Dubai - May 30 to June 2, 2006
On Our Way At Last..... We left Melbourne on Monday night 29 May and had a really good 14 hour flight to Dubai, arriving just after 5.00 am Tuesday morning. We both agreed that Emirates Airlines were outstanding in their in-flight service especially when we were given an upgrade to business class. Both of us had a great time fiddling with the very com
plicated seat system which included a complete head to toe massage system.
First Impressions.... Our first impression of Dubai was a city with unbelievable development. 14% of the world cranes are in Dubai. The entire city is like a construction site, roads, office buildings, apartment complexes, resorts, airports and even islands are under construction. After three days exploring the city and environs we found it to be a city with a kaleidoscope of contrasts. It is a city which includes the comfort and convenience of the western world together with the unique charm and hospitality of Arabia. The new and the old blend perfectly.
It's Hot...... The weather was very warm, around 38-40 degrees each day. This meant that too long outdoors walking was not the way to go, so we used taxis as our means of transport most of the time.
A Shoppers Paradise...... Dubai is a shoppers paradise so of course we had to check out some of the amazing shopping precincts. Mall of the Emirates was one place. This place is probably 3 times the size of Chadstone Shopping Centre with beautiful shops selling everything imaginable. All the high class world brand names are represented as well as local brands and there is no excuse not to find some piece of clothing that suits your budget.
The most fascinating place
in the Mall of the Emirates is Ski Dubai, a man made ski resort which holds over 6,000 tonnes of snow and is the third largest indoor snow dome in the world. There are 5 different ski runs. One is a 400 metre ski run and there are 4 multi directional slopes with varying slope gradients for both snow boarders and skiers. Chair lifts take you to the top of the ski runs. There are two luge runs, and an area for tobogganing and a play area for snowball fights and just playing around. Everyone is decked out in complete ski gear and even the Muslim women and the men are seen in their national dress wandering around in the snow. Just amazing!
The National Dress..... It was interesting to observe the national dress of the men and the women. The men wear a spotlessly clean and cool white kandoura and it is worn with a head dress known as a ghuttra . The ghuttra is held around the head with a black cord or agal with its original use for tethering the camel’s feet at night time. The local Emirati ladies wear a traditional black silk abaya often 
decorated with beads and the headscarf is called a sheyla. Some of the older women will wear a mask, called a burkha. The main thing that stood out with the women were their beautifully made up dark eyes. Sorry, no photos, as it is considered impolite.
More Shops..... As a contrast to the high class shopping malls we decided to take in some of the local shopping
areas where you are much more likely to strike a bargain. One such area was Karama where there is a wide variety of shops selling everything a money flushed tourist may want to purchase. But a warning to anyone that might venture into this area. If you don’t like touts, then stay away because there are a large number of them trying to secure your business and sell you genuine copies of every high class brand you can imagine. The Dubai Government are clamping down on the copy products and a number of the stores in this area had been closed due to the raids by government agencies.
Our instructions were to get a taxi to the Fish Market end of Karama. A quick visit to the fish market which was spotlessly clean and then a visit to a specific shop called Green Eye where the quality of the genuine copies was higher than many other shops in the area. Next door was a small handbag shop and you could easily walk past this shop if you didn’t receive advice from the expats who live in Dubai. Ask to see their more extensive range and after a short walk and in through a hidden door, you are in this two story display area with an extensive range of high class handbags and wallets. Liz bought a handbag and wallet but she only wished that she was on her way home and not at the start of the trip.
Old Dubai..... We visited the old gold and spice souks in Deira on the north side of the Dubai Creek. Here there are hundreds of jewellery shop
s in the gold souk with prices much more competitive than in the shopping malls for quality jewellery. The shop fronts are amassed with gold jewellery from trinkets, chains, earrings and bracelets as well as rings and solid gold bars.
The spice souk close by is another place to take a wander. The smell of all the different spices including frankincense, ginger, cardamom etc. are all displayed in huge sacks outside and inside the shops. All the shop keepers pester you to purchase their products but as soon as you mention you are from Australia, they stop immediately and start telling you how they have a brother or cousin in Sydney and how they would love to visit.
We walked down to the wharf area on the Dubai creek area to see all the Dhows 
which are very old timber boats being loaded with goods ready to sail to India. 
This was really interesting to see the trade continuing amongst a backdrop of skyscrapers, new hotels and old buildings.
Old Dubai Souk on the Bur Dubai side of the creek had some beautifully restored buildings with an area where shop after shop displayed some of the most exquisite dressmaking materials.
Into The Desert...... The highlight of our stopover in Dubai was the “Sunset Safari in the Desert. We were picked up from our hotel at 4.30 pm and taken out to the desert. Once we left the coast the temperature took a steep climb and at one stage read 48oC on the car outdoor temperature monitor. We certainly noticed this when we got out of the vehicles whilst the drivers let the tyres down. After the short stop we took off for an hour of dune bashing through sand dunes. Forget about Dreamworld and their rollercoaster’s, this was fantastic fun and it was amazing to see what these drivers
could do with the 4 wheel drives. There seemed to be many a time where you were certain the vehicle would roll over only to slide sideways down the dune before they again took off to take on the next dune. After a visit to a camel farm it was on to watch the sunset where we watched the huge ball of the sun sitting on the edge of the desert as it slowly disappeared down on the horizon. We both had a camel ride and then proceeded into the Bedouin Campsite.
The camp site was set up with pillows, carpets and low tables and everyone just relaxed over a glass or two of wine and beer and a BBQ buffet. 
The stage was set up for the belly dancer who danced the night away. Some of the audience were asked to join in the fun of belly dancing. What a belly dancing performance. It is definitely a good exercise to keep fit. In the fun of the night, Liz had a henna tattoo of a butterfly drawn on her upper arm and she was assured that it was not permanent. She is not so sure as it is still quite prominent.