Old Dubai Charm - Getting lost in Al Bastakiya

Attributing Dubai with the description "charming" seems like a misconception. Dubai is vibrant and over-the-top... and flashy. Like a glittering disco ball. Charming would be the simple, inexpensive baubles my grandmother use to decorate the Christmas tree, and hold some form of nostalgia or sentiment. All of which Dubai know nothing of.*

*This is just my personal assessment and opinion of a city  I visited for 48 hours, and objectivity is not one of my selling points. Also, I'm not for sale.

But I'm here to tell you that that's all "New Dubai"! Old Dubai is charming, and resonate with the simplicity of years before skyscrapers, water theme parks and hordes of tourists happened to Dubai.

We go to the desert, and it floods.

I think many would agree that Dubai is quite an impressive city. Artificial, but impressively so. On our recent trip to Sri Lanka we decided to stop over for two days to explore another new corner of the globe and add a new Customs stamp to our growing collection. (I'm very proud of my bad-ass, inked passport!) And it did not disappoint. It was exactly what we expected, just  more exaggerated and overpriced. We saw many incredible things in Dubai, all of which made my mouth gape like a monkey spotting a lion...

There were foreigners, foreigners galore! Not tourists mind you, but ex-pats who live and work and play there like they own the place. It's also clear that they don't.