Dubai - and soon home..

Hard to know where to start - the last couple of days have been full on and now have some catching up to do.

Friday morning we managed to negotiate our way back to Rome airport. The manager at the hotel told us that, if we left before 7.20, the drive would take about 20 minutes, after that it would take between and and one and a half hours! Needless to say, we left early. Rental cars safe returned reelitively unscathed - I think that they just accept that foreign drivers will scrape the right front wheels. Managed to occupy ourselves at the airport, cruising the very exclusive designer duty free stores without purchasing anything.

The flight to Dubai was uneventful with some interesting views along the way. We had middle row seats so had to watch via the airplane cameras, but still quite fascinating. Flying into Dubai you could see the heat haze, a promise of things to come.

We use a local bus to travel to the hotel, thanks to the help of the very kind bus driver. Were already noticing how much cheaper things are compared with Europe. Inspite of the warnings from the Brown’s travel agent, the hotel is just fine - no bedbugs or cockroaches! 

We went exploring in the local area and managed to find a mall, with food and then got conned by a guy, claiming to be a taxi driver, but all ended well when we finally got back to the hotel. There is a cost to access internet at the hotel, but if you purchase items from the cake shop in the lobby, you can get it for free. At 11.00 on Friday night we were sitting in the lobby eating cake, of all things, which was remarkably good.

Yesterday we were up early (average hotel breakfast) and, using the metro, we travelled to the Emirates Mall. The train ride was mostly overland, so was a great way to see some of the sights. Decided to not go up the Burj Kalifah as the haze was so bad that there wouldn’t have been a lot to see. The younger girls shopped rapidly and effectlvely and we had lunch at an amazing food court where it was almost impossible to decide what to eat. 

Back to the hotel to prepare for our desert safari.

The first hour or so of the drive was pretty uninteresting and we were beginning to wonder what we had let ourselves in for. Didn’t need to worry as, once the driver had let down the tyres and we headed into the desert, it was amazing. The girls screamed a lot and the boys told the driver to go faster. We drove in the Sahara Desert, watched a falcon display - that didn’t go according to plan - climbed sand dunes, ate a delicious dinner in a ‘Beduion” camp, watched belly dancing, rode a camel and had a totally awesome last night together.

Back to the hotel and more cake, for free internet. Can’t believe the Browns head home tomorrow and we do soon after.

Fantastic fun

Jumping for joy.... well the camera anyway..

Chorus line for the 'Camel Song'