Ramakkalmedu - Catching up with wind!

“Da, isn’t a while since we have gone for a trip” said Ratheesh, let’s go for one trip, he quizzed. We all readily agreed.

After almost 1.5 months of planning, we decided to head towards Ramakkalmedu. We as in our gang of friends (me, Ratheesh, Rakesh, and Anish) used to go for a trip in almost every 6 months. But since many of us got married, and priority of life changed, a trip hadn’t happened for a while. So Ramakkalmedu was an option, nobody was going to say no for.

We started off morning around 8 am from Pattukaran’s (Rakesh) house at poothotta in his car. After an hours journey at the outskirts of  Thodupuzha, we took a break at woodlands hotel, had our breakfast. We had ghee roast and poori bhaji. We then headed straight to Ilavizha Poonchira. The folklore on Ilavizha Poonchira which was based on Ramayana was that Panchali(Draupadi) during her vana vasa period once had come to this place and was about to take a bath, so Lord Indra removed all the trees in that area so that no one would peep behind the tree and watch Panchali taking bath J.

The road was a difficult one to drive through. Our car was struggling to pass through this difficult terrain. Luckily a jeep named ‘St Thomas’ came to our rescue. Another bunch of 4 people joined along with us to Ilavizha Poonchira. The road or the path was a very difficult one, only a jeep could have gone. We all felt happy to have met the jeep driver at the right time. Soon we reached the top spot. It was completely foggy. It was a great experience. Slow drizzle along with small dew made the place and environment extra ordinary. We took time to click few photos. We walked and explored the place, only to find a police wireless station nearby.  Then it started raining heavily, and we all got drenched. Soon we returned back to the place where we had parked our car. We bid good bye to the jeep driver and continued our safari in our ford Eco sport.

We continued our journey to Wagamon, the climate was really great, small drizzle, and light fog added to the beauty of it. We passed through Wagamon, where ever we found a great place, we would stop and click pictures. The conversations we had, the rustic roads made the journey entertaining. By 3 pm we had reached Kattapana. We stopped there to buy few items for our night party. Booze was always in the card, when four friends join J. We had small snacks and headed towards Ramakkelmedu.

After an hour of drive, we reached close to the Punarjani resort where we had booked our stay. We thought we will visit the statue of Kuravan & Kurathi on the hill top first before checking in at the resort. We parked our car at a very scenic spot and had a word with the guard at the tower towards the hill. He said the wind is comparatively less today and we might get a good view at the top. We all enthusiastically climbed the small hill. We saw the statue of Kuravan & Kurathi. We roamed around the hill. The chilly wind, the panoramic view of all the places around the hill, and a small drizzle made the climb all worthy. We took photos, and had an ice-cream. We headed down, and travelled to the resort.

Resort was an upcoming one, so the facilities weren’t that great, but the location of the resort was really good. 25 acres of lush green land, where they had vegetables, coffee and other condiments.

We were escorted towards our room, it was a nice room. We 4 took a bath, and were feeling very refreshed. Even though fan was available in the room, there was no need for it, as it was already cold.

We waited for some time for food, during which we continued our conversation. Once our food arrived which included Vegetable masala curry, Chicken curry, Gobi Manchurian and chappathi, we pounced on to it. Once the food was in, it was time for us to booze. We continued our conversation and our drinking continued till late night. Then we all slept off.

We woke up around 8.30 am, with a big doze of hangover. I had lots of water, and then brushed, had a shower under very cold water. Once we all took bath, we felt refreshed; we headed towards the cafeteria at the resort. We had a very good breakfast of idly, sambhar and chutney.

