5 September - Dubai

We landed from Ireland in about 40' heat and boy did we know it.  A car was waiting for us and after clearing customs and security we arrived at our hotel at about 9.00am, very tired as we missed out on an upgrade to business class for the flight over.

Dubai Creek which is salt but not tidal as it flows into the Persian Gulf

Due to the lack of fresh water, Dubai has a huge desalination plant and its growing.

The largest Muslim Temple in Dubai

The government has started moving sand onto a man made island just off the coast to put large buildings on just like the giant man made islands of the Palm.

The arial view of "The Dubai Palm" during construction

The finished islands now with 5-6 and 7 star hotels all round the outer circle and homes on the palm fronds.

Most people, I assume have heard of and seen pictures of the Palm, which is a completely man made group of islands in the shape of a palm tree with a crescent around the top of the islands filled with multi story hotels all between 5 and 7 stars each of the palm fronds have houses built on them each with a water frontage and they sell for about $10M each.

The next project underway at the moment is a similar group of islands called the World.  It is called this for the obvious reason and will have hotels and houses just the same as the Palm.  The buildings will be built on foundations the same as the Palm, huge rocks and sand pumped out of the Arabian Sea.

The government is in the process of making more man made islands to put homes and hotels on them too.  Notice they are designed to look like the world.

One of the hotels on the ring around the palm.

This hotel was not very old and our guide took us into the foyer.  He found out that the cost per night is between $3,000 and $25,000 per night.  

Burj al Arab Hotel.  Note the helicopter pad at the top where a tennis court was marked out and a tennis match was played on it some years ago by Roger Federra and Andre Agassi.

Stuart and I in front of the Burj Kahlifi 

NO! Not too much camel juice -  to get the photo of us in front of the tall structure our guide had to lie down on the footpath to get it in and I caught Dtuart just standing up after getting his own photo.

Burj khalifa is the largest structure in the world

After a quick breakfast and getting into our room we crashed for about 4 hours  to freshen up for our tour out into the desert sand dunes and some 4 wheel driving over the shifting  sand.  Yep! Where do you go when it is 40' in the city??? Out into the dessert in the hot sand dunes, of course. had the front seat and I was terrified.  

The driver assured us that if he rolled the vehicle he would get the sack - but I wanted to know what happened to us. He said of course we would get a refund after we had helped him get the vehicle back on its wheels.

He stopped on top of the dunes so that we could get photos of the sun setting.  

It could have been better but we were a bit late. The colour was good as there had been a heat haze all afternoon.  From there we went to a Bedouin barbecue with entertainment from a belly dancer (who wasn't over weight and was very good) and a man in a dress.  Yes, a bit unusual I know but he was good..

On our way back we were passed by a big black vehicle which our guide said was one of the Royal Family as they are the only ones who drive that type of vehicle.

The United Arab Emirates is made of 7 kingdoms run by sheiks or kings who have absolute rule and they cannot be voted out.  The job passes down from father to son.  Between them they own most of UAE and are very rich.  Unlike a lot of other rich rulers, they look after all people of the country.  There are no taxes, and even the people of Dubai are very well off.  If a foreigner wishes to own a business in the country, they must first be sponsored by a local and pay that local 50% of the business's income for doing nothing more than putting a signature on the contract.

All potable water comes from huge desalination plants and is dearer than fuel which is very cheap.  

The guide said a large percentage of the population has diabetes and other associated problems from the junk food.  95% of all food is bought in and a large percentage of that is processed and junk food.

Dubai has only been an area with population since about 1930 when about 450 Arabs lived on the river at the coast.  Oil was discovered and suddenly it became over the next 60 years the richest country on earth.  The kings at the time realised that the oil would run out one day and so started to make Dubai a tourist destination.  It now gets millions of tourists from all over the world but more importantly, the very rich have bought homes there and built 5-7 star hotels as well.

We went looking for last minute gifts and some fabric for my sister Pat wanted some fabric from Dubai.  I had no idea what sort or how much but understood that she wanted something typically from Dubai.

I told her that I got about 8 mitres of black muslin but she would have to find her own pattern to make a Burka.

Stuart said that would be easy, just buy her about 7 mitres of black muslin and a pattern to make a Burka. 

We did find some nice fabric though and I will give her a choice.  We caught a cab to Dubai Mall which is the biggest in UAE with a huge fish tank 3 stories high with hundreds of fish large and small. (Shark about 2 mitres long).

Our last night in Dubai we were picked up and taken to a large Dow where we had a very nice dinner while the boat cruised the creek being entertained by some dancers and a magician.  Unfortunately I was frowned upon when I asked for a glass of wine and all there was was soft drink and warm juice.  

A Whirling Dirvish who danced in a circle round and round for nearly 20 minutes.  Apparently they put themselves into a sort of trance.

By some women the burka is taken very seriously, or by their husbands, possibly

These 2 couples were on the cruise on Dubai Creek which we went on.  They ate by lifting part of the veil up and out from their face to get a fork under.

None the less it was a good night.

We had found out that we got the upgrade to Business Class for the last leg of our journey which pleased both of us immensely.

To sum it all up, we have had a fabulous time, seen some amazing sights ( ancient ruins, The Canadian Rockies, Grand Canyon, the green of Ireland), done some amazing things, (snowboarding on the Matterhorn, went up the Eiffel Tower, wandered amongst the ancient ruins of Rome) met some wonderful people, (Grant and Gail from New Zealand, Jenny and Stuart from Melbourne to name a few) who will remain good friends.  We have used 8 currencies, stayed in 52 hotels, 2 cruises and a number of short river cruises just s few hours long,  had 19 flights and done things a lot of people only dream of.

Now we are ready to resume our normal lifestyle, as normal as it is travelling round our own beautiful country and seeing our wonderful families who we have missed immensely.