I think I have bombarded you with enough recipes, so for the last week of this BM it’s going to be non-recipes. The next three posts will be non-recipes and I thought of writing about my recent travel and keep it picturesque. (I don’t know if my pictures are visually attractive but still let me use that.) Whenever we travel to India as a family, we tend to take mini vacation before going to India. So this time we stopped in Abu Dhabi. Hubby’s BFF was inviting us for a long time so we thought of stopping in Abu Dhabi and booked our tickets via Etihad. But just couple of weeks before our travel our friend got shifted close to Dubai – which means we got a chance to visit both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Basically Dubai and Abu Dhabi are 150KM apart. It took us less than 3 hrs. to reach Dubai.
I won’t say July is the best month for visiting these places because of summer and also we visited during the month of Ramadan. So all the hotels and restaurants weren’t allowing in dining till sunset and only take outs were allowed. As we stayed in our friends place it wasn’t a problem but if you are all planning for a trip during Ramadan keep this point in mind.
We stayed there for 3 days and we didn’t cover all the places. The main reason for the visit was family get –together. We had loads and loads of fun and kids enjoyed a lot. So sightseeing didn’t matter. I and M don’t rush in vacation and I think we will be only couples to spend three days in Disney and Adventure Land and come back without going to Hollywood. Be it two places we want the satisfaction and after kiddo was born we followed this even stricter.
So we covered couple of places in Abu Dhabi and visited Palm Jumeirah and of course burj khalifa the tallest artificial structure. Went in a mini night cruise and enjoyed the local food too. Here are couple of pictures,
I was so amazed by the number of date palms and the amount of dates each tree was bearing.
Our friend took us to the local vegetable market where one street is completely dedicated for dates. You can buy just pluck dates; semi ripened, fully ripened, dried and candies with these dates, stuffed dates. This list will be never ending. Just look at these pictures.
Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are great places to visit and we did miss the desert safari but we hope to try it next time. Let’s see. Now I am all set to try some these dates recipes :-) Hopefully it won’t be a disaster. ;-)
Love your virtual tour of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
I should plan a trip to Dubai, love this place, but never had a chance to visit personally, thanks for this virtual tour, loved it.
Lovely travel pics and enjoyed reading your post.
Lovely write up. The date tree pic looks very tempting and beautiful.
A nice write up
Lovely post Vidya. We are like you too, don’t want to rush and see everything instead we prefer to enjoy just a couple of places. Especially with kids, it becomes stressful if we plan too much.
Those date trees look amazing.
Nice writeup.Totally enjoyed your travelogue.
Wow looks like you had a good time Sri.. and thanks for the travel tip – will keep it mind :) So did you buy a lot of dates? :) Few months back, on the way to Bangalore we had a stopover at Chittoor where fresh dates were being sold. I got a large bunch but sadly they didnt ripen correctly. Nonetheless, it was a pleasure to look at it every now and then :)
Yeah pa. The fresh ones will be little tangy and the semi ripened one will be caramel and chocolate color. Oh oo.. did you try the unripened ones? How were they? You know what better use for dates and tamarind chutney.
Ummm just drooling looking at the clicks!
Thanks Mullai
That’s a wonderful tour to read about..those dates pics are yummy!
Oh Sri we didn’t discuss about our Dubai trips.. Totally agree June/July s not the great time to visit bcoz of restrictions but loved fresh arabuc sweets and beautiful city.
oh yeah vids.. Lets have a call again ;-)
Beautiful pictures Sri…thanx for taking us on a virtual tour to Abu dhabi and Dubai… wonderful post…
Thanks a lot Chitra.
Beautiful post dear :-)
I usually fly Emirates and until 8 years ago Emirates did not have a flight to US. From US to London it was USA airlines and from London it was Emirates with a halt in Dubai. Sometimes there us to be almost 20 hours layover with free accommodation provided by emirates. During such layers I took a Dubai day trip. Totally loved it. Never been to Abu Dhabi. Enjoyed reading your travelogue
Thanks a lot Usha.