We returned back to the foot hills near the Kuravan & Kurathi statue, this time our aim was to climb on to the nearby hill. This hill was comparatively bigger and steeper than the previous one. I had set eyes on this hill, yesterday itself and I wanted to conquer it. First we did a feasibility study on how to climb the hill and the initial findings were that we won’t be able to do it. We returned back to check with the forest guard, who said the way we tried were the correct path and we should try again. Infused with vigor, we started off again. This time we continued and reached to one of the top spots. 2 guys stopped there, and I along with Ratheesh continued further. After much struggle, we reach hill top. It was windy and small drizzle of rain was always accompanying us. That kind of gave us that extra energy to reach on top. It was a terrific view. On one side was the lush green Kerala, and other side was the fields of Tamil Nadu where we could see lots of wind mills.

We stayed there for some time and climbed down, 2 of our friends were waiting down near the car, and we then headed to the wind mills. We were arguing on which would be the ideal place to fit in a wind mill. We stopped near by a wind mill which was not turning. We had assumed that there was no wind and wasn’t very impressed at the spot we stopped the car, but once we came out of the car, we all knew we were all wrong.

It was very windy, and the rain added to the chaos. Small drops of rain had now gained momentum with the wind. We were all thrilled, for this was an experience we were all having for the first time. The extreme wind channelized between 2 hills was constantly headed towards us. We could assume what a tornado could do. We enjoyed those moments, literally cherish those moments. We have been under the sun, in rain, fog but wind was a truly different experience.

We then headed back to Kattapana. The roads were curvy and slippery, mist and fog added to the mystery of it. We stopped at Kattapana, and had a great meals involving sambhar, a sumptuous yellow curry made from curd, pappad, lime pickle.

We continued our journey to Idukki. We stopped at Cheruthoni and walked towards Idukki dam. The majestic arch dam stood there with all its might. For a month long period around Onam festive season, the dam was open to visitors, we had been lucky to have reached there at the correct time. We awed at the brilliance of British engineering. We discussed about Mullaperiyar dam and the issues around it.  After a 2 km walk around the dam, we reached the cave. We continued and took rest for a while. We returned back, with a great feeling. We all felt pretty happy that we were able to cover lot many places in a 2 day trip. Around 5.30pm we reached at Thodupuzha and took a break, had a tea and continued back home.

We reached back around 8pm at Ernakulam and bid good bye promising each other that soon we would head for another trip.

Thekkady - Wagamon - Gavi

It was time for a trip again and the whole team have decided that we will go to Thekkady and Wagamon this time. After a long research I have booked a jeep safari which includes a safari for 2 hours followed by a trekking plan.
We started off from Trivandrum on a Friday night and reached Thekkady next day at around morning 4’o clock. We took a nap for a while and then got fresh up. Our jeep was about to arrive at 7.00 AM. Jeep driver was punctual and he reached on time. We took some biscuits and all and started off our journey. The jeep was going through a forest and we were lucky enough to see some animals. Our driver knew exact location where we could find animals. Few were very far away and it was difficult for us to recognize the animals. We continued our journey by taking few snaps on the go. And after 2 hours of journey we reached our destination. When we entered in to the place we saw boards reading Gavi eco center and it was really a pleasant surprise to everyone as Gavi visit was not in our plan. We just planned for trekking and was not aware that we were going Gavi. Whereas everyone were eager to visit Gavi after the release of Malayalam movie Ordinary.

At the entrance itself we found flowers dangling like grapes and it was really a beautiful scenery.
We had our breakfast from there and took few pics and then started off for trekking. The guide took us through forest and we had to walk along a straight road. Trekking for me was something like climbing a mountain with a rope and all whereas this was like we are going for a stroll. We walked for around 5kms and we found nothing interesting and moreover everyone were tired after such a long walk. So we decided to return back. Then only it strike us that we have to walk the whole way back but we made it interesting with some games and photo sessions. On the way back we found a Dam and I just jumped on the wall and took some photos from there. By the time we reached back everyone were tired except one of our colleague Velu who went with the guide for another stroll and we took rest at the restaurant.

