Coming from India, Dubai felt pristine. But I much preferred India, it felt so real – dirt, tastes of curry, and a crazy amount of honking. I missed it. Dubai felt like a whole other world. I was on my own this time, leaving my friends back in Gujarat.

I had a layover in a Dubai so decided to extend it by a couple of days to explore.

Let’s just say, you could spend all your time in the mall. There you’ll find the tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa – 828 meters high. Well worth it. Oh and they also had a super cool James Bond exhibit. I secretly wished there were going to be James Bond movies on my flight back. Yeah, didn’t happen but one can wish 😉

I also went to the Yas Marina World Formula 1 Circuit and Ferrari World, Heritage Village, a date shop (of course had to buy chocolate dates) and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. The mosque was by far the most jaw dropping.