Al-Khaleej Mall / Al-Ain Shopping Mall,Dubai

Morning went to have breakfast at the hotel,as the hotel provides complimentary breakfast. It was really good; lot of variety from juice/ tea/ coffee/ milk/ cornflakes/ idle/ sambar/ coconut chutney/ pasta/ breed/ jam/ butter/ cheese etc. After b’fast Jeet went out and fixed our travel plan during our stay with the agent. Afternoon had planned to go out for the Desert Safari. After Jeet’s return, went out to the nearby Malls. First we went to “Al-Khaleej Mall” (you will find lot of gift/ souvenir shops here); then to “Al-Ain-Shopping Center / Mall” (this Mall is full with computer and computer-related items). Just next to this Mall,is “Spinney’s”, a famous chain of 24hrs Shopping Center in Dubai. You need not go out of the Mall; there is entrance to this very big 24hr Convenient Shop from the Mall itself. This Shopping Center is like our “Sultan Center” in Kuwait. We purchased juice, fruits, cakes, and croissant and came to our Hotel. Later our travel agent told us that it belongs to Late Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. Mehr had her lunch and we got ready for the Desert Safari.

Little India in Dubai

We decided to explore Meena Bazar area that evening. Though we visited many malls in Dubai, I found Meena Bazar area the best place to shop. It’s in Bur Dubai district and most of the shops are own by Indians. Infact it’s call “Little India” as nearly 90% of population are Indians. There is great variety of clothes, imitation jewellery, accessories for girls, shoes, electronic items, perfumes, gold shops, kids cloths and accessories, souvenir shops and much more in this area. You have to bargain hard, and after bargaining you will find that prices are very reasonable. You quote half the price of what the shopkeeper tells you. Don’t worry if they don’t decrease the price, just move away. They will call you back and their price comes down. You will find Indian brand shops like Raymond, Liberty, Bata, Parthas, Nalli etc. here. This is what you will miss in Kuwait. There are shops where you will find Indian dresses but they are much less in number compared to Dubai. Apart from shops, you will find many Indian restaurants in this area.

Jeet had to change his specs lens, so we enquired in 3shops. The prices were almost same in two shops, 120Dirhams. But the third one tried to fool us by saying 250Dirhams. So you see shopkeeper’s tries to fool you by quoting double the price if you are not aware of the existing price in the market. We visited few travel agencies DELMA , HOURMUZ and VIENNA to enquire about the tours. We had dinner at Baithal Ravi Restaurant, another famous Indian restaurant in Dubai. We had heard and read a lot about it, so decided to try it out. We had biriyani, afghani chicken, tandori roti and lachi. The food was really tasty. While coming back to our hotel, I checked out few shops for salt. Salt is really costly in Dubai. 1kg of Salt cost 3.5Dirham in Dubai, (but here in Kuwait it hardly cost 100fills i.e 15-17 Rs in Indian currency. We also purchased few pastries, bananas to have with morning tea. I found baby food products costlier in Dubai then in Kuwait.
After returning back to hotel room, made MEHR’s “khichri”.