Tuesday the 28th - My first day in London

We arrived at Heathrow at about 6am local time so it was still dark and it was also covered by a think layer of fog so we didn't see anything till we were nearly on the ground. Didn't take too long through customs, didn't see anyone famous....very dissapointing! We then started our journey on the tube to the Courington abode. I got my first glimpses of London out the windows and then we where mobbed by morning commuters off to work. It was quite squishy but funny how everyone behaves as though they are not on top of one another. Then the rocking of the train had me resting my head on the glass which promptly began to slide down the glass as I dosed off, jerking me awake. So we were happy to arrive at our destination and have our travels over for a while.



Ruth, Lee and Me, Lee was so tired he couldn't even open his eyes for the photo! After making us some tea and me blearily doing some work, Ruth took us for a walk through the park and find somewhere to have lunch. Everything is so green and beautiful in the parks, I love it.



So pretty



Lee thougth it was funny that I wanted a phot of this, but it's so iconic I just had too!



Burj Khalifa

The view from the observation deck on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa, the highest building in the world. Not sure how many floors it has but it is 818mtrs high. The elevator is also the fastest in the world and only took about one and a half minutes to get to the observation area. Looking out of the glass at this height made me a little woosy.

This pic shows the comparison when the skyscraper was still being made -

Dubai Bus Tour

We took a half day bus tour around Dubai on Monday. The companies that offer the service like this and the desert safari are very good and will collect you from just outside your accomodation. They don't expect anyone to have to spend more than a few minutes at a time out in the heat so all of the cars are of a very high quality with well working air conditioning. Our bus tour guide Malek told us that there is no tax on anything in Dubai so cars are very cheap. He said the lowest end car that we would probably see would be a toyota carolla and a brand new one of those would only cost you about $9,000. Apparently the non existance of tax is one the reason there is very little crime in Dubai. Another thing I was impressed with was the cleanliness, all the malls and public spaces are extremly clean everyone works very hard and there were always alot of staff everywhere you go.

Lee and I back seat badies in the tour bus. Seema likes to ride in the front so she stole the tour guides seat and sat next to the driver.

This spice shop was in the Gold Souk district where there are copious shops you can buy beautiful jewellery at a resonable price. The base price of the gold in non negotiable but you can barter over the labour charges. While Seema bought gold Lee and I looked at fooood. These shops smelled amazing and we would have bought some spices if we where allowed to bring it home. Instead we bought some really yummy sweats, we got chocolate coated almond stuffed dates a few types of nougat...soooooo good. I wished we had bought more now.

Spice art.

One of the few mosque's open for tourists though only on certain days and this was not one of them.

Lee with the Burj Al Arab hotel on his shoulders. This is the most expensive hotel in the world with the penthouse going for $47,000 US per night. Rahul told us that the rooms for this hotel are often booked all year round by wealthy Arabs but spend most of the time empty, they just wish to leave their options open I suppose!

Me as close as I shall ever get to staying in the Burj Al Arab

The water looked beautiful but Lee said it felt like bath water. It was blindinly bright on this beach and the sand was burning our feet so we took our pictures then ran back to the bus and it's glorious air conditioning.

The entrance to another fancy hotel where each room is surrounded by water and they provide you with your own manned boat for coming and going.

The massive Atlantis Hotel and the top of palm tree Island, it looks out to endless Arabian gulf.

Dubai is the fastest growing city in the world, 5 years ago most of these building were not there. It is expanding at a massive rate, this is what lots and lots and lots of money can do!

Showing off my henna tattoo, came out rather well I think.

Desert Safari - Part 4 the rest...

 The entrance into the arena or camp not sure how to describe it. There was a few stalls, a food serving area, a bar, Hooker smoking area, a stage and lots of pillows to lounge around on like a bunch of Arabian prince and princessess.

The dancers stage and our dinning tables, it was very comfortable.

The first dancer was a young guy wearing a very pretty pink and green dress that was decorated with lights!!! He basically just spun around and around and around for about 15 minutes. It was very impressive as he also swung things around with arms at the same time. It sounds a little stange and...it was! Picture is not the best.

 My henna tattoo, done by an Arabic lady who no matter how hard I tried I could not coax a smile from her. She was very talented though,  she did this in about 30 seconds. I love it.

Lee found this beetle on top of one of the sand dunes once the sun had gone down.



I was the only one who heard the call for smile and stick your chest out, obviously! The couple behind my head that we shared the table with were also in our 4WD and they were from South Africa, Kim and Yacob. Lovely couple, we had lots of fun.



Desert Safari - Part 3 Camal riding

Me and Seema on our Camel who was apparently named after an Indian movie star. The camel carer though he doesn't look very happy was very nice and also a fello Indian for Seema. As it turns out about 40% of the population in Dubai is Indian so Seema has been speaking Hindi to almost everyone we meet. Only about 7% of the population are Arab nationals.

Lee making friends with the locals.

Lee and Kara she was a lovely young Enlish girl in our group.

I didn't enjoy the camel ride, can you tell!!

It wasn't a long ride but it was great fun.

Desert Safari - Part 2 Sunset



Me, Lee and Seema at Sunset in the Dubai desert. The view was so amazing, the sand was burning hot on our feet and our tummies didnt feel the best after the crazy drive through the dunes but seeing and sharing something so beatiful was very special, I'll never forget it.



Lee about to take off down the dune.



Lee having a Bear Grills moment.



Me on a very warm rock!

Lee is very proud of this shot he took of me.

Desert Safari - Part 1 Dune Bashing

Dune Bashing,  it was a little scary but great fun. There were quite a few groups of cars all doing the same thing so it was like being a part of a modern desert camal train. All the 4WD were white except for ours, it was a black Lexus and our drivers name was....you guessed it Mohamed. 

The view from the front of our car, this was taken while stationary.

We should try to sell this shot to Land Cruiser, does it look like a car add or what!

Lee stolling along gazing at the artwork

The beautiful glass roof of the Souk.

Shopping in Dubai

The very ornate and beautiful Souk Khan Murjan we visited this morning. We arrived at 10am and everything was just slowly opening even though Sunday is the start of their work week here. We sat and Lee had a coffee and I had a lovely pomegrant juice, we soon realised that this was the hoity toity market place as everything was very expensive!

 

Seema, Lee and I in our seats ready for depature at Brisbane International. We looked a dam sight prettier here than when we arrived at Dubai, the contrast would have been comical if I could have summoned the enthusiam to take a photo.



Dubai 26th September 2010

We have landed in Dubai, and phew it's warm even at 2am, it's probably about 35oC and the air is hazy. How amazing to come to a place so different from home. We have only seen the airport and a bit of the city lights in the drive back to Seema's friends Rahul and Dipti's apartment. However just seeing all the men in there robes and the different smell in the air is amazing. We came out of the aiport and were met with a see of dark male faces all looking at us, which made me a feel a little like a movie star or maybe not quite as there were no flash bulbs going off! I really should try and get to sleep now even though I'm not feeling that tired right now. I will update tomorrow with some photo's and more of what we are up too.