Dubai

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Up early walking around the decks and we could see the skyline of Dubai in the distance covered in low cloud. The huge skyscapers were seen peaking through the clouds. We got off @10.45am and we were nearly the last, obviously customs were speedy as compared to India. We cleared customs quickly and entered the pier building, there was free wi-fi so we sat and caught up on the things we needed to download/update etc. We eventually ventured outside and found the Hop On Hop Off bus that was to take us to the Dubai Shopping Mall, in order to take another route (green or blue). Many photos later and marvelling at this city we arrived at the huge Dubai Shopping Mall. We then boarded another bus and travelled the red route around the souks and old Dubai. We got off and looked at the historic Dubai Museum which was once a fort and built from coral blocks. Quite an amazing structure. The museum was interesting, albeit a little dark in places. It depicted life in Dubai thousands of years ago and the wildlife that was found there, as well as very preserved artefacts. We then boarded the bus to head to the Gold Souk. I had visions of the Gold Souk being like Queen Vic Market in Melbourne, open and airy, but alas it was individual shops run by Indians, all trying to get you into their shops to do the hard-sell….so disappointing.



We had enough of that and headed back to the bus to continue the journey. Dubai is far too big to get around on your own, so thank goodness for these buses. Craig and I were both feeling very tired and decided that perhaps we were a bit overwhelmed with the amount of things that there were to see, so we decided to head to the world’s biggest mall. All I wanted was a decent coffee. As we walked into the mall there was a gigantic Aquarium with an array of fish and sharks. The shops were all designer and expensive, we walked around for quite a while just having a look. The cruiser’s were forewarned about public displays of affection, so whilst on the bus tour and walking around the mall we decided to not hold hands. There were occasions where we did so and quickly dropped our hands, but then we saw others holding hands so we felt that holding hands must be ok. The floors were quite slippery anyway being highly polished and I thought my Mum would hate these tiles and that was my excuse for holding my husband’s hand, so I didn’t fall over.

There wasn’t a lot of café’s around (not compared to Australian Malls) but we settled on one and ordered a latte – OMG it was wonderful, so good we order another. When the bill came the coffee price converted to $AUS was @ $7.50 per coffee….it was so worth it!

We decided that we had seen enough as to see all that Dubai has to offer needs more than one day. As I said earlier it was overwhelming. Dubai was clouded in a haze and Craig asked the question if the haze was from smog. The answer was it was a sand storm and this is common occurrence when the seasons were changing. As the sun had started to go down on our way back to the ship, it turned nice and cool and it was a very pleasant evening. We arrived back to the ship and freshened up and went to dinner as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We could have seen so much more but knew we would be exhausted and perhaps not take much in, we will have to return to Dubai and spend a few days to appreciate all that is on offer..

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