And now it was time for lunch and we were served with a grant buffet lunch at Gavi. After the lunch we started back to our home stay and we reached the place by evening 4. We realized that it is late now to roam around because at Thekkady night falls early. Still we took the risk and went to the park and from there we went for elephant safari. It was my first experience and I really enjoyed it. I always wanted to go for elephant ride and there one of my wishes come true.Yes, that does mean that one tick against my check list. After elephant ride we visited the market in Thekkady. The people were selling winter wears, coffee, tea, spices, etc. After having our lunch from one of the restaurants there we came back to our room.
The next day early morning itself we went for Thekkady boating. The queue for tickets were long but two of my colleagues got into the long queue and got hold of the tickets on time. We got into the boat and were eagerly waiting to see elephants which comes to drink water at lake-shore. We were fortunate enough to see many elephants and deer standing and drinking water. We also see few black headed gulls. After that we strolled across enjoying the big fat trees on the way. We were getting late so we set off to Wagamon. Wagamon is a hill station located in Kottayam-Idukki border of Kottayam district of Kerala, India. We could see the beautiful view of tea plantations spread across acres. From a distance you will feel that a mountain is covered with a green blanket. We stopped here and there for photo shoot enjoying the scenic valleys and beautiful green meadows. Finally we reached enchanting pine forests. This pine forest has witnessed many film shootings. We strolled across the forest and set it as the background for many of our photos. After a while of walking and photo shoot we set off our journey back to Trivandrum for our daily routine.

Mesmerising Dubai!!!

After my brother-in-law’s marriage we were kind of planning to visit Dubai as both Kannan(brother-in-law) and his wife, Dhanya were settled there.Infact the plan was immediate one and everything happened so fast, like booking flight tickets and visa.

And we as in me, my husband,and his mom and dad; all were eagerly waiting for the D-day. And finally on the D-day that is on 16^th February 2016 we hailed a cab to Cochin airport. The flight was at 23:05. As always we reached airport early so as to avoid last minute haste. After check in we went directly to the gate where we were expecting our flight. We had enough time to relax and so me and Rakeu(my husband) went for a window shopping. And after window shopping we bought coke, Pepsi and coffee to refresh ourselves. We were killing our time or time was killing us!!!

Finally they announced the arrival of our flight and we all boarded the flight to the land of Dubai. We all were really excited. We boarded the flight at early morning 2 AM and after a long queue for boarding formalities we reached Dubai airport (one of the busiest airport in the world) .  Kannan and dhanya were on their way so we waited outside for a while. The one thing which we hated there was almost everyone was smoking even at that time of the hour and we were feeling suffocated. Our suffocation got over when we saw Dhanya and Kannan approaching us. And then and there we hailed a taxi and off we went to Sharjah where they were staying. It was early morning and we all were tired so we all slept off after some chit chats. Kannan left for Fujairah.

Day 1: 17^th February 2016

It was Wednesday and Dhanya went  to her office so we were left with no other option than exploring nearby places on our own. Dhanya  gave us Nol cards. The Nol Card is an electronic ticketing card that was released in for all mode of public transport in Dubai services. She also gave us some instructions about nearby malls and we went  off to Safeer mall which was just 5minutes walk from the apartment. The mall was not that big and it is cheaper compared to other malls. We just roamed around the mall and hypermarket and came back to our room by afternoon. After having lunch we set off to Sahara center by foot. It was around half an hour distance from our place. We found it a bit difficult to find the path but finally we made to our destination. This one unlike Safeer mall was a posh one. We found many shops and just did a window shopping. There was a children’s park in the top floor and as usual a theatre. We found few statues of dinosaurs and took few snaps posing here and there. We visited the fountain in the ground floor and then we thought it’s time to go back to the apartment. So we came out of the mall and we realized that it was raining heavily and we didn’t have any umbrellas with us. So we waited there for rain to stop, but rain was not in a mood to stop so we tried to hail a taxi with no luck. There was no other go than waiting. Finally when rain reduced we strolled back to the apartment, this time in a different route. After walking some distance we realized that we were standing in Dubai and there is a fence which separates Dubai and Sharjah. We have to cross the road before the fence starts to reach Sharjah. So we just strolled from Dubai to Sharjah ;) and walked back to our apartment.

