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Dubai

Wednesday November 27th

After a short trip from the airport we arrive at our hotel - the Intercontinental Dubai Festival City. There's not a cloud in the sky and at 7.30 in the morning it is already scorching hot. You can see the heat haze from our bedroom window.

After settling into our rooms and having a long shower we go exploring. First stop the swimming pool. The view is amazing.

Dubai at swimming pool pip and mause.jpg

The mall

Right beside the hotel is the biggest shopping mall we have ever seen. There must be hundreds of shops and restaurants. Everything is bright, shiny and attractive....but there's almost too much to take in. Here's a panoramic view of only a small part of the mall. See if you can spot Mause:

Dubai by night

On our first night in Dubai we had dinner at a lovely restaurant on the terrace. It was a really balmy night and we had great service as we were the only ones there. Here are a few photos. Just click on each one to read the commentary.

Having dinner

The waiter took this one. The restaurant was very fancy and the food delicious.

The library

This beautiful building is the new Dubai library - designed to look like an open book - ie the Koran.

Little train

We thought of the kids as this little train ran around in front of us with its lights on.

This panorama shows what we could see. Our hotel was at a place called Festival City. It was near the airport and about 45 minutes from the main part of Dubai city. We decided we were happy not to be right in the centre of Dubai as it was less crowded and more relaxing. There was still plenty to see and do and we loved our two-bedroomed suite.

Thursday November 29th

Today we see the sights of Dubai on a pre-booked tour. Unfortunately we get off to a shaky start as we think we are being picked up from our hotel at 9am. But no - that's when the bus tour starts from a place in the centre of Dubai - taking about 45 minutes to get there. Nobody told us that bit.

The taxi driver can't find us and when he finally drags us out of breakfast he's very grumpy at being made so late. Luckily we have some entertaining companions on the trip to the bus - they are tourists who live in Holland, but originally come from Turkey and Siria. Luckily we are not too late arriving at the bus and off we go. Here are some photos to show you a little of what it is like.

The first photo is of the Burj Al Arab. This is apparently Dubai's equivalent of the Eiffel Tower and you can see it from almost any vantage point. The building tells the story of Dubai's sea trading history in the shape of a beautiful boat with a sail. It houses a luxury hotel - according to the guide the only hotel in the world that has seven stars.

Burj Al Arab

Another view of the hotel from Sunset Beach.

Sunset Beach

The sand was soft and golden and the sea warm with little fish. Apparently the salty water gives you lots of buoyancy if you want to go for a swim.

The Jumeirah Mosque

This beautiful mosque is open to all denominations and is one of the biggest in Dubai.

Jumeirah Mosqu

The mosque up close.

The museum

We didn't have time to go in, but here's the museum beside the mosque.

Camels at the museum

This mother camel and her baby were outside the museum.

Crossing the river

This is what we saw from the little boat that took us across the creek to the old market.

River selfie

This while we were on the boat. It only took about 5 minutes to cross the creek.

The market

Here's where we waited for our guide. Not very happy because the shop owners were very aggressive with their sales tactics!

Mause at the market

The stall holder tries to talk Mause into buying some Arabic delicacies. But she was too wiley for him and didn't buy any!!

Downtown Dubai

This is a 63 story hotel and residential skyscraper in the Burj Dubai area. It's 302.2 m tall! The mall underneath this building is a temple to the God of commercialism and luxury goods. Quite astonishing really!

The Burj Khalifa

This is the world's tallest structure. It's 828m tall. The other members of the group lined up to go up the super fast lift to the top, but Mause and I opted to go and have lunch.

Lunch

We had a very authentic Arabian meal of bread rolls, humous, kebabs and salad - delicious!

The journey to Atlantis

This was the view from the monorail that took us to Palm Island and the place they call Atlantis.

Hot air balloon

One of the wonders of Atlantis. Seen from the monorail.

The Atlantis Hotel

This is right at the end of the monorail journey and overlooks the Persian Gulf. As Palm Island is entirely man made, there is a huge sea wall in front of the hotel to keep the sea out. You can stay at the hotel from anything from $500 a night upwards. It's linked to the biggest waterpark in Dubai - probably the world.

Crossing the river

This was the view from our boat.

Our impressions of Dubai

Wow! What an amazing, crazy place Dubai is. We were so glad we went on the tour, even though we didn't get back to our hotel until after 8pm. We were amazed by the scale of everything - the height of the buildings, the size of the Dubai shopping mall, the history of the place and the amount the people of Dubai have achieved in such a short time. We learned to much. Here are some fun facts about what we saw:

There are 3.65 million people living in Dubai.

75% of those people are expatriates.

The Arabian people work in government jobs and only work 5 hour days. The government gives them money all through their life and they pay no tax. Not so for the expatriates.

There are 72,500 millionaires in Dubai.

There is a mosque within walking distance around every corner.

Building of skyscrapers goes on through the night, every night. We saw truck convoys of concrete mixers driving to the next shift. The concrete has to be poured at night because otherwise it can crack in the heat.

Water for the emirate comes from huge desalination plants. Recycled water is piped through the soil so the trees and the flower beds look beautiful.

Friday November 29th

Today we fly to Johannesburg on the next leg of the journey. Here's Mausie all ready in the hotel lobby for our taxi driver to take us to the airport.

The flight is a little over 8 hours and we are looked after incredibly well. It's a day-time flight and they give us a delicious lunch of salmon followed by a perfectly cooked piece of steak with creamy potatoes and crispy beans.

When we arrive in Johannesburg Emirates is there with a wheelchair, which helps enormously to traverse the long corridors of the airport and go quickly through the passport gate.

We arrive refreshed and ready for our African safari.

Click the button below to go to the Pilanesberg Game reserve with us:

The Pilanesberg