Dubai Day 3

 

Dubai day 3

Not such an early start today, we were picked up at 8am for the City of Merchants tour, which consisted of a guided tour through the old museum, learning and seeing how Dubai got started as it is today,  across the Creek in a dhow which looked more unsafe than it actually was, the driver sat there steering it with his feet, but a welcome ride on the water with a breeze in our faces (much relief) as the temps were again in the high 30’s.    We wandered around the spice markets enjoying the smells, sights and sounds (the call to prayer is a novelty for us) of this fascinating place.   Then we were onto the Gold markets and oh my, what a sight.  I must admit I was tempted to buy but time was against us (wheewwww) and we  were on our way again.

Later the same day (3.30pm) we were picked up for the sundowner desert  safari, that consisted of another drive to the desert (know it well now).  There were 6 people from our hotel, one couple from Aust and the other from Sth Africa, both lovely couples.   Once we arrived we waited for the other vehicles to come (55 in all) 6 people in every vehicle, they were making some money this evening.  They tried twice to start the evening but a sand storm blew up and we were ordered back to the vehicles smartly BUT which one, we couldn’t see (talk about sand in the sandwiches) we had it in our eyes, ears, hair and mouth and finally found our car.   So it was onto the sand dunes ride, all cars started at the same time and roamed over the dunes   BUT we had a bad start, not long into the ride we were ordered out as we had a flat tyre, so it was all hands on deck to fix whilst all the other cars rolled on by, the sand was still blowing up but we could see the funny side and in no time we were into the ride again, another stop for a photo opportunity to see the sun setting over the dunes, a great sight as we were in the middle of nowhere.  We finally arrived back at the most amazing place to have our dinner on mats in the desert, but now it was dark and the camels were waiting, so over we went to have a ride, all the time assuring John he could climb up no sweat, he did but was in such pain with his hip we had to try and convince the man to let us get down, (quite a to-do) the camel wouldn’t sit down as he hadn’t finished his walk around the block but in the end he did and I nearly fell over his head…oh dear it was a fiasco.  We limped off into the darkness and sat down with a drink to get over it.   The meal was wonderful, the temperature was hot and the belly dancing girl was very good.   Over all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day/evening .

All in all we loved Dubai and felt so safe, it is a very well run Country, they  stand for no nonsense.  There are no Pubs anywhere, so no beggars, no people living on the streets.There is no-one unemployed, if you don’t have a job you have to leave, once you get to retiring age and you can’t live on your savings  and your family can’t support  you, then you must leave.  If you get caught drink/driving your licence is taken away for good.  They don’t talk about the weather because it is always fine and don’t talk about petrol prices because it is so cheap (like 60cents per litre).  A great stopover for sure.

 

 

Dubai

DUBAI   14^th September 2014

 

From Auckland to Dubai via Brisbane was very long and very tiring, but we survived and arrived in Dubai at 5am in time to start the day.

The flight was very good, only a few on board from Auckland BUT when we got to Brisbane it soon filled up with Aussies and a full plane all the way.  We are always pleased to see how good our security system is but they, once again targeted me and frisked me for explosives, body and bag and all very nice about it.  But getting to Australia and having to be whisked away to a back room and the chosen ones body scanned (I missed that) but once again was body scanned for explosives, where would they have come from IF I had decided to blow the plane up hahaaa….

We managed to get a few hours sleep so were able to start our day as soon as we arrived in Dubai, so headed off to the Mall of the Emirates, just to see how big, spacious and opulent it is, even had a ski slope there.  We also came across the biggest supermarket we are ever likely to see, called Carrefour,it went on for as far as the eye could see and sold everything from fruit/veges to tvs/computers.    Dubai is a fascinating place to be sure, with the amazing buildings (we think there is a competition for the architects to see who can come up with the most amazing buildings.) Then there is the desert, the sun and oh the heat.  I don’t think I could ever get used to the intense heat as it hits you when coming out of a building or a car.

In the late afternoon we arrived at the Burj Al Arab (building shaped like a sail) and had the best ‘high tea’ we are ever likely to have.  We were on the 27^th floor of this amazing building and right on the water where we could see the Palm, out to the ocean and the other side was the beach and housing developments.  We then watched the sun setting over the ocean (although a bit hazy) it was certainly a very special thing to do.  The food was simply wonderful, the staff were first class and the setting perfect.

After all that time we fell into bed at 8pm and slept well.