After a nap, we headed out in the evening to the Karama Souk to have dinner with family. It’s funny how you know your ‘hood by its old name when you were growing up and don’t know the new name after not having lived in the country for so long.

Me (telling destination to the taxi driver): Karama Shopping Complex
Driver: Where?
Me: Karama Shopping Complex
Driver: you mean the Karama Souk?
Me: Uh, sure …

The ‘ole stomping grounds. Only back then, there were no murals on the walls and the place used to be alive and thriving with people shopping. Only now, it’s a zombie area with stores selling bootleg stuff.

Childhood memories.

Yup, nothing has changed in the past 20 years.

Biryani in a bucket.

For breakfast the next day, we came back to the Souk area to this old haunt that was frequented during my childhood days.

Recipe has not changed in 30+ years and still tastes good.

Shot of a building in need of a paint job but will be torn down and rebuilt in time for the 2020 Expo.

After shopping during the morning and meeting some more family, we headed out for lunch to another familiar joint.

Mutton biryani.

Chicken 65.

Butter masala prawns with gravy for the biryani.

Chicken lollipops.

Fried kingfish.

A trio of lassi, mango lassi and mango milkshake.

After a few hours of hanging around with family, we took Junior to the Dubai Mall for the first fountain show of the evening.

We turned in early as we had to get up early for the long drive to the Jebel Jais mountain in Ras Al Khaimah.

A quick pit stop into a side road to check out some dunes.

Ten minutes down from the pit stop was a truck stop where we had breakfast.

Amazing keema paratha.

Burji.

Paya.

Back on the road towards RAK.

The mountains coming into view a few hours later.

Looks like we are headed in the right direction.

Making our way up the mountain through the winding roads.

Found a shed where we camped for the day. These types of sheds were located at certain points along the road and there were even toilet facilities nearby. The city of RAK really planned out promoting the area as a tourist spot and did an amazing job. We happened to come on a Saturday and there were no crowds to deal with for the entire duration we spent in the mountains.

The end of a zip line adventure. The touristas would be picked up by the cars waiting and taken back to the starting point.

For the ‘gram.

Forbidden … juice?

As with all family outings, lunch was pre-cooked and warmed up on camping stoves.

We left around 3pm for the two-ish hour drive back to Dubai. Some shots along the way with a setting sun.

Thirty minutes out from Dubai, we quickly stopped at a gas station for tea.

Passing by DXB to get to Karama.

Behold … the Dubai Frame. A contentious topic of discussion amongst the locals where if you look one way, you see new Dubai where the wealthy and upper-middle class live and if you look the other way, you see old Dubai where the not-so-middle class live.

Evening traffic.

Here ends the story of our shenanigans in Dubai. With family get togethers dominating our time in Dubai, it leaves us little to do in terms of exploration and it brought up a good point that we need to visit other emirates in the UAE to get the full experience.

With our flight back to YYZ leaving at an ungodly time of 4am, I booked a room at Golden Sands 3 for the 3 of us to camp out at until our 1am pick up.

Next up – Emirates business class DXB to YYZ