Another adventure begins…: Dubai... What a place

Tuesday 10th Aug - Dubai... What a place

We arrived at Dubai airport around 5.00am local time, got our gear and headed straight to the motel. It's already 35 degrees so after a cool drink we dropped off our bags, changed into summer gear and headed out for a walk around the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall (our accommodation is only about 500m from both of these and the room is fantastic!). The shops don't open till 10am and most people don't start arriving until after midday. This mall is 'big' and we spent a long time just wondering around checking things out. There is a huge indoor aquarium, a really 'ritzy' fashion avenue, and for the kids, there is the biggest 'candy' shop I've ever seen - it took up 4 shop spaces! The people in Dubai are the most amazingly friendly and helpful people. We bought our tickets to go the top of the Burj Khalifa tomorrow night as it will be the first night of Ramadan and they are expecting it to be busy (and they are a 1/4 of the price if you pre-buy!).

We caught a taxi (very cheap with our conversion rate) out to the Atlantis Resort on the tip of the Jumeirah Palm Island. We had a good look around the resort before catching the monorail back across the palm. The monorail is up in the air so we got a great view of everything. It's amazing how they built this place out of the sand they dredged from the sea. Another taxi ride and we're off to the ‘Mall of Emirates’ to check out the Indoor Snow Skiing. The ski slopes are fantastic and it looked like great fun, but Geoff knows his limits and decided that a 'leg in plaster' might be too big a handicap for his upcoming races. This activity will have to wait till next time.

We then caught the metro rail back to the hotel. Again the tracks are high up so it's an enjoyable ride. The metro has the cleanest trains I've ever seen, they looked brand new. In fact Dubai is an incredibly clean place with people cleaning constantly. We then had a refreshing shower as it was now in the 40's and we had to get ready for our desert safari...

Saf (our driver) picked us up at the motel and we drove out to a place where the 4WD's meet and let some air out of the tyres ready for the sand dunes. We could tell he was going to give us a good dune experience just by his driving out there and we weren't wrong - it was amazing. Several of the 4WD’s had ‘dings’ and damage on them from previous trips, but we survived and ended up at a camp where we had a camel ride and dined on local foods which were beautiful (looked and tasted a lot like Indian food). No bellydancers as it was Ramadan but that was OK. Also no alcohol - and yes Jen I managed to survive that - but would you??? We got back to the motel at about 10.00pm – stuffed!

The Atlantis on Jumeirah Palm Island

Dune bashing on the safari

Dinner and entertainment at the safari camp

Wednesday 12th Aug - What heat???

Another day in Dubai. We enjoyed a sleep in before heading out to Dubai Creek and the older part of town to check out the Gold and Spice Souks. It is very (very) hot. We caught a taxi to the area and then walked along the creek for a couple of K's looking at the different boats before arriving at the markets. The Spice Souks are in really narrow and cluttered laneways. They sell an amazing range of spices, incense, dried fruits and nuts straight out of open sacks and the aromas were really strong. Did I mention that it was hot...!

I'm not sure which we enjoyed more at the Gold Souks, the gold or the really well air conditioned stores! It took a long time for us to decide not to buy something!!! I’ve never seen so much gold in one place. We then walked back to the water and caught an Abra (small wooden boats) one for 1 dirham (less than 30cents) back across the creek. Rather than pass out, we headed back to the motel for some R&R. When we mentioned to the taxi driver it was hot, he said it was currently 50 degrees outside!

The hotel pool was a perfect place to recover before wandering back to the Burj Khalifa to take the superfast lift up to the observation deck to watch the sunset over the Arabian Gulf. It was amazing looking out over the City, the Desert and the Sand Islands. Part of the observation deck is outside and it really feels strange with the building swaying in the breeze. As the sun sets they bring out water (yep when you’re fasting during daylight hours they don’t eat or drink anything) and dates which were coated in chocolate and stuffed with an almond. Sounds strange but they tasted great!

Once back on the ground we had tea sitting on the waterside watching the amazing Dubai Fountains water show. These were definitely one of the highlights, they are spectacular to say the least. This video of them goes for about 4 minutes or so but it’s worth a look... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6-jgoqC4FQ . We then enjoyed our last wander around the waterfront before heading back to the hotel for another night of luxury. We fly on to Scotland tomorrow.