Did Someone Say Diamonds?

Did I do them justice with my photos?  Surely not, they must be thinking.

We are much shinier and more sophisticated in person.  We inspire awe and admiration.  We attract lustful stares and longing glances.

So let me apologize in advance to this stellar crowd of diamonds and gold.

I'll see you next time at the Gold Souk.  I promise not to stare too hard.

A Little Jewel in Dubai

It's always magical to find a little travel jewel. That cozy, out of the way restaurant that serves amazing food and is not well known by the typical tourist crowd. A shop which has amazing little trinkets. A boutique hotel where you simply want to return to the room to fall onto the bed and look up at the ceiling. I found one such place in Bangkok a few years back that rolled all of this into one -- an antique mecca and a few guestrooms.

Now, lucky me! Friends took me to La Maison D'Hotes in Dubai....an absolutely lovely guest house owned and run by two French women in a Dubai residential neighborhood. Please don't tell anyone.

The Dubai Some Never See

There is the Dubai you see.

And then there is the Dubai that some never see. Away from the bustle, the malls and the beaches created by man, there is the "historic" Dubai nestled along side of the Creek, where charming little art galleries (unfortunately, many are closed on Friday) and cafes are nestled in. Here is where you can find the textile souk, largely Indian shops with pillow cases, pashminas, shawls and scarves of every color and size.

Cross the Creek and you are in the heart of the spice and gold souks. Saffron and frankinscence mingle with vanilla and cardamon. Gold bangles and diamonds blind the eye. Merchants beg you to come to look at handbags and pashminas just down this corridor in the souk.

Despite the heat and humidity, you can find a soul of a city.

Dubai Dreamin'

Mesopotamia. Baghdad. The Tigris River. The words floated on the green and blue map on my screen. We were flying at 41,000 feet en route to Dubai. Hard to believe that just 10 hours before I was saying goodbye at Dulles, giving goodnight kisses to Stefan and Abby who were nestled into their jammies. Then I was off, laptop and presentations in tow, trying not to think about my little ones but the work that awaited.

Now Dubai. A world of contradictions. Modern yet conservative. Liberal yet traditional. After a walk through the massive, crowded Dubai Mall on the start of the weekend here, I'm filled with images of Jimmy Choo, Burberry and Chanel. Yet what sticks most in my mind is the women covered in head to toe black.

Dubai On the Fly

I'm headed to Dubai next week for work -- en route to Cairo. I'm hoping I'll have at least an hour or two to stop by the souk. On my last visit to Dubai, I spent an afternoon there wandering the various stalls, marveling at the gold shops, buying up some exotic-smelling herbs and even splurged on a diamond ring. I also spent part of my free day at the big mega mall, complete with indoor ski slope. My daughter still loves the cheap, toy cell phone I bought with a picture of head-covered Barbie which plays a Middle Eastern tune of some sort.

I need to check out Cool Travel's Dubai shopping guide. She does a lot of writing for various travel magazines and lived in Dubai for a while so certainly seems to know the ins and outs. I took these pictures during my last trip....

Dubai Craziness

I had a call today from my old assistant, Amanda, who has just moved to San Francisco and has been on a wonderful travel odyssey to get there via New Orleans and Austin (you go girl!). We had so much fun traveling and working together in 2006 -- Dubai, Ecuador, Romania, South Africa. She's a free spirit and I salute her sense of adventure. I loved it that she brought a guitar back from Dubai...and was obsessed with the big, infamous sail-like Jumaireh hotel on the beach, respondent in all its glory with tacky colored lights and bursts of flames from tall torches. Do you still have that tacky plastic great pepper grinder I bought you, Amanda, shaped like the hotel?

Here's to Dubai! If you go: http://www.burj-al-arab.com/