Chapter One: Dubai

Our Middle East trip.

21 November 2006. Packed and ready to go. Had Matthew come over and talk about what he was expected to do with the dogs. Got picked up about 4.30 and got to Sydney Airport about 5.45. No wait at check in or immigration. We were on Emirates flight 419, didnπt manage to get an exit seat but it was OK, leg room was better than expected and the cushions we took did make it a little more comfortable. Not many people on board and some passengers were able to lie across seats. Penney got two or took two at any rate. The in flight entertainment was good, 500 channels to choose from. We both watched An Inconvenient Truth, scary! I then watched the end of åThank You For Smokingπ. Took about nine hours to get to Bangkok where we stayed on the plane while they fuelled and cleaned it for the next leg to Dubai. Not a good idea. Plane now practically full and we were facing a six-hour flight to Dubai. The total flight lasted about fifteen hours (without counting land content) and we landed about 6.10 on Wednesday morning. The plane was parked well away from the terminal and it was a long bus trip, dropped off the majority of passengers for ongoing flight. Man this is a big terminal, and it is only half built! Got through customs and immigration OK and taken by minibus to the Chelsea Hotel and arrived there about 8.00am.

The Chelsea is quite a small hotel as far as hotels in Dubai are concerned. After a 15-hour flight we were ready for a shower and a change. Not to be. Apparently we could not register until 2.00pm. Not happy. Checked our luggage and went to the Coffee shop. Two cups of caffeine later and still no room. We wandered the lobby until 10 when we got our room. The good news was we had been upgraded to an executive suite. And so we should. A shower and a change and we were off.

We got a taxi from the front of the Hotel and headed for GITEX06 an international IT Exhibition, cost us about 30 Duri each. Saw a stretched Hummer, but couldnπt get a picture. We registered as day visitors and had an iced coffee and a snack, which was a sort of pastry spicy chicken. Went into the exhibition. Lots of stuff, divided into hardware, software, networking as well as Countries. Checked out video cameras as well as talking to Belkin about card readers for iPods.

An exhibit that took my interest was a remotely controlled helicopter fitted with a camera. It could also be fitted with a GPS system and fly a pre-programmed course. Really neat.

\From there we went into town to one of the many Souks (shopping centre). It was very western in appearance and content. We picked up some munchies and some bottled water – as the hotel charged an arm and a leg for their water- and wandered back to the hotel. I say wandered, but it was a battle of attrition. We waited in the line for the taxi for 30 minutes. Just as it was about our turn to get a taxi a woman in a full burka with her tweeny son just looked at the long line, and barged in ahead of us. WELL, Pen was ready to take arms, but thought that being jet lagged, aching feet, Western woman and all was probably the wrong way to go. Some other people in line objected to her, but she blithely ignored us. Far out. To top things off, our cabdriver was also rude in that we couldnπt tell him the address of our hotel in Arabic. We got there, but it left a sour taste for our first day.

We got back to the hotel just before 8pm. I was all set for a drink but Pen had had it. She was in bed by 8 and asleep by 8.01.

Thursday: (Pen writing)

We woke at 4am. Jet lag anyone? After killing some time we readied ourselves for breakfast. It was an early start, as our tour would be picking us up at 7.50. Our breakfast was included as part of our deal, and itπs passable buffet style with fruit, eggs, toast, and assorted hot dishes, the usual hotel fare. It should be noted at this time, that the coffee here is quite good. Excellent in fact.

The tour today was a local half-day tour. This took us to the neighbouring emirate state where we viewed some lovely government buildings, monuments, mosques, an archaeological museum and an historical site of a former palace next to a souk, which was still in its traditional appearance. The haranguing of the shop owners to come in and view their wares is very off-putting. Even after Asia this is different and neither one of us was in the mood for doing battle just yet. From there we ended up at quite a large souk, called the Blue Souk. It was quite a lovely building and it was here that Reg saw the start of the gold jewellery that Dubai is famous for. After some scouting around we found some material that was of excellent quality and purchased enough for Reg to have two shirts made out of it in Thailand. This was part of our original plan when booking the holiday.

We returned to our hotel by early afternoon and almost immediately caught a cab to take us to the Mall of the Emirates. Itπs the second largest mall outside the US. It wasnπt the fact that it was a big mall – although of course, thereπs some interest in that – but that it had a ski resort at one end. Absolutely fantastic. The mall was so big that you couldnπt see the ski part if you entered it from the middle. We stopped for some lunch – at Dairy Queen – memories on my part, I had a turkey sandwich. The big rave for this part of the world is the excellent prices. If you were from the US I think you could go nuts. By the time we converted prices, it was the same as items on sale in Australia. The range is quite sizeable though, and if the sales were on it could be deadly.

After eating we managed to navigate our way to the ski field. It has a 400-metre slope, off the sides of that were toboggan runs, slides and beginner slopes. It was absolutely amazing. Picture Disney does an indoor ski field. They offer classes at all levels, thereπs a mini chair lift, complete gear and it was packed. Poor Reg, he wanted to have a go so much. With his knee the way it is at the moment our big fear was if he did his leg that would seriously screw up Egypt. He told me his concern was how mad Iπd be, and I said I would, but it wouldnπt be half of how made heπd be at himself if he injured his leg. So, with much regret, we watched the field for a while, picked up some odds and ends from Carrefours and wandered back to the hotel.

Carrefours is an international grocery come general goods store along the order of a Super Kmart. I checked out the DVDs. The prices were similar to Australia, so I didnπt pick up any at that time. Tempting, but not so early in the piece. Another item we picked up was some araldite to fix my bag. Iπd brought my smaller hard case, thinking it would stand up to rough handling. Itπs a roller bag, which also makes it easy to move about. Unfortunately it looked as though it had been dropped from a decent height onto its wheels and had cracked the wheel casing. Reg used the araldite to try and fix it enough to last for this trip, and then another bag bites the dust. Weπre not sure if itπll work but as long as it gets us to Egypt, weπll worry about it later it.