Day 2 : 18^th February 2016

The next day morning we hailed a taxi to Sahara center bus stop. From here you will get buses to Dubai. We got into a bus which goes to Rashid Stadium. It was 20 minutes journey to the stadium and from there we got into Metro. Dubai Metro have 2 routes; green line and red line. Union and Burjuman are 2 main junctions from where you can change your routes, ie. From green line to red and vice versa. As we have to go Burjuman we got into Green line from Stadium station. There are 10 stations in between Stadium and Burjuman. We reached Burjuman within 25-30 minutes. We got out of the station and went in search of Burjuman mall. Burjuman mall have a business tower and this is where Dhanya was working. We went to her office. As it was Thursday she had work till afternoon only. So we waited her to finish her work and we went to the restaurant Govindas which was at a walkable distance. Govindas is a vegetarian restaurant with Indian cuisine. We ordered for meals, vegetable pulao,roti, Paneer bhuna,etc. Everyone felt happy after having the meals and we started off to the station. From Burjuman again we got into green line to Al Ghubaiba. We went straight to Dubai creek. This is one of the hot spots of Dubai. The view from Duabi Creek was awesome with 100’s of birds flying around.  There is a market where you will get dresses, fast food etc. We just strolled across as we were not planning to buy anything from here. From there we went to Dubai Museum which is the main museum in Dubai,UAE. It was built in 1787 and is the oldest existing building in Dubai. Here you cans see the traditional way of life in the Emirate of Dubai. There is a dhow (sailing vessel) outside the museum. You can also see old Arabic home model in Dubai's Al Fahidi Fort, Replica food stall with vendor mannequin pearl merchant mannequins and mannequins of Camels. Some of the mannequins were looking so original and it was difficult to believe that they are just dummies. Once we finished with museum we went to a nearby Krishna and Shiva temple. There was a Gurudwara too. None of us visited Gurudwara before so we were eager to hop inside. We all went inside theGurudwara sat there for some time and then we started our stroll back to creek. On the way we bought some banana frys(pazham pori). After reaching creek we got into an Abra which is a boat which costs only 1AED. Abras are used to ferry people across the Dubai Creek in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was an amazing experience. We got down of Abra and went straight to Spice souk. Spice souk is a market where they sell all types of spices. We could see piles of spices out of which many spices were new to us. We just strolled across to Gold souk and we could see the extravaganza of Dubai here. Amma was really excited to see Gold souk and started taking few snaps in front of few shops. There were even dresses and shoes made out of gold. Once we were done with roaming we went to Al Ras metro station and got a train to Stadium. From stadium we got bus number F-24 to Sahara center. And from there we walked down to a hyper market and then off to our apartment. Kannan joined us at night for his weekend.

Gold and Spice Souks

Day 3: 19^th February 2016

 This day was exciting as Kannan too was joining us for the day. Today's agenda was Miracle Garden, Butterfly garden and Global village. So off we go to Sahara center, and from there in a bus to Rashid station. From Rashid station we got into metro green line to Union station. And from there we changed to red line and got down at Mall of Emirates stop. Mall of Emirates was looking really good and there was a garden besides the mall. We spent some time there taking few snaps and drinking juice and then took a bus to Miracle garden. After reaching there we took entry tickets for Miracle garden which costs 30 AED per person. The Dubai Miracle Garden is a flower garden located in the district of Dubailand, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  This is one of the most beautiful flower garden I have ever seen in my life. Construction of this garden was done in such a manner to attract anyone who loves flowers, but those who are not fond of flowers will get bored after a while for sure. :) Flowers are spread across 72,000 square meters making it the world's largest natural flower garden. Once we enter there is one Beatle car decorated with flowers, valley of flowers, houses of different forms decorated with flowers, flower arches, and many more varieties. It is difficult to explain the whole thing you must experience it instead.  

