Dubai

What a huge change to go from Agra, India to Dubai, UAE. Two different worlds. Dubai is unreal. I would compare it to Sim City. There is construction everywhere. It is like if New York was built in 15 years and you visited in year 7 or 8. The difference is that Dubai is seperated in to sections. Like Internet City, Music City, Sports City, ect. Different parts of the city are for different things. It is neat, but you can't walk any where. The buildings are unbelievable. Every district is one sky scraper after another. Wild!

We got here about 2:30 local time on Saturday. Once we cleared customs we got in four wheel drive vehicles and headed to the desert. Dubai is the desert, but we went to the undeveloped part. We four wheeled for about 10 KM through sand dunes and were supposed to have a whole carnival out in the desert.

Here we are with camels and sand.

This is exactly what Cathy Williams thought of the desert.

This morning we got up early and went out for a city tour. This was so lame. My parents seemed to enjoy it, but Diana and I didn't! We went on a driving tour of the city from the highway, then went to a fake version of what old Dubai would have looked like, and then capped it off by visiting a lame museum. Oh well! Then we went out on a boat through the canal. This was more fun because we got to see all the people and building from the water.

Friends! This is Erica, John, Tamara, and Michelle!

This is the view from our hotel window. The Atlantis is at the very top of the Palm Island, which is what we are looking at!

Ski Dubai

We returned from the hotel and had lunch. After lunch and some rearranging of our suitcases (we can only have our little luggage on our next stop in tanzania) we went on a Helicoptor tour of the city. I will let the pictures speak for them selves.

Actually, I wont.

The marina


Triangle towers


Will be the world's tallest building

The World Islands

The Palm

The Burj al Arab aka the self proclaimed 7 star hotel

Diana and the Helicopter

After the Helicopter ride we stopped at a Souk for some shopping, or maybe more looking, and then went back to the hotel. We got dressed a little nicer and went to the 44th floor for drinks and a few picutures.

Then we went to dinner and now we are back and have packed for Tanzania! Africa, here we come!

Agra, India

We flew out of Cambodia on Thursday morning and had under a 5 hour flight to Agra, India. We landed on a military base, which was weird, and went through customs with one person to check our passports. It took a while and it was hot! Once we got through we drove about 25 minutes to the hotel, dropped off our bookbags, and went straight to the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is heavily secured and you can take minimal things in. Very small bags are allowed. I guess when you think of India, the Taj Mahal is the one monument subject to terrorist attacks.

Our hotel is about five minutes from the entrance to the Taj and we took buses as close as they are allowed and then walked the rest of the way in. The streets were crowded and crazy! India is a very poor country. 15% of the population accounts for 85% of the GDP. The rest of the population either farms in the country side or lives in slums in towns. It was heartbreaking to see some of the people and animals that were lost and hungry. A big dose of reality.

Anyways, the Taj was unbelievable, it truely felt unreal standing next to it.

Since the Taj Mahal is all marble, we had to wear bootie are go barefooted so we didn't damage the marble.

Here is the Mosque located to the left of the Taj. On the right there is an identical building but it is empty and is just there for symatry.

The Taj is all marble and all the color you see in inlay work, not paint. The colors are all precious gem stones that are placed in the marble piece by piece.

Here is the Princess Diana shot, isn't this a great picture! The red dot is a dot of paint they put on us at the hotel. I washed mine off...

All of the rooms at our hotel, The Oberoi Amarvilas have views of the Taj and are beautiful.

After visiting the Taj we went back to the hotel for dinner and then we crashed!

This morning we got up and visited Fatehur Sikri, the abandoned city. It was a fortress build in the 16th century that was only occupied for 12 years. It was very interesting, as was the hour and fifteen minute drive there. We saw alot of India.

The rickshaw we rode up the the fortress in...

We ate lunch at the hotel after this and then went shopping! We went to the Kohinoor Jewelry Showroom. This turned out to be very interesting. The two families that made royal jewelry and the royal tapastries have combined their interest and made one showroom. The Jewelers have been in the business for five generations i believe. The jewelry was amazing, but the best part were the tapastries that were in the "museum." The stiching is 3-D and is not stuffed, it is just stiched over and over to achieve the right look. They are also cover in precious gems

This is the best one, and it took eveyones breath away. The man who sewed this was a Muslim, and no one expected this when it was unveiled for us to seem.

After shopping we went back to the hotel and got dressed for dinner.

Now we are done packing and heading to bed. We fly to Dubai in the morning!