Arrived in Dubai a little late. By the time we got our transfer to the hotel, it was around 0200 before we got to lay our weary heads down to sleep on the horizontal. Up around 0700 and brekky out of the way, we took a shuttle to the MOE (Mall of Emirates). By the time we had deciphered our options, we had lost time and it was around 1130. I was still suffering from a bad headache that I'd had for a couple of days. Lesley is still crook so we didn't do anything too strenuous. We had our desert safari booked to begin at 1500 so we made it back to the hotel in time to freshen up and catch our pickup.
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| Belly Dancer |
On the safari, we were taken about 80km out of town into the desert. The afternoon/evening was an excellent experience. We were part of a convoy of 84 4WD's. We had a Nissan Patrol 5.6 litre V8 - one of only a few in the fleet. Very nice vehicle. There were 6 of us in our vehicle. The driver asked of our taste - do you want me to drive crazy or slow? I replied somewhere in between would be great, secretly hoping that I'd judged his meaning of 'crazy' correctly. Once we appeared comfortable with medium crazy, he amped it up a bit. Still felt safe though. The vehicles are all fitted out with roll cages. On occasions a car would pull out of the convoy so that someone could have a spew. We saw one bogged along the way - great fun!!!
Our final destination in the desert was a camp where we were treated to some traditional food and a BBQ dinner. Not sure what we ate but it went down OK. Also had a short camel ride. Then we had a belly dancing display. She danced for about 30 minutes. I enjoyed this very much.
Around 2100, we departed for home. A great experience was had by all.
The following day we caught the Hop-On Hop-Off bus as our option to get around the city. Simply not enough time to see this place in a day.
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| Burj Khalifa |
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| View to NE from the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa |
I had a ticket booked to go to the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world). The girls took time out in the Dubai Mall while I went up. The Dubai Mall is also the largest shopping mall in the world in area. It makes Chermside look like a corner store with all the brand names you could expect in specialty shops. Not my bag but anyway... The trip up to the 124th floor of the 'Burj' takes 60 seconds and so smooth, you can hardly tell your moving. The view at the top is spectacular. Dubai is covered in a haze limiting visibility - not sure if it is all the time but I expect so.
We then boarded the bus for a whistle stop tour of Dubai with commentary. We ran out of hours to be able to get off anywhere to investigate in detail. That will have to be a job for another day should it come around.
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| Burj Al Arab - 7 star Hotel |
We finished the day with dinner in a small cafe and caught a taxi to the hotel.
Dubai is an impressive place to visit - just exuding opulence. Everything is the biggest and best in the world. It appears they subscribe to the theory that if it's BIG and EXPEN$IVE, let's build it. With no GST or income tax, a lot of their wealth comes from investment.
Early start on Wednesday to pack and transfer to the airport for our 1025 flight. We took off about 45 minutes late and arrived in Brisbane at 0630 on Thursday. The A380 was a little over half full so it was great. People were sprawled out over multiple seats.
