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Making a palm tree
This is a ship pumping sand to make one of the palm islands. Dubai
First impression is the shopping that reminds me of Malaysia, come in and have a look, no hassle - but you can’t even walk past without hassle.
2nd flight into Dubai wasn’t the best, we lost our liquids with the 100ml in 1L plastic bag thing, then the footrest didn’t go fully down on the right so left leg was an inch or two lower, and didn’t allow tray table to go down. This normally wouldn’t bother me, only the chair was high and my legs were dangling and could feel DVT growing by the second. Anyway, nice meal and watched Music and Lyrics which was great and then Children of Men which was shit to say the least and played Centipede an old Atari game . Got in bit over ½ hour late, well maybe on time and then stopped in middle of airport and caught bus which was another half hour, then at least half hour through immigration. Anyway, we waited for another ½ hour for transfer and then gave up and caught taxi at about 1.10am so got to hotel about 2am to find out the room wasn’t booked properly. Anyway, best was still to come
Dune Bashing
What can I say - I was impressed! when we got to our room it wasn’t clean and by that I mean filthy! Newspaper was scattered all around, over the floor, chairs, tables, bathroom had all empty bottles and skid marks. Felt germy going to sleep probably in someone else’s linen. Well anyway, finally got to sleep after watching some tv and then got woken up at 6am for room cleaning. Told them to come back later!
Desert Tour - awesome fun! And that is coming from a 4wd’er. This guy went up and down places I would never go and I know that the Landcruiser rollover point is way further than I expected! Had a quick camel ride, again with no pre warning of getting up or down. Sandboarding - was great apart from the walk up the sand dune! Belly dancing show and dinner at Bedouin camp was cool. Passed a Sheik’s Palace with about 2km long fence.
Hop on Hop off Bus Tour - awesome. Clear English speaking guides. In short 205 photos - one day! Got to first stop via Marriott Hotel with world’s longest unsupported footbridge at 73-75m, and had to wait half hour for beach bus connection. On beach bus saw
Emirates Towers built as king and queen, the location they are building world islands, saw Jumeirah Mosque, Burj Al Arab only 7 star hotel with all gold fittings including toilets, Royal Palaces, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina, Ski Dubai but another 150DHS and 2 hours to see inside I skipped, then had to double back and wait which wasted another hour but was dying of thirst from being in sun all day so spent 18dhs on milkshake! Next stop asked for coke but was 9.5dhs. Saw Dubai Museum and Grand Mosque and then got 3 cans coke for 1dhs each! Passed Old Souk and then hopped off again at Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House, now a museum, then past Gold Souk (which holds 500 tonne of gold) and did the Dhow River Cruise. Here is some info… That much building is going on, Dubai alone has 2/3 of the worlds cranes at the moment. The ‘crane’ is Dubai’s national bird They use a lot of glass in their buildings because it is made from sand which is obviously plentiful. Dubai 1.2m people approx, means Du Two Bai Boys being Deira on East and Bur Dubai on West of Creek which
is 10-14km long. Don’t hit/injure a date palm, it will cost you 10,000dhs but a camel will cost you 100,000dhs. 250 million litres of water is desalinated each day (90% of total used) to keep the place green which only has 9 days of rain each year. Ruler is Sheik Mohammed Bin Rasheed Al Maktoum. City is nicknamed Dubai’est, biggest, tallest, longest, widest, everything is first and best. Hotel shaped as Dubai written in Arabic. Can see Palm Jumeirah from space so they call it eighth wonder of the world, they are planning underwater Hotel being built now in Germany I think, worlds tallest building Bur Dubai over 800m’ish, secret at moment but can build another story if someone beats it, it is tallest now while under construction.
Different things - As a city, the audacity, foresight and confidence. No tax though!
Yep back to the room cleaning, not done, 6am, 6pm after call, 8pm after call, not done, nicely done and 8am.
Fruit juices - Burj Al Arab was strawberry and mango juice, pretty pink and orange but real nice was Bur Dubai, Mango juice, chocolate, Avocado juice and strawberry syrup! Avocado juice was awesome - will try
Dubai clock tower
Built 1966 to commemorate oil find! making it when I get home.
Planes flight path goes below and behind Dubai Twin Towers which was unnerving at first - it looks like they are flying straight into it!
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