Dubai

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Email time has been hard to come by so this blog is a little belated as we are now in London.

We arrived in Dubai on the evening of the 17th and were greeted by temperatures in the high 30's. Our hotel was situated in the "Old Dubai" area of Bur Dubai but still plenty of construction work going on. The city is vast beyond anything I had imagined and it truly is one big building site. The traffic is bumper to bumper 24hrs a day but the taxis are fairly cheap and only charge when they are moving which is not very often.

How much can you see in Dubai in 3 days??? O.K. here goes....

In 40c heat we did a "Big Bus Tour" taking us all around the main sites and attractions of Dubai, we saw the Dubai Museum, the Spice and Gold Souks, went shopping in "City Centre" a large shopping mall, their supermarket had 58 checkouts!!! We also took a walking tour of the markets, an abra (water taxi) crossing of Dubai Creek and a sunset dhow cruise on the river.

Day 2 saw us down the "new" end of town at the Burj Al Arab the iconic 7 star hotel. No admission to this hotel without a booking, we couldn't even access the car park. We went swimming at the nearby public beach and took some photos of the "Burj". A dust haze was in the air caused by winds over the "Empty Quarter" of the Gulf causing greatly reduced visiblity. That night saw us in a 4WD heading out into the desert on a Dune Dinner Safari. We shared our vehicle with 2 guys from Switzerland who were on their way home from New Zealand. After a roller coaster ride over the dunes in a large convoy of cars we stopped at a camel farm, then on to our dinner camp where we drank Arabian coffee, rode camels, smoked sheesa and were adorned with henna tattoos. Grant and Lachlan were both belly dancing stars, dragged onto the stage by an exotic middle eastern lady.

Day 3 we visited the Jumeirah Mosque for a very informative tour and talk about the Islamic faith (shoes off and head scarf on). From here a real contrast in a visit to the indoor ski centre in the Mall of the Emirates. -3c, felt just like home. A spot of shopping at the Mall, 400 or so shops to choose from including an Arabian Souk where I managed to acquire some exotic perfume. On the way home we got the taxi driver to take us to the site of the world's tallest building still under construction...the Burj Dubai, 160 floors and 1 km high, awesome. Planned to visit the Gold Souks again later in the evening but the traffic so congested that the taxi driver refused to go there so instead we headed to the nearby Burjuman Shopping Mall.

Up really early the next day for a 6am pick-up from the hotel to head for the airport. The airport was incredibly crowded even at this very early hour, people of all races and religions, a real melting pot of humanity. A new airport is being built supposed to be 4 times bigger than Heathrow, believe me the place is going to need it at the rate it is growing.

Dubai, a fascinating, busy and hot place that we would be happy to spend more time in.

Stay tuned for news from London.

Bye for now, the Buckleys

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