Dubai

When we arrived in Dubai we could see why people pay to fly business or first class.


The ceiling in our plane was dotted with tiny glowing stars, and we were fed OK, but there was very little room and sitting up in pretty much the same place for 13 hours tried us out well. 

As the two Ronnies would be said ... "there was very little sleep for anyone that night."

So we lobbed two 5am, feeling a bit bedraggled, but the airport was easy to navigate around, and the hotel was nice and close -just enough length to get a view of the amazing variety of buildings. Modern skyscrapers stood beside old apartment buildings with washing hanging to dry from balconies, peeling paint, and a myriad of satellite dishes with cables slung to the apartment down the side of the building. And everywhere the air conditioners (we even saw them at outdoor cafe areas - one for every table!) .

Although it was only 6 am they allowed us to check in to our room



We decided to take a walk down to the relatively nearby canal and soaked in the new surroundings as we followed a vague tourist map and the locals in the general direction. Eventually we found the many fishing, tourist and cargo boats. Many men were sitting and chatting together on board, lots of washing drying, and lots of peeling varnish and paint.   The exception was a dozen or so VERY expensive looking yachts (quite Incongruous).

A short boat trip on the canal offered the opportunity learn a little, orientate ourselves and locate the gold and spice souks where we were dropped off to walk again. So many spices on sale! I had never thought of frankincense, cologne, indigo or sulfur as spices. The absence of women was marked and it did feel quite uncomfortable to be watched as I was by the men on the street. Even though I would have loved to explore the shaded, narrow aisles of the spice souk with the goods spilling out of the stores, it was just too intimidating to actually do it.

A speedy (literally) taxi ride back to the hotel and a couple of hours of sleep on our comfortable beds set us up for our afternoon with Hussain the crazy driver. He took us past the extravagant royal palaces (you need one for each wife and sibling). They have laws (and heavy fines) regarding littering in Dubai but clearly no laws regarding attention to driving (even at high speed). The combination of a radio which needed constant attention (including both hands to "dance "or beat time) a pretty Russian girl as a passenger, and a mobile phone that could not be ignored was interesting on the highway or while four wheel driving across the sand dunes.

Surely it will be a lasting memory of the afternoon.

The dunes spread as far as you could see, but this in itself was the other major difference - the sky is so dusty / cloudy that it is difficult to  see anything far away at all, and the overall effect is a pale dusty sky, with impressions of skyscrapers etc in the distance. This extended the sunset which was a very different experience. The sun colored and faded before it sank below the horizon, and the sky itself hardly colored. Compared to some of the absolute beauties I've seen while walking home from work in the last few weeks it was a bit of a fizzer. 


A stop at the camel market and dinner at a special compound where we could eat some local food, smoke a pipe or have henna decorations, and watch an amazing spinning dancer completed our evening. The expected belly dancing display was not a happending thing due to the fact it was Ramadan - which was about to finish!

Once 20 people are on board the boat will cross the canal

our tour guide with his boat

See the buildings fading into the skyline due to dust

The grand palace

our crazy driver Hussain

us

I was interested by the colors and coarseness of the sand

camel market

sand as far as the eye can see

the local vegetation

lots of tourists playing in the sand hills

sunset

sunset

night time entertainment

Now we having arrived in Denmark and today I will tick off another of my long awaited bucket list goals-by running in the Sollerod forest. That will be in the next exciting episode.