Indoor ski slopes and Arabian Nights

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We arrived into Dubai and I wasn’t sure if I was hung over or jetlagged! Probably a little of both; I hadn’t slept on the flight and this didn’t help me remember how many wines I’d had. So with my eyes hanging out of my head we took our place at the wrong end of the customs line. For our amusement and with nothing better to do whilst waiting, we let Mykenzie and Edyn wander around. We didn’t let them go too far but they were being very cute interacting with each other and entertaining the crowds. Having let this go on for around 15 minutes and no closer to the front of the queue, we saw a customs official out of the corner of our eye walking towards us. Having watched too many Discovery programs about getting “Banged up Abroad”, all the reasons for his approach ran through my mind: the girls are too loud; the girls are showing too much skin; I’m showing too much skin; someone’s planted drugs on me; they’ve mistaken my brush for a revolver! It never occurred to me that he would be there to help us. Probably being a dad himself he could see us wilting as we waited and politely showed us to the front of the queue. Four stamps later we were in a taxi heading towards the Atlantis.

Apparently the Atlantis at the end of the Palm Jumeriah is quite the splurge but we were in no state to appreciate it. Even though the girls had slept reasonably well on the flight it was still the middle of the night in London so we just weren’t functioning properly. We checked in, walked straight past the priceless sculpture in the lobby up to our room, closed the curtains, put the girls to bed and collapsed onto our wonderful, soft, luxurious, king-size bed and didn’t wake for 2 hours.

When we finally did wake it was almost lunch time so we made a lunch date with Belinda and Simon, our friends who had just moved back to Dubai. They took us to Mall of the Emirates, just one of the many, massive shopping centres in Dubai. This one had an indoor ski slope that we had lunch overlooking. After a great catch up and a wander through this massive mall, we went home with plans for another get-together the next day.

Jas and I had a few happy hour cocktails in one of the many bars at Atlantis and then found another very cool, hip bar on Nasimi beach at the other end of the resort. There was a live DJ and big, comfy bean bag lounges that had our names on them. It was a beautiful night, the lights of Dubai in the background and the sounds of a live DJ playing whilst sipping on a crisp, Sauvignon Blanc. It was a lovely end to our first day in this very unusual city.

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