direction..thank that person and move a bit further and ask someone else. Chances are 1st person gave the worng direction (not intentionally to lead me to the wrong way, sometimes I felt they fell so bad that they didn't know the direction and ended up making up one!). On our way there did some window shopping LOL...that was one expensive window shopping by the way! And walked and walked and walked and finally turned right as told and saw the "souk". I have to say that it was kind of disappointing. After walking that much and coming all the way from Al Barsha..okay from New York..it seemed that it wasn't much of what I expected. I really thought there would be hundreds of stores all with ditzy bling bling showing on the store front. It wasn't such. Anyway, then we looked for spice souk and much to our dismay seemed like no one had any idea! WHAT? Then finally a guy showed us the way and we proceeded. I have to say "Spice Souk" was even greater disappointment...what's that? A mere two alleys of spices and herbs? Good grief! I had seen better and my sis was royally pissed. And my baby wasn't feeling it either. She was so damn quiet I started to wonder if she was feeling sick or what! She isn't this well behaved to be this quiet. I felt rather bad seeing my sister's disappointment and she kept saying how she loved Souk Madinat. :) I explained to her this is the real thing, and she said, well that real this is not working for me, I liked  Souk Madinat. OK then. But we both agreed to one thing that if we didn't come here and saw it we would have always wonder (till our next visit that is ;) ) what we have missed! It's a good thing it's done and over with.

A store front at Gold Souk

Mosque on way to Spice Souk

Since we decided to go back to Souk Madinat at night, we needed something to do in between. I can't remember fully, but I would say by the time we were done with old souks it was probably around 3 p.m. So, there was no point in hauling all the way to hotel and then get out again, specially with a baby as it's tough. And as we left late, we knew we wanted to do everything and then go back to hotel. So, we hopped on the Metro again. I told my sis that may be we should go to Marina. She was okay with that. Then I told her (as I told her previously once if we could we would go to Ibn Battuta Mall) may be we could go to the Ibn B Mall. She was okay with that too. But I was a bit torn. Do I want to see Marina or yet another Mall? Since the train ride was a long one luckily I got to ponder over this very serious issue for a bit more. After going back and forth in my head I told sis that no, let's go to the Mall. She agreed. And since she asked me what exactly there was to see at the Marina and I didn't really quite answer her it was pretty clear where we would go from that point on. Well, now my baby decided it was time to get over this quietness and start some noise. She was crying bonkers in the train and some lovely strange ladies tried to make her smile by whistling and saying things. But. She won't have it. She wanted me. So, as my sis was holding her and I was seating a bit further from them I saw she was getting exasperated. Anyone would. I decided to get off the next stop and use one of those baby changing room to feed her. I signaled her to get off and we did. After calming her down with food, we hopped on again.

Ibn Battuta Mall

Ibn Battuta station seemed like middle of freaking nowhere. There were constructions going on. I could see a structure similar to the shape of the Atlantis (still don't know what that was!). There were tons of buses and ppl waiting to get on. Those buses to me seemed like "tour" buses, but it could be just regular ones. Anyway, crossed the street we walked all the way to Egypt!

Watch your clothing hohohohahahahehehe

It was fun reading some of the rules of the mall, particularly this one- "inappropriate clothing not allowed"! Heh!

Persian Starbucks ;)

Well, I felt like I needed to drink something...coffee..or water perhaps. Or both. So my sis went over to order coffee and a piece of cake. While she was getting the food, my baby decided it was time for another storm. She basically went bonkers again and screamed her lungs out. Right then and there I started to feel wonky myself. I told my sis may be we should go back to hotel if she was going to keep this up. And forget about Souk Madinat. But then she took the baby and walked her and quickly she fell asleep. Then the deal was we would stay here as long as she will sleep. That's all. We started to roam around and took pics. Then I looked for the hat for baby and thankfully found couple! And she was up! She was up and she didn't make any noise. So, we continued walking. We saw lovely Egypt, Persia, India and China. After that we decided it was time to go to leave. Honestly, I still don't know if they had any more countries there or not. China was the end for us.

We took a cab to Souk Madinat. We walked the same path again till we came to the Meat and Co. And I notice someone saying something about the Burj lighting to go on about so and so. I asked this one lady I guess, she takes professional pics...what time the lighting is scheduled? She replied I believe 7. It was about 6.15ish then. So, we decided to sit on one of the benches there and wait. When it was 6.30, we felt like we should be eating. So, we went to the Meat and Co. restaurant and hostess showed us the way to terrace seating area. I pointed her a table and asked her if we could sit, but she said that was reserved. Then I pointed her the next table and she said, sure! Oh My! That was a easy one. I think, we had the best table with the view of the Burj! No lie. We got our food, saw the lighting (honestly nothing special!), saw ppl riding the Abra and what not. We had a pretty decent meal there. With my sis's Beef Salad, my Shrimp dish and a Tiramisu and pretty pricey Water the bill was exactly 106AED. I think, we paid mainly for the view and ambiance and little for the food. It was expected. Would I go back there? Yes. Only at night. And would eat the same thing. Caz that was the least expensive. LOL

Beef Salad Nicoise

RedChilli Prawns

Tiramisu

After our lovely dinner we took a cab again and went back to hotel. That cab ride was quite funny as the driver was a young guy who announced he was new into this business and didn't know where our hotel was. He asked if we could show him the way after we hit Mall of the Emirates. I said, yes. He said, Pls get on the car if you can show me, I'm telling you I don't know where it is, but don't complain to my company caz I took some extra time (therefore fare being high) to get to the hotel". I said, sure! When we reached our hotel, and my sis gave him tip, he asked her, why she was giving him money did he give her more change by mistake?!! LOL She said, no it's a tip!

Uh well....it was a good day I guess since the ending was quite fun.