The Dubai Miracle Garden operate from October to April and remains closed from June to September due to high temperatures with the average of 40 °C (104 °F) where it not conductive for flower gazing.

It was getting late for us to reach Global village so we skipped our plan of visiting butterfly garden and hailed a taxi to Global village. After reaching there we took entry tickets for Global village which costs 15 AED per person. Global Village Dubailand,Dubai , is claimed to be the world's largest tourism, leisure and entertainment project. It is the region's first cultural, entertainment, family and shopping destination. Global village have shops or stalls of different countries which includes India, Singapore, Russia, South Africa, Pakistan, Turkey, Paris, etc. Each countries stall is set up in a castle like structure and once you enter into a country you will come across its culture, food, dresses, ornaments, show case items and all. You can buy whatever you wish for. Apart from this each county had a stall which showcase that countries dances/songs. If you can’t afford to visit many countries this is one of the best place to go because you will get a feeling of visiting many countries in a shot. One of my favorite among this was south Africa which has a wide variety of items and things were comparatively cheap. We bought a bracelet from there. We were kind of tired after visiting many countries. By 10 PM we stopped roaming around and had our dinner from inside Global village itself. Now it was time to wind up and we started off to our apartment in a cab.

Miracle Garden

Day 4: 20^th February 2016

Today Kannan has booked dessert Safari for us from 2:30 PM. So we took rest in the morning and afternoon after having a light lunch we walked to Safeer mall. Driver has instructed us to have not much before Dessert Safari. This might be because while driving in Dessert we might have a tendency to vomit if we had full stomach. We were expecting the driver to pick us in front of Safeer mall. We waited there for some time and finally a Fortuner came to pick us. Driver was a friendly person. He explained us about our schedule. We paid him 600 AED for the trip.  And off we go for Dessert Safari. He took us in Oman route and after one and half hours of journey we stopped for refreshments. There were many shops which were selling turbans and all. Rakeu bought turban from there and the shop keeper tied it on Rakeu’s head in Arabic style. After getting refreshed off we go and our next destination was for Dessert scooter. Dessert scooter is also called Quad bike. Me and Rakeu was excited to take a Quad ride. Mom and Dad didn’t come for it. We went for the Quad bike ride and it was really awesome. Initially Rakeu ride the Quad and then was my turn. We really enjoyed the ride and we took few snaps and videos of the same. After the excited ride it was time to go for our destination, camp. On the way to camp driver did an adventurous ride in our Fortuner through dessert. It was one of the best experience. You could see many vehicles in front and back of our vehicle and every one was following a style of their own. Altogether the ride was similar to the ones we experience in adventure parks. He stopped there for us to take some photos. Finally after a long ride we reached our camp. It was around 6:30 – 7 PM. There were many arrangements like camel safari, refreshments which includes tea, coffee and snacks. We all went for camel safari first and after that we took coffee and tea and sat in our designated table. After having coffee we were waiting for Hukka to get free. There was heavy rush near hukka stall. There was a guy who was carrying an Eagle with him and we enquired with him about the rates to take a photo with Eagle. And after some bargaining we all took photos with eagle. I was scared to keep Eagle on my hand and finally I took courage and posed with Eagle. After this we went to get hukka but by that time the stall was closed. There were many flavors of hukka like apple, strawberry, etc. Me and Amma went for henna painting and a lady painted our hand with henna. After sitting at our designated table and chatting for a while we served ourself with dinner. While we were having our dinner the main highlight started. Yes, you are right it is nothing but belly dance. One beautiful girl came in belly dancer’s costume and she started to amaze the crowd with her performance. While she was doing her performance a girl from audience too started dancing along with her. She too knew belly dance and finally it turned out to be a competition out of the two. The organisers were bit frustrated with this but the performance ended with an applause. And there came a guy 

Miracle Garden, Global Village, Grand Mosque and Quad ride pics

and he started Sufi dance and after sufi dance he gave a mind blowing performance with fire. The fire dance was one of the best dance I have seen in my life. We really enjoyed the whole performances and once that was over it was time for us to return to our apartment. It was really sad to return back as we felt the day got over so fast. Our driver drove us back to our apartment. I would suggest everyone to go for Dessert Safari if you visit Dubai anytime.

