wednesday - my day in dubai

ah - vacation is great! my mornings are spent working out as long as like (no needs to rush to work or rush home to let the dog out) and laying by the pool working on my winter tan (i have always wanted to do that :-)) my afternoons are filled with exploration of dubai. today i ventured out to the gold souk (gold market). the gold souk is just as it sounds. hundred of shops selling gold and jewels in all sorts of colors & styles. the great thing about the gold souk is it is located in the old part of dubai (same area as the dubai museum and old souk from tuesday, just on the other side of dubai creek). at first it was exciting to see all the gold and gems sparkling back at me, especially juxtaposed to the old store fronts and buildings. here again, it is great fun if you like to haggle (and if you have the money to spend on the gold and jewels). i did try on some very beautiful pieces of jewelry worth tens of thousands of dollars. (normally, in the states, if i walk into a jewelry store and and try on expensive pieces without the intent to purchase any it, i get some serious attitude) after a few stores of this, the jewels started to loose their sparkle and the gold started to loose it's luster. maybe it was the old store fronts, maybe it was the massive quantity, or maybe it was every shop keeper trying to bargin with me even after i walked out the door. i decided that i had enough of the gold souk and decided to get lost in the neighborhood. according the tour book i bought before leaving the states, there is a spice souk (in the event you haven't caught the trend by now, a spice souk is a spice market) a few blocks from the gold souk. i figured i could make my way to the spice souk through the neighborhood. (although a few wrong turns and i could end up at the fish market - can't bring those home - stinky!) turns out i never found the spice souk, instead i spent about an  hour wandering around a iraqi/pakistani neighborhood. in and out of shops i went. some selling cheap (in quality and price) electronics and some of the worst knock off watch and hand bags i have ever seen! it was just funny. before i knew it the sun was starting to set (16:30ish) which means brian was wrapping up at his conference soon and i needed to get back to the hotel. off i went to find a taxi. dinner update to come....