Dubai - friendly, progressive and with more sunshine ... (advertising billboard)

Friendly, progressive and defintely more sunshine here in Dubai. Another great day of desert adventures and amazing sights. Today, after wasting most of the morning waiting for Lonni's jewellery delivery that turned out to be in white gold instead of yellow (so got sent back to be delivered correctly tonight), we took the blue line bus around Jumeirah - a tour of the construction zone. Here's some more Dubai fast facts:

• 25% of the world's cranes are in Dubai
  
• It's the second largest construction activity in the world (Moscow beats it - but Dubai only has 1.4 million people for goodness sake!)


• Construction goes on in shifts 24 hours a day
  
• They can build a full floor in 4 days


• Never use your indicator to change lanes - just wander where you will....


• Dubailand is under construction - bigger than any Disneyland in the world


• An expat can never be granted citizenship, only a lifetime residency
• Petrol is cheaper than water - the equivalent of around 35 cents per litre


• And there's heaps more but I'm too tired to remember (and I still have to pack and we have a really early start in the morning (ready in the lobby by 7.15 am) with an 8 hour flight to Johannasburg)

Tonight we went on our desert safari - great fun dune "bashing", saw a camel farm and had dinner under the stars. Lonni rode a camel in the Dubai desert too!

That's all for tonight folks - a big day tomorrow and it's midnight already. Lonni's already in bed and I still have to pack and have a shower.

TOMORROW - 8 hours in the air, but who's counting?.

The big red bus goes round and round... Dubai Day 2

Here it is - the big red bus - and indeed it does go round and round. Your ticket is valid for 48 hours and you can get on and off whenever you like as the "red line" bus makes 12 stops around Deira and some of Dubai's many malls and souks (including the gold souk), and the "blue line" bus does a tour of Jamireh - the new Dubai that's home to "the Palm" and the Burj Al Arab - the world's most luxurious hotel.

We hopped on and off a few times today, including a stop at the Dubai Museum which is quite fascinating (and air-conditioned) and decided that we would go back to the gold souk tonight. Siesta time (when the souk closes) is 2.30 to 4.30 pm, but the shops then remain open until 10.00 pm. We figure it will take us at least that long to see even a tiny fraction of what's on offer. There must be thousands of shops, not hundreds, and each stuffed full of gorgeous golden items. We'll take a hotel car back this evening and maybe get them to collect us - the hour's wait at City Centre for a taxi yesterday almost did it for us with taxis. 18K gold is around 75 dirhams a gram (a shade over $20) and that's before you bargain! Guess the credit card is in for a little work tonight.

Driving round Dubai is a hot and congested experience (the bus guide says that the evening peak hour is from 2.00 - 10.00 pm, and the morning peak hour from 7.00 am to 2.00 pm), but not quite as hot as walking it. We got off at the stop nearest our hotel (Lonni says a klick away but I reckon a bit more than that) and I wouldn't recommend that anyone walk that in 43 degree heat in the middle of the day when they are as unfit as I am! I thought I would expire but Lonni told me she would be traumatised for life if she had to give me mouth-to-mouth so I struggled on until the hotel, but I tell you it was touch and go! Lon reckons it feels like 33 degrees, I reckon it feels like 53 degrees!!

Dubai is building a rail system for the city - 25.5 billion dirhams - which will be the longest continuous driverless system in the world. They are setting a few records in this fast-growing city, where rumour has it that the oil will run out in 2010 (according to the bus driver). Here's a few fast facts:

• just over 4000 sq km
  
  



• 1.4 million people





• 20% only are Emeratis, the rest are ex-pats from over 200 countries





• 75% of the population are men and 25% women





• the crime rate is less than 2% (it feels really safe although we do get male stares a bit) - all the dhows are unloaded onto the walway beside the road and there are no security guards or anything to stop anyone walking away with the goods - they can be left there for days, quite safe
  
  
  

We heard the muezzin call for the first time today - the midday call happened while we were at the museum. There are a lot of mosques as you might expect but not all are as obvious as you might think either. This one is a hidden mosque, set in a courtyard - a Shi'ih mosque beautifully decorated with blue tiles.

More later - after the Gold Souk...

And here she is - gold and diamond girl!

You can't possibly come to Dubai go to the gold souk and then NOT BUY GOLD, diamonds was my little optional extra. Don't fret Micheal I can explain...

The longer I stay and the more I see makes me realise everything in Dubai is like a competition with everything being the (insert adjective here eg. biggest longest fastest) in the world, which is ok except I'm in the wrong career I need to be an engineer or even a brickie! (I think there professions where its ok not to care and over here make bucket loads).

The gold souk was good, the spice souk was overwhelming with smells - not all of them good and some combinations were just plain gross - and the people, I've finally seen a good looking native -I can totally understand why there are only 25% women here!

Suffice to say experience experience experience not all good -mum threatening to die when I was simply having a pleasent stroll in the afternoon sunshine - but not all bad - all service with a smile.