Day 5: 21st February 2016

We have booked for Dubai package today.  We went to sahara Center and our tour guide picked us from there. There were two persons, one driver and another guy who detailed us about the trip. Once we get in the cab itself the guy took their money from us. It was 640 AED for the whole trip. He took us first to Juneirah Mosque. It was just a photo stop and we took few pics in front of the mosque. After that they took us to beach near Burj Al Arab hotel. The Burj al-Arab is a luxuryhotel located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the fourth tallest hotel in the world. Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island 280 m from Jumeriah beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. The shape of the structure is designed to mimic the sail of a ship. Sun was beaming with heat so we didn't spent much time there. We took few photos as usual and after 20 minutes we were on our journey. The next photo stop was near Atlantis, The Palm. On the way our guide showed us Zabeel Ruling palace. And then they just took us for a ride through Al Khas hotel. Entrance of the hotel have 16 golden horses. And we could see the each hotel room is sperated from the other by water. Guide told us that boat is required to move from one room to another. He also mentioned that this is actor Salman Khan's favorite hotel and he stays there every time he comes to Dubai. Only Salman knows the truth  Then he took us to heritage village, unfortunately it was a holiday so we couldn't go inside. The package includes creek, gold souk, spice souk, etc. we skipped all those as we have been to these places before. We could see the scenic view of Burj Khalifa now. This was the main attraction of the day. We took many selfies from here. Our last destination was Dubai mall. On the way we saw many buildings in Sheik Zayed road. They dropped us at Dubai mall and our Dubai package was over. We felt that it was not worth to pay 650 AED for that trip. Our hunger reminded us that we didn't had lunch so we searched for the food court inside Dubai mall. Once we entered the food court we were amazed with the size of the food court. We checked each and every food vendors and ordered different food from different vendors. After the pet sewa  we just roamed around Dubai mall. We could see the big aquarium from outside, we enjoyed the view from there. We didn’t get inside thinking that something should be left for the next trip to Dubai. J We saw a stall with traditional wear. We got into the tradinional wear, and they took our pictures. In fact there were people who gave a make up touch for me and Amma. After taking pictures here and there we went near Foutain. We missed the fountain dance. We just took a glance of Dubai mall and off we go to Ibn Batuta mall. From inside Dubai mall there is a passage which connects to Dubai metro station. We started walking from there and we felt that it is an endless journey. The distance was too much. Dhanya came to Dubai station and from there we got into metro to Ibn batuta. Ibn Batuta mall is different from other malls in its construction. It has a tradinional touch here and there. After roaming around the mall we took metro to Union and from there we changed to green line to stadium. We had our lunch from a Salkara restaurant. After that we went to Lulu hyper market and did some daily shopping. From there we took a cab to our apartment.

Day 6: 22nd February 2016

After 2 days of run Amma and Achan was bit tired so we decided to go on our own and asked Amma and Achan to take rest for the day. So me and Rakeu set off to Sahara centre by cab. And from there to stadium and we got into metro green line to Union. And from Union we changed to red line and got down at Mall of emirates. We roamed around mall of emirates. We just roamed around the mall took few snaps. We had our food from Al Farooj restaurant. We came across Ski Dubai, and from outside you can see Penguins and some of the interesting parts. We just watched penguins from outside and kept this too for our next trip. After this we got into Carrefour super market and did some shopping. Once done with shopping off we go to Zabeer park. It was evening time and when we entered itself we saw a gang of people dancing there. We went for a stroll through the park we saw many barbecue areas, and after a while we felt tired too. So we thought of returning back to our apartment.

