I never thought of going to United Arab Emirates (UAE) until such time my best friend asked me to go and visit her. Hi Edmarie Briosos! She fixed everything like my visa and plane ticket. She asked for my passport copy (it should be very clear) and my IQAMA (ID issued here in Saudi). As far as I can remember, it took 2 weeks to wait for the visa. I was granted with 60 days stay there. I was only given a chance to spend 3 days long weekend because of my work. Being a nurse is a big advantage because the immigration personnel did not ask me a lot of things. He just asked me on how long will I stay in UAE and after that, he even wished me take care and enjoy my stay.
My friend is living in Abu Dhabi and it is her first time to visit Dubai. We don’t know anything in Dubai that’s why, we availed a tourist promo online for a day tour for 600AED or 8,400 pesos for two. To maximize our 1 day tour, we were scheduled to check out quite a number of places. Let’s start with our first stop.
Dubai Museum
This is the view from the outside of the museum. The tour guide said that the museum is located at the Al Fahidi Fort which is the oldest existing building in Dubai so just by looking at it takes you to different time.
1930 is the birth year of my grandmother. I just thought of her while making this. If you want to know more about Dubai’s history and culture, you can see it inside.
“Souvenirs are perishable; fortunately, memories are not.”- By Susan Spano. By going in the museum, you’ll know the fast transition of Dubai to becoming one of the world’s most successful cities in terms of commerce, finance and tourism.
Jumeirah Mosque
Our second stop was a quick picture taking outside the much photographed mosque of Dubai, Jumeirah Mosque. I guess, 2 minutes was given to us take a picture. We did not spend a lot of time because; we planned to visit Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.
We are the only Filipino during our tour. We had more of Indians and Koreans during our travel. Indians are known to be obsessed with gold and we had a proof. LOL!
Burl Al-Arab
This is Jumeirah beach. We arrived at exactly 12noon and it was very hot. But by all means, I need to have a picture of Burj Al Arab as my backdrop. It is a 7-star hotel and one of Dubai’s most distinctive landmarks. Jump shot to emphasize my happiness.
Jumeirah-Atlantis The Palm
Lastly, another famous hotel at Jumeirah-Atlantis The Palm . As the name suggests, the hotel was designed with the theme of myth of Atlantis. Since it is famous, everybody was taking picture and I never had the chance to be alone in the picture.
This ends our day tour. We’ll be heading to our hotel to take a bath and prepare ourselves for our next itinerary in the afternoon.
Credits to my friend Edmarie, who took all the pictures using her Nikon DSLR cam.