DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Middle East » United Arab Emirates » Dubai
June 4th 2016

Published: June 6th 2016

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John and Gloria Travels

DUBAI

Atlantis Hotel

Arrhhhh!!! Dubai are we glad to see you, after ten long days at sea, we are finally here. Two days out from Perth the weather finally become lovely and warm around 29-30 every day but quite windy some days. Always tried to do our 10,000 around the deck each day – though quite difficult sometimes with the strong wind. John managed to play table tennis nearly every day and we joined a few people we knew every second day or so for happy hour in the Legends Bar, which was always a bit of fun, a lovely couple from New Plymouth in New Zealand and a character from Caulfield who is a retired real estate agent, she is so much fun…not Jewish funnily enough! Always someone to have a laugh with and the Aussies flock to the legends for the 3-4 happy hour, buy one at full price and second for $1, very popular! Day 6 out of Perth we had our Pirate Drill and all the ammunition came out….water hoses all out and the sonic boom thing…apparently there has been some activity of pirates recently. The food is fantastic but trying so hard to keep it to a minimum though

DUBAI

Public Beaches

we have been to the steakhouse a few times and also the Italian/pizza house which is a nice change. Annie and Doug thinking of you often as we sip our Dubliner of a night..bought a litre of that in our rum runners….so nice! Seen some great shows in the theatre but there is starting to be a bit of coughing so steering clear of some of those now. Have booked a private tour here in Dubai…Assem’s company.. Ocean Air Travel…he was our guide in Egypt three years ago but tourism is so bad in Egypt he has moved to Dubai and opened his own travel company..so glad we kept in touch with him! Given us mates rates which is great as well…just six of us on the tour…so much better than being on a bus with 40 other people!

Dubai Saturday and Sunday – extremely hot 41 degrees, had the best day in Dubai! Started out at 8.30a.m. to do a city tour..most things we have seen before but great to see the growth in Dubai just in three years. We firstly went to Atlantis..the huge hotel at the end of the development of Palm Jumeirah, the estate of

DUBAI

Mosque

apartments and houses in the shape of a palm tree that sits off the coast of Dubai, then onto an art gallery, the museum, the Jumeirah Mosque, the Burj Al Arab, very opulent five star hotel and shaped like a huge sail, an iconic site in Dubai, a walk along the beach near the hotel and then a ride on the old wooden boat, an Abra water taxi, across the Dubai Creek which was a bit of fun and got off near the souk and had a walk around the spice souk and the gold souk before trying to head to the Dubai Mall to get up to the Burj Khalifa…its Saturday and traffic should be light but alas we were stuck for 20 minutes and not going anywhere so our guide suggested we abandon the bus and get the metro train, so walked to the train station near the souks and with a change of lines arrived at the Dubai Mall in no time but quite a long walk through the corridors to the get the entrance to the Burj. What a fabulous view we had from the 124^th floor of the Burj Khalifa …seeing Dubai with a totally

DUBAI

On Dubai Creek water taxi

different perspective, we loved it! By this time it is 3.50p.m., no lunch or drink stop…then to meet our guide in the car park of the Dubai Mall for our desert safari tour….which we think was probably the highlight of our stay in Dubai, Ocean Air Travel totally looked after us and the four wheel driver was excellent!! Brand new 2016 Land Cruiser, wouldn’t want to buy that after they finished with it. He said how did we want the dune bashing, mild, medium or what??? John said go for it …full on!!! We were with four others off the ship and away we went…words cannot describe the exhilaration ….totally amazing…40 minutes of full on dune bashing, sliding sideways down dunes, popping over the top of a peak and flying down the other side…I just giggled it was so much fun!! By the time we got to the camp for the dinner, dancing and show.we had one very badly car sick and another mildly…which was a shame for them. Had a fabulous dinner and show…belly dancing and local male traditional dancing, camel rides and the meal was fantastic, BBQ meats and a great array of salads, pasta and dips and

DUBAI CREEK

Waiting for water taxi

bread. All in all a fabulous time in Dubai, 8.30a.m. arriving back to the ship at 10.45p.m. No time for shopping or browsing shops..which was a very good thing in John’s eyes but at least we saw some sites we hadn’t seen before. Now sailing for Muscat,

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