Day 7: 23^rd February 2016

Today Manoj Uncle, owner of the apartment where we were staying took us to Day to day for shopping. Talking about Manoj Uncle; he is such a nice person who has a helping mentality. Sometimes we feel that he is an angel. J Day to day is at a walkable distance from our apartment. Day to day is a shop which sells items at cheap rate. It is somewhat similar to our Big bazar, might be a little bit lower rate than Big bazar. We walked across the whole shop and bought many items for us and for all relatives back home. After a big shopping we came back home and had our lunch. Afternoon at around 3PM Manoj Uncle took us in his car to Sharjah aquarium and Maritime museum. We took tickets which costs a total of 100 AED for four of us. Manoj Uncle didn’t come inside saying that he visited the place many times. So we went inside and watched the variety of fishes. Inside the museum there was many sailing vessels from different reins of life. A video was playing which demonstrate how to get pearls out of Oyster. There were many shapes and sizes of pearls on the display. After this uncle took us to Gold souk, which is a small mall. Inside that gold souk there was a shop famous for sandwich. We couldn’t resist us when uncle told us about the sandwich and we treat ourselves with those tasty sandwiches. After filling our stomach we went to the Sharjah vegetable market. We were really amazed with the size of the vegetable market. The market was spread across a big hall and we could see vegetables stacked into from one end to the other. We were surprised to see the size and variety of vegetables available in the market. The market was clean and neat unlike our Indian markets. J We bought some juicy dates from here. Then we set off to Corniche. A corniche is a road cut into the edge of a cliff, especially one running along a coast. The view from corniche was breathtaking. We stood there enjoying the view. After that we went for a drive from Sharjah to Ajmer. We saw many restaurants along Ajmer corniche. On the way back we got down at a beach and enjoyed the sea breeze. Finally we set off our journey back to apartment. We felt thankful to Manoj uncle for taking his time out to take us out.

Sharjah Vegetable Market

 Day 8: 24^th February 2016

It’s time to visit another one of the Emirates, yes you guessed it right, Abu Dhabi. We took Abu Dhabi package which costs us 500 AED. We took a cab to Sahara Centre at around 8’o clock in the morning. We met with our tour guide and there were two more foreigner ladies in our cab. They were from Slovenia. We had a chat with them. One of the lady has his brother working in Dubai. And they both were students and they came for a vacation. They also told us that they can stay in Dubai without visa for a certain period. On the way to Abu Dhabi our tour guide explained about each every building. It seems he is a knowledgeable person. He showed us a building from far saying that is coin tower. Once we neared the building we could find why the building was named coin tower. The shape of the building was of a coin. It looks exactly like a coin. The whole building was covered with glass. We passed across the coin tower and we saw many sky scrapers on our way. Our tour guide explained us that for roads and street lights also there is a difference from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. The richness of Abu Dhabi is felt even in the street lights. The number of street lights in a single post is more than that of Dubai street lights. One of the major differences between Abu Dhabi and Dubai is that Dubai has successfully marketed itself, compared to Abu Dhabi, which is why we have heard so little about Abu Dhabi compared to Dubai. Abu Dhabi is richer, and its net income level growth rate is higher than Dubai’s. We took a break at a petrol pump. There was a small mall near the pump. We just roamed around bought few chocolates from one of the super markets there. Our first destination in Abu Dhabi was Grand Mosque. Our tour guide has brought ‘burqa’ with him without wearing this ladies can’t enter this mosque. A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions to cover themselves in public. We wore the burqa and entered the Grand mosque. The carpet in the main prayer hall is considered to be the world's largest carpet made from Iran. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque has seven imported chandeliers from Munich Germany that incorporate millions of Swarovski crystals. The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,000 worshipers. The mosque shows the extravaganza of Abu Dhabi kings. The pillars had a design which resembles to the upper portion of  palm trees. Even the wash room area has its own grandness. There was a fountain from which you can drink water. After Grand mosque we went for a drive through the roads of royal residencies. On both side the roads were royal residency houses. Our guide told us not to take any pictures of it as we were under camera surveillance and we were not supposed to take any pictures of these houses. On the way we had a photo stop at Abu Dhabi corniche. The next destination was heritage village. We went inside the village and could see the heritage shacks of Abu Dhabi, their fire- place to cook dishes,etc. there were many stalls selling traditional dresses and ornaments. Then we saw people walking towards a pathway and we followed them, the view from there was awesome. It was a sea shore and we could see all sky scrapers from there. We took many photos from there. Then we came out of the village and we saw the other side of the road had a lake so we just crossed the road to enjoy the view. We were hungry by this time so we asked the tour guide to stop somewhere to have lunch. He gave us many options and we selected Marina mall as our lunch destination. He gave us 30 minutes time to finish lunch and back so we were in a hurry to finish our lunch and was back on time. We didn’t spent much time inside the mall. We strated off from Marina mall and on the way our guide showed us Emirates palace. The royal family build this palace but once they finished constructing it King didn’t like the palace so he built another palace and the Emirates palace was taken over by a hotel. Emirates palace was our photo stop location. The entrance itself give you a royal feeling. In front of the palace there was a small garden and we took few pics here and there. We went to Dates market from Emirates palace. We didn’t buy anything from here as we already bought dates from Sharjah. We bought litchi from the market. Off we go to Ferrari world. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is an amusement park located on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is the first and only Ferrari-branded theme park. As you all know to cover any amusement park we need a whole day so we didn’t opt to go inside. We just go and visited the Yas mall. There were many engine models and car models on display. I was really excited to see all the cars and posed in front of each and every car. :P. Ferrari world was our last destination in Abu Dhabi trip. After a beautiful and excited trip we were on our way back to apartment. We took pics with our foreigner ladies and bid adieu to both of them.

