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Published: August 12th 2006
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Skiing Joy style
Skiing Joy style! Well, we arrived in Dubai at about 4am and it was already 38 degrees. We met up with our friends who live here (from Hobart) and chatted about life in Dubai. One strange thing is the water in the hot tap is cold and the cold tap is hot. This is because in summer here, the water tank on the roof warms up so much, they don't actually heat the water. As the hot water cylinder is insulated, it becomes the cold water. Makes sense I guess.
After a nap, we headed to Mall of the Emirates shopping centre to do what everyone does when they arrive in the desert - hit the ski slopes of course! Basically, its a massive indoor ski run the size of 4 football fields. While its minus 2 degrees inside and 45 degrees outside. Anyway, after only one spectacular crash each, we survived about 3 hours of skiing. Then had to go outside the centre for about 10 minutes to defrost.
After skiing, we hit the shops. After spending a ridulous amounts of money on a Rado watch, we spent the rest of the time just browsing!
The next day was "Saturday"
Jetskiing
Jetskiing in Sharjah as their weekend is Thursday/Friday (Friday being the Muslim holy day). Their weekend is changing in a month or so to be Friday/Saturday to fit in better with the rest of the world. Anyway, we headed to Sharjah (the neighbouring Emirate state) to go jetskiing with a friend of Brett's. The water was like a very salty, warm bath. By about 9.30 we were melting in the heat so headed off to shop (again!). Then we headed to the Dubai Country Club to the chilled pool (they cool them here not heat them like in Tassie).
The next day we jumped on a 'London' open-top bus tour of the city. We headed to the beach for a quick dip in the Arabian Gulf. They have one day a week for the muslim women to visit the beach so they can strip down to their bikinis (and apparently the do) and have a dip.
After the beach, we headed south to see the Burj al Arab, well from the public beach anyway. There is very high security so you can't just pop in for a drink or anything. We did try and get in for high-tea in the sky
Burj
A couple of nice hotels!!! lounge but unfortunately it was booked out. We headed next door to the Madinat hotel (equally as stunning as the Burj) for lunch and a wander round the air-conditions souk (markets). Then we jumped back on the bus to head past the masses of construction (1 in 6 cranes in the world are in Dubai and its not hard to believe this when you see the place) to the old town. We wandered around the museum, then went on a Dhow to cruise the Dubai creek. Met an Aussie guy who had snuck into the pool Jumeriah Beach Hotel (next door to the Burj) with his girlfriend. Apparently, if you quote Room 411 you can swim for free!
After a morning of not shopping, I was suffering withdrawal symptoms so we headed to the Gold Souk. Wow, never seen so much gold in one place! Once again, spent too much money on a necklace (not much of the bonus left now!).
Dubai has been fantastic and the place is amazing. Would recommend coming in about 2009 when a vast amount of the construction will be complete, including the world's tallest building - a mere 900m. Wow!
Bye
DubaiConstruction
Crazy Dubai construction for now, hope all is well back in Oz.
Scott and Joy
PS I'm feeling heaps better!
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