Culture shock again?

There is such a thing as 'reverse culture shock', never before had I encountered this term until I faced it head on during my break. I took a trip to the Middle East (well just Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain), where camels roam freely and the landscape consists of many thousands of grains of sand. I felt out of place not wearing the traditional long black burka like all the other women and unlike Hanoi there didn't really seem to be any well; culture.

In years gone by the Middle East was a haven of different foods, traditions and differences to the Western world. Now I fear it may have fallen to the conformity of shopping malls, designer labels and fancy cars (and boy do they drive fast). Their driving makes Hanoi look tame.

I still really enjoyed my trip and here are some pictures I took along the way; I went out in search of mosques...

Yum, olives in chocolate, now that does sound great.

This was actually the ceiling of the shopping centre, but I thought the tiling was spectacular and no one was making an effort to look up!

Well this sign was a little bit of a joke.

Apparently the gold souks used to be out on the streets but now they are mostly all inside. The jewellery was such a radiant yellow shade I couldn't believe it was actually real.