Dubai
Author: Sangeetha Karthik
It has been on my mind to go Dubai to meet my best friend since we haven't met for years. I had been planning to stop in Dubai when I go to India, but for the last few years, we haven't had the chance to. Finally last year, I had to go for a short 2 week trip to India so I planned to drop by my friend's place when returning back to US. I planned for staying on Friday and Saturday since in Dubai, weekends are on those days and Sunday is a business day.
We landed on Thursday. My friend's home is in Karama, Dubai which is in close proximity to all malls, airport, Dubai Subway Station etc., I was exhilarated in meeting my friend since we met nearly after 10 years. My friend picked us from Airport and she had lunch prepared for us. Due to Jet Lag we were tired and we relaxed for some hours and started by the evening to an important attraction, The Global Village.
Global Village Entrance
Global Village is the first family destination for culture, entertainment and shopping in the region. It is a unique and integrated destination to enjoy the world's finest shopping, dining and entertainment experiences and accentuate the best of culture from countries of the world in a lively festival and takes guests on a journey through a group of pavilions, each representing the richness and culture of a different country. From https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g295424-d2038312-Reviews-Global_Village-Dubai_Emirate_of_Dubai.html
It's an exquisite and magical place. First we saw the beautiful and amazing fountains in the entrance and were astonished. Then we headed to a few Asian country exhibits because we wanted to cover all of the countries. Since my son, Pranav likes Japan, we wanted to make sure to cover it first. There were many wonderful artifacts, food stalls, shops, etc. We took several pictures with local natives for memories. We then decided to visit the Thailand exhibit next. I picked up some souvenirs and then we covered some of the other exhibits including Korea. Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. We even watched a wonderful Thailand dance performance. And we spent the next couple of hours in other country areas.
On the same day by luck, there was a musical concert by the famous Indian singer Shreya Ghoshal hosted by the Global Village team. Since my friend knows I love music and music concerts, she planned to take me to this place on this day as a surprise. Once we covered all of the other country areas, we finally headed to the open ground where the music concert was going to happen @ 10:00 pm. We grabbed a few items as dinner and settled there to wait. We enjoyed the rest of the night with Shreya's great songs. She sang some of my favorites from A R Rahman and songs from different genres. At closure we headed back to the car and left for home.
The next day we woke up late and had a leisure morning since we were out till midnight the previous day. We planned to start our adventure for the day. The previous day , we noticed that one of my suitcases had been torn through wear which needs to be repaired or replaced. My friend knew of a stall in the nearby Karama market so we thought to explore the markets and see if we can find a suitcase repair shop.
Dubai Bus Stop
ADCB Train Station
After exploring the Karama markets, our plan for the rest of the day was to visit Miracle Garden in Dubai, the world's largest natural flower garden featuring over 50 million flowers and 250 million plants. Since my friend knows that I love flowers, she read my mind and planned ahed and booked the tickets early. Today we wanted to also experience different modes of Dubai's transportation. So from the Karama bus station, we loaded some credit into our metro card's and were waiting for the bus. When the bus arrived, we entered the bus and stopped at ADCB metro station and took a tram to the "Mall of the emirates" station.
From there, we needed to take bus F30 to go straight to Miracle Garden, but after waiting sometime for the bus, we asked another bus driver and he said in the current period bus F30 is not coming through this route. So we took a taxi from there and went to Miracle Garden. One thing I observed in vehicles in Dubai is how its similar to western countries, drives on the right side of the road and another thing I learned from my friend is how its not easy to get a driver's license and buy a car in Dubai unlike in the United States or India. Also I noticed people mostly prefer public transportation.
We finally reached the Miracle Garden. It was wonderful! You definitely need a whole day to cover all the sections inside the garden. There are many beautiful gardens in the world but this garden is special because of its existence in the extremely dry climate of UAE. The garden is nothing less than a wonder of the world. The Dubai Miracle Garden is huge and it is spreads across seventy-two thousand square meters (72,000 square meters).
Floral Themes @ Miracle Garden
Flowers are just the building blocks of the Dubai Miracle Garden. Flowers are rather presented in the most creative themes and this is where the Dubai Miracle Garden can mesmerize you with various colorful floral themes. It can also excite you with wonderful floral sculptures. Moreover; it can even surprise you with mysterious and magical architectures all of whom are fully showered with colorful flowers . Lastly; a small auditorium area also entertains its visitors through its creative shows.
Each year the Dubai Miracle Garden comes up with a new set of floral themes, sculptures and designs. In between February 2013 and May 2018 at least 6 new editions of the Dubai Miracle Garden have been introduced at the garden and each edition offers maximum creativity for its visitors. When we visited it, we experienced a few beautiful floral themes like magnificent birds, hearts, ships, an Emirates Airbus, a giant teddy bear, the sea , food items, etc. There is a butterfly garden too near Miracle Garden but we couldn't visit during our trip.
After miracle garden, we planned to go Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa. Once we came out of the garden, we took a taxi and directly headed to Dubai Mall. The mall offers various dining choices, an entire shopping mall, and grand views of the Burj Khalifa from the deck outside. This is the second-largest mall in the world by land area. There is even a beautiful aquarium inside the mall. We spent a few hours in the mall and we went to the Apple store. Finally we waited to experience the beautiful fountain laser show outside the deck next to the Burj Khalifa. Afterwards we headed back home.
We had several dining options near my friend's home. Since I like eating aapam - a tasty lacy soft hopper, my friend suggested we go to Nalas Appa kadai, a restaurant speacializing in aapam. We had a delicious dinner there and I returned by flight early morning the next day. I left Dubai with everlasting sweet memories of the place and my best friend who I met after 10 years. It was a great journey and I will remember it forever.