Most of the photos (except the ugly and blurry ones!) were taken by Guillaume.
First commercial economy of the Middle East, Dubai is a hub of world trade dynamics, emerged from the desert in a few years.

I saw less of veiled women in Dubai than in Paris, but those are often wear the burqa, the niqab. I worn the veil a little for the experience.

Dubai airport
Dubai Airport is one of the busiest in the world. Last year, more than 50 million passengers passed through it.
The arrival in Dubai directly give us the atmosphere. The airport is huge, brand new and particularly beautiful. What is striking is the organization. Agents drive people from a queue to another to minimize our expecting time, depending on the origin of our passport. They are attentive and do not hesitate to let us change lanes if space is available. They also move families with children as a priority.


Metro
The metro is very clean and it runs over a rail raised above the city. Corridors and trains are both air-conditioned. The police is at every entrance / exit, nobody tries to jump the queue. The metro is very organized:
– A « gold » car, is a kind of first class a little more expensive with seats that look very comfortable

– A car reserved for women and children, very handy during peak hours to avoid rubbing the unknown male (still softer landing on comfortable boobs when braking)
– Other cars mixed, where men stand to make room for women, whatever their age or origin.
I noticed that there was no waste ground. It is forbidden to eat or drink in the subway.

Taxi
For 30min taxi, whether day or night, we had about 50 AED, or 10 €, which is a very attractive price. All cabs are small sedans, very clean, painted in beige and red, and of course air conditioning. Pink and beige  cabs are the lady taxi, taxis drive by women, for women. There is a sixty lady taxi in Dubai.

Mall of Emirates
We went to visit one of those giant shopping mall located in Dubai. The verdict is that it’s really huge, there was not a lot of people so it’s pretty pleasant, but we find exactly the same chain store in Paris or New York. And unfortunately the prices are closer to those of Paris as those of New York.
At noon, we ate pizza for 60 AED (about 12 €) in the gallery, at Biella’s, it was absolutely delicious, one of the best I have eaten outside Italy. This is a pizzeria where all the staff (service and kitchen) is Asia.
We went to have a look on ski resort, it’s pretty crazy when you see the outside temperature.

See others ski makes us hungry (oh wait …) we went to the Chocolate Bar, my little paradise on Earth!

Their slogan is « eat more chocolate! » and I did not want to disappoint them. The evidence here:

Souk Al Bahar

In the evening, we went to the Souk Al Bahar (« Sea market « in Arabic).

Located at the foot of the Burj Tower, this place is really magical.

We were  able to attend the water and light show in front of the tower. 5 minutes, time of a song, but quite pretty!
Then we went to dinner at the restaurant El Zahr Laymoun. It was supported by a very friendly server, Nawaraj, which helped us to choose among all these unknown dishes.

He gave us very good advices. The 4 selected mezze were delicious: Hummus fig walnuts (hummus with figs and walnuts – as Boursin but based on chickpeas!), Hindben (green stuff with weird fried stuff on top, to taste with pieces of bread), Chicken & halloumi (chicken with tomato sauce, cream and cheese that looks like mozzarella), Orfali Kabab (beef extremely tender in a delicious sauce) .