When we got back to the hotel, I did have enough energy for a drink or two at the bar. There was live music with a keyboard player and two Asian looking women. Rather well fed women in tiny outfits. We were relaxing and having a cocktail or two when they started to sing. Hotels and specially licensed places are the only locations where you can have alcohol. We should have bought some at the airport on arrival, and will do so once we enter Egypt. We quickly finished our drinks and left for our room. Yeesh, talk about awful singing.

Friday (Penπs writing)

Full day tour – we were going to the East Coast, a part of Dubai that is geographically different to the Dubai side. Now, Iπm saying Dubai, but Iπm actually talking about the UAE or United Arab Emirates. We werenπt really in Dubai, but another emirate state. This trip took us through the mountains, up a 3000m pass, and down to the coastline. You may have heard about the building of some of the islands off the coast of Dubai to provide housing for the famous and the rich. We only saw part of the groundwork, but the plans are absolutely mind-boggling. There are no Bedouin left in the desert anymore. Climate change has eliminated any water that the desert used to have, and the only work is in the city area. The end of an era has occurred. We saw some remnants of old settlements, but they appear as if theyπve been abandoned for some time. It was an interesting trip, the only bad part being the driver missed where we were having lunch and took us an hour out of our way. That conflicted with a fort, and an oasis stop we were to have on the way back. From what I think would have been a half hour stop each, we had 10 – 15 minutes. Hmmmm. Not the tour guideπs fault, but I wasnπt impressed and neither was Reg. We approached Dubai from the East and that provided us with some great shots of sunset, workers villages (so much like South Africa itπs scary) and city skyline.

We were dropped off in town at the cultural village. This is a recreation of traditional home types, original craftwork, dances, etc. I had been here before and I actually recognised the area. I really wanted Reg to see this, as itπs an encapsulation of the area. When we left the village I wanted him to see the creek. What was difficult is where there was once a walkway along the river (Creek) it was lined with cafÈπs and a zillion people.

I was looking for the dhow pier where we could cross the Creek and get to the spice market and the gold souk. Fortunately I found it and paying 50c each rode a traditional boat across the creek. When we arrived, there was a tunnel across the road, but I thought I recognised the area in general. Sure enough, there were the spice markets – narrow alleyways with barrels full of genuine spices grown in the area. When we followed the original roadway farther into the centre of Dubai we found the Old Gold Souk. Hooray! I donπt know what Regπs thoughts were regarding this, but imagine a shopping centre that all it has is gold, some silver, and platinum jewellery. It was impressive. After some time wandering there, we managed to catch a taxi back to the hotel. We tried a different bar, had a couple of drinks and retired to our room. 10pm bedtime which is getting close to usual routine.

Saturday (Penπs writing)

We walked around the block(s) of our hotel this morning as we were going to be picked up mid-afternoon for our Arabian Adventure. This was pretty uneventful initially, as we walked into a shop to have a look. I was hoping it was like a Watsonπs so we could get some cheap souvenirs in case we missed out on anyone. No luck, it was a clothing store and not interesting. We crossed the road to wander down a less major one, rounded the corner and saw Carrefours in the distance. Unkown to us we were about five blocks away from the heritage village. It was just the way the taxis had taken us that we had no idea where we were exactly! What a surprise. We had a big laugh and decided to stop off for lunch at a little cafÈ. We had the cutest little hotdog, about five inches long with some Pom frits (fries) and soft drink. On our way back, Reg bargained for another wheelie bag – end price less than $20. If it only lasts this trip thatπll do as we still didnπt know the status of the blue roller bag wheel. We returned to our hotel to find that the blue bag seems to be holding up its end of the repair job. We left it to its own devices and waited downstairs for our ride.

We were picked up promptly and our car also gathered four other people, two young yuppie couples for our night out. One couple lived in Dubai the other couple was visiting them. They were involved in: the airline business, accounting, or IT. In Dubai there are no taxes so theyπd be doing very well. We drove for about 40 minutes out of the city to a spot in the desert. We waited there for another 20-30 minutes as several other jeeps arrived. When we reached about 50 jeeps of 6 people each, we loaded up and took off for SAND DUNE BASHING!

I had raved about this to Reg when I was in Abu Dhabi four years ago. This was the night. We rode up two storey high dunes and dived over them, surfed around them, over and about. It was GREAT! Reg had a big grin on his face, so he liked it too. We arrived at our Bedouin tent for the evening. Here we had a camel ride – uncomfortable bloody things, but we did it, and met up with some folks from South Africa.

That happens on these trips, you bump into the same groups from place to place. We sat with them and shared tall tales. Very nice. We were then treated to wine, and an Arabian type meal. This was followed up by a belly dancer who was working very hard, but the boys in our group were a bit too stiff to really make fools of themselves. We sat down for a henna tattoo – Reg got a cobra on the inside of his arm, I got two dolphins on my calf. Theyπre still there over a week later but fading fast. The final part of the evening saw us smoking a water pipe (shishka). The flavour was apple and Reg really enjoyed it. We returned to our hotel mid evening after a really enjoyable evening.

The following day was our trip to Cairo and we spent most of the morning packing. From two suitcases we now had three. We could have forced our gear into two, but we didnπt want to put too much strain on the broken blue one. Interestingly enough on our way to the airport it rained! Absolutely poured. First time in a year and we saw it. Far out. Our check in was very smooth and although we were on a smaller plane, the flight was uneventful. It was unfortunate that the cloud cover blocked any chance we might have had of viewing the man made islands.