This was my first time to the Middle East. Dubai was surreal - but not in a positive way. It was definitely culture shock going from the raw simplicity of Africa to the most technologically advanced and probably the wealthiest city in the world. The tallest buildings and most innovative structures (well of this century - nothing beats the perfection of the pyramids) exists here. 
This city is built entirely on consumerism. The malls were absolutely over-the-top. Money, money, money...
Only a very small percentage of the city are actually native. Something like 90% of the population are expats.
You would forget you were in a Muslim country until you'd pass a mosque and see the shoes left outside as they would wash their feet before entering during prayer times.
This is the Gold Souk - i.e. the gold market. This entire stretch is all shops filled with gold. Everything pure gold and costing more than a house. They actually had shirts that were entirely made out of woven gold thread. How in the world do you wear something like that?
And you forget you're actually in the middle of a dessert. In order to build the city, they had to install the world's largest irrigation system. Dubai is the second largest consumer of water - second only to the US.
We are about to leave for our sand sufari. Our guide was letting air out of the tires so they could grip the sand. We had no idea what we were in store for...Check out his Western ball cap with his Muslim dress.
Click on the above picture to enlarge it. This is us in a caravan of SUV's that were actually SLIDING through the sand dunes. It was literally as if we were on a rollar coaster. It was one of the scariest things I've ever done. They build metal into the roofs of the SUV's as rolling it is a very real concern. Our driver was amazing and kept us all safe - but I thought at one point the 3 of us were toast...
The expanse and uniqueness of the dessert was unlike anything I've ever seen. I couldn't get over the beauty of it and the complete desolation of it. There was nothing, nothing, nothing other than sand.
Leslie loves the dessert. She was taking it all in.
They actually tried to get us white folks to belly dance! Ha! It was me, Leslie and Leslie's cousin (Trisha) and a bunch of Brits. Ha! Ha! We looked quite ridiculous and I felt quite ridiculous!
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