UAE & Oman - A baby moon between skyscrapers & sand dunes
Our baby moon unfolded somewhere between jetlag, sunrise skyscrapers, desert dunes, coral reefs, museums, mosques - and a growing appreciation for slowing down (at least occasionally). Dubai wasted no time easing us in. A brutally early start delivered us straight into the city’s defining rhythm: efficiency, scale, and spectacle. After checking into a Downtown apartment, we wandered around the Dubai Mall area, scouting food and accidentally getting swept along by the post–fountain-show crowd surge - a very Dubai kind of welcome. The next morning began in a way that still makes me question our decision-making: sunrise from the Burj Khalifa. Watching the city slowly wake up from 456 meters above ground was undeniably magical - the desert haze, the quiet, the sense of being suspended between night and day. Worth the 5am alarm? Annoyingly so, yes. Dubai then showed its social side: brunch at Palm Jumeirah, a marina stroll (plus a spontaneous boat ride), and an international surprise birthd...