Hope all is well in everyday Australia, missing everyone heaps, say hi to the dog for me xox

Time for bed folks - we've done lots of walking - the souk was BIG and so much to see - really too much for you ever to think you've had a good look at even a fraction of it. We made a few small purchases at bargain prices and had some interesting conversations with shopkeepers. Couldn't wait for a shower however, 8.30 pm and the perspiration is still poring when you're outside. Don't think I'll have time to upload the photos tonight - it's a slow process -but have added one of my favourites from the day.

TOMORROW - more on the buses and a desert safari experience....

"Dubai is not a fantasy - it's a desert dream" (seen on the side of a car)

Well, the luggage was a miracle, 20.2 and 20.4 kgs, with hand luggage just scraping under the 7kg mark for each of us as well. (Only because I packed some things for mum in MY luggage, what can I say we all know the woman is hopeless) Then it was all aboard the Emirates 777 bound first for Singapore (about an hour's sleep each) and an hour's stopover, and onwards to Dubai - almost another 7 hours and about the same amount of sleep. Emirates has a forward camera on their aircraft (and a downward camera) so you can watch the landings/take offs in graphic detail - not necessarily such a great idea when the landing goes a bit wobbly like it did in Singapore!

Dubai is 6 hours behind Brisbane/Melbourne, so we arrived as dawn was breaking around 5.40 am. Surprisingly Dubai was covered in smoke/dust/smog with limited visibility, reminding me of China initially. The walk from the arrival gate to exit was at least 4 miles :-) and Lonni is insisting that we can only take stairs from here on in! The formalities were brief and painless, all the luggage arrived with us and the tour company met us as arranged.

When we left the terminal the heat hit us like a solid wall, and not only the heat but extremely high humidity. The camera kept fogging up so much I couldn't even get any pics at all for a while. The overnight temperature was 31C and today is a mere 41 degrees, humidity having now dropped away. And as the day has gone on the smoggy cover has mostly burnt off, just like our driver said it would.

Our room wasn't ready when we arrived but the hotel is well set up for early guests with breakfast immediately available (seated beside a wall of glass overlooking the creek with an amazing buffet and I swear a staff person per guest!) and complimentary use of the health club and the pool, including showers with all condiments supplied and towels, robes etc. plus a locker in which to put your valuables temporarily.

Our first order after breakfast was then to get clean and then to get cool - the pool of course - then a soothing massage each. Morning tea in the lobby cafe and then our room was ready and handed over at about 10.45 am even though checkin is not until 3.00 pm. I can't recommend the hotel - the Sheraton Creekside Towers - highly enough. It is quite beautiful and the staff are all so incredibly friendly and helpful. The man looking after the health club happens to be Ethiopian, he's already lined me up a meeting with his wife, a room and meals at his mother's in Addis and his little brother to look after me whenever I need it.

Visited the bank next door and withdrew some dirhams from the ATM and now Lonni is sleeping for a little while. Once she's up it will be lunch and into town to start seeing the sights and start the shopping. City Centre Mall here we come.

My first

impressions? Delightfully friendly people, amazing architecture, luxury cars everywhere and hot, hot hot. - Lyndall

Hot, hot, hot I feel does not describe the weather to my satisfaction. "It is hot, damn hot, real hot and wet which is ok when you're with a woman but no good when your on holiday, gonna try a little crotch pot cooking" or something like that. (A little tribute to Good Morning Vietnam)

What can I say (mum seems to have covered it all already) but as Micheal would say its not complete until I've had something to whinge about and well here goes. The flight was looooooooong and VERY uncomfortable, even with mum's squishy shoulder to lean on, and then finally came out of the airport only to step into the thick mist of a balmy thirty three degrees and its only 0530 in the morning! Dad, eat your heart out.

Enough of the whinge; the rest has been good, the people here are so lovely, ma'am this ma'am that, good morning here, good evening there, I feel slightly out of place with my, g'day ow ya goin'. Would have been helpful had someone told me, like, Lahni for instance (yes surely by now you would think I would have realised but no I have not) just how hopeless mother really is. Left the room, leaving the door key INSIDE, thank god someone's organised and I still had MY key, set out for the mall - tell mum to leave her phone in the room but no she needs to bring it along so she can leave it behind in the cab, along with her $800.00 camera! Thank god for honest citizens. Call the phone - cabby answers and is on his way to drop them off personally, not quite as painless as that but you get the shortened version. Why? because I finally get to go to one of my favourite places on holiday - or not - BED. Until next time - Lonni

PS from Lyndall - You can see the day's images from the safely recovered point and shoot (now if I'd had my real camera with me it never would have happened!) at http://lyndall.smugmug.com

TOMORROW - the big red bus goes round and round...

The night before take off

Well I'm getting excited, even if Lonni tells me it hasn't really sunk in yet that tomorrow night we wing off to Dubai via Singapore.

Have completed all the chores except the most important one - getting the luggage below 20 kgs!  Hopefully after a good night's sleep at Linc and Lucy's I'll be able to see it all so much more clearly and discard the extra pair of shoes and a shirt or two and manage to make it happen.  Ley and Amanda have been over tonight and Lucy has cooked us a great dinner.

We're all having lunch together tomorrow and then to see Lonni and me off to the airport - Micheal will be down as well, but I think that Wrex is being left at home - probably too emotional for her - she will miss her mum.