Dubai

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April 12th 2012

Published: April 12th 2012

<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">11^th and 12^th April 2012:

We’ve had a ball here in Dubai even though most of it is completely unrecognisable from the city I worked in over 30 years ago. We began our visit with a ship’s tour yesterday and it was a 5-hour look at some of the best sights. We drove out to the Burj Al Arab hotel just to gawp at its fantastic shape and setting. Only guests can even walk in the door and breakfast is the best way of being a guest at <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">just $60. Needless to say we passed on that! We had a walk around the Jumeirah Mosque as it’s one of the best in the city and then we went into the oldest part of town around the Dubai Creek. I remember this as just a muddy, dirty and chaotic water edge with little more than a dirt roadway running alongside it. Now it’s all marble walkways and irrigated parks but it still has the old wooden water taxi’s which we used to cross the creek and go into the souks. The gold souk is just as you imagine it to be: wall to wall gold jewellery. It’s gawp land only as they specialise in serious chunks of gems and heavy loads of gold. There were spectacular wedding jewellery sets which are an Arab speciality but we weren’t good prospects for the gold shops so we walked the short distance to the spice souk. This was much more our style with fascinating mounds of weird looking - and even weirder smelling - leaves, fruits, and things that looked like little stones but can’t have been. We indulged in a bag of wonderfully fresh nuts – creamy cashews, crispy walnuts and very moreish salted, roasted almonds. And if that wasn’t quite enough we found a tiny ice cream shop and could not resist. We ate Ferrero Rocher ice cream which we didn’t even know existed plus date and then camel milk ice cream. The camel milk one was gorgeous; really rich and thick and creamy. I think we should demand new imports for the UK!

But the afternoon opened the door on one of our world adventure highlights and that was our camping trip deep into the Arabian desert. There were just 15 guests going from the ship and we were collected in a troupe of air conditioned Toyota Land Cruisers. We met up with other holiday makers along the way but we were the only ones to be staying overnight. We all went into the desert for the thrill ride of a lifetime. I didn’t know cars could take you down steep slopes like that without rolling over or go sideways down the edges of serious sand dunes and you not die in the process! They let the tires down so they could cope with the terrain and cope they did. 60 mph up steep inclines and then brake at the top where you can only look up at sky and then tip forward to look only into the bottom of a dune. Exhilarating is not a good enough word. It was f…ing amazing!!

Once at the desert camp we had the chance to try all sorts of things: camel riding, holding a falcon, smoking a water pipe (which, after 12 years of puffing nothing, neither of us dared try!). We drank wonderfully aromatic Arabian coffee and ate fresh dates and I got a henna tattoo on my hand and we had a fantastic barbecue dinner and then had a show of whirling dervish dancing and a fabulous belly dancer. Then everyone else left and just the 15 Cunarders stayed behind. Richard got some amazing night photographs over the desert and we camped in some very basic tents but it was hot and the camp felt safe and it was like being school kids again. Only this time there were no teachers! Everyone woke early this morning for filming the sunrise and having breakfast cooked for us before the heat of the day built up. It is easily the best holiday outing either of us has ever had. Absolutely brilliant.

The rest of today we spent on a bus tour of the city so managed to get out to the Dubai Palm island and got to see this impressive lump of reclaimed land topped with the amazing Atlantic Hotel. We also got to see the Burj Khalifa which is currently the world’s tallest building. It’s almost the height of 2 Empire State buildings and is quite a sight. We didn’t climb up it though – the tickets cost nearly £200 and that’s a lot of money for a ride in a lift!

It’s been unbelievably hot here in Dubai and so we’re almost looking forward to cooler weather in Oman tomorrow. They are forecasting a high of just 88º which may manage to feel chilly!

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