Abu Dhabi and Jumeirah beach

Day 9: 25^th February 2016

The whole day was dedicated to shopping. Manoj uncle took us to Sharjah markets. There were giant and beautiful chandeliers and many crystal shops. We went inside a crockery shop and the shop had a variety of items. Everything had a royal touch in it. We did some shopping from Max, gift market, city Centre, Carrefour and after that we went back to our apartment. After lunch Dhanya too joined us for shopping we went to Safeer mall. At night we went to Sahara Centre to watch the movie – Action Hero Biju. We were tired after a day full of shopping ;)

Day 10: 26^th February 2016

Morning we did some packing. Afternoon we had our lunch from Safeer mall. And took cabs to Al Mamzar beach. We took tickets which costs 5 AED per person. As it was weekend the park was crowded with people. They were preparing barbecue and kids were enjoying the weekend. We rented beach chairs and enjoyed the beach view. We strolled by sea shore with sea waves kissing our feet. There were few pine trees by beach side and rocks were arranged in beach side. We went near the rocks and sat there for a while enjoying the climate and view. We set off to Dubai mall to watch the fountain show. The Dubai Fountain is the world's largest choreographed fountain system set on the 30-acre manmade Burj Khalifa Lake, at the center of the Downtown Dubai development in Dubai. Every half an hour from 6PM there will be fountain show or you can call it dancing fountain. We watched the fountain show at 7PM and 7:30 PM. Fountain show is one of the best attractions, I would personally suggest you not to miss it on your Dubai trip. The show was awesome. Every time they will play different music. We got to see the dancing fountain for a Korean song and an Arabic song. We expect to watch fountain show for few more songs on our next trip. After that wonderful experience we got inside Dubai mall and had our lunch from there. After a tremendous lunch we returned back to our apartment in a cab.

View from Heritage Village Abu Dhabi

Day 11: 27^th February 2016

It’s always too sad when a vacation is getting over. We couldn’t believe that it’s time to go back home. After such a long vacation and enjoyment we can’t imagine going back to work. :D he he… It’s time to bid bye to Dubai for the time being. With a thought of visiting Dubai in future we bid adieu. Our flight was at 22:15. So morning we went for some more shopping, finished all our packing. And we set off to airport. By 7PM we reached Dubai airport and waved good bye to Dubai.