Dubai Day 3 28 April 2023

A huge day today! Hameed collected us at 8am and whisked us off to Abu Dhabi which is located an hour drive from Dubai. A couple of things that intrigued me on the drive were the complete change in the motorway at the border. There were different road lights and the road was a different colour so you knew that you had left Dubai. And then when I saw a turn off to Saudi Arabia I really knew that I was far from home! Our main destination was Sheik Zayed Mosque. We have passed so many beautiful mosques during our short time here but we had heard that this mosque was a ‘must see’. The whole place was stunning. Taking eleven years to build at a cost of 545 million USD the mosque is visited by people from all over the world and can hold 47,000 people. It took us almost 30 minutes to get inside and there were no queues! I was required to cover up with a head scarf and have arms and legs concealed. There were several security checks and a scan. Once again there was a staff member every 10 or so meters to guide you. When we finally emerged from the underground maze we stopped and looked in awe.

The organisation was impeccable and roped paths guided us without obscuring any of the experience. A point to note is that materials for the build came from all around the world, including New Zealand! Our very own wool was used to make the magnificent hand knitted carpet, which is in the Guinness book of records as the largest carpet in the world.

Hameed drove us around Abu Dhabi explaining the hierarchy of the seven states of UAE. The King’s palace was truely something from a fairytale, and visible from across the water.

We said our goodbyes to Hameed after he delivered us safely back to our hotel. he didn’t have a business card with him, but these are his details if you are ever in Dubai in need of a private tour driver. Hameed - 00971503347548

Three forty five found us waiting at the lobby for our next tour, The Arabian Adventure Night Safari. Our tour guide arrived on time and guided us to his four by four. Please note that I have not introduced him by name. That is because it would be unfair to name him in a public forum when I am about to say some derogatory things about him. What a blithering idiot he was. It was like we were being guided by Mr Bean but of Indian decent. I just can’t tell you how strange he was! Fortunately Lance was in the front so we couldn’t look at each other. We were joined by four ladies from Brazil who were really nice. And the tour was fantastic, apart from Mr Bean. Driving an hour out to the desert had me feeling pretty anxious because his motorway driving was so terrible! In fact when we picked up the Brazilian ladies he drove past the very obvious entrance to the hotel and tried to enter by the exit. This of course can be an easy mistake, except that the whole forecourt was filled with cars facing the opposite direction to us. Around 20 Arabian Adventure Land cruisers gathered at the entrance to the entrance to the desert and the drivers were all busy letting air out of their tyres in readiness for the soft sand.

There were plenty of shrieks and laughter as we traversed the sand hills. It was really great however, I had that little piece of me that kept thinking we are being driven by Mr Bean and does he have any idea what he is doing. It wasn’t only his driving, it was his complete demeanour that helped to install a vacuum of doubt in his ability. At the first photo stop we all jumped out. Walking in the sand was like one of those nightmares where your feet won’t work. It was so powdery and deep that Lance and the elderly Brazilian mama stayed in the car. Walking in this sand would have had Lance’s knee completely buggered! I managed some, in my opinion, great shots before we headed off to the Bedouin camp for dinner and entertainment.

Along the way we passed wild life! I hadn’t expected gazelles and Arabian oryx to be wandering around!

The camp was really well set up. And I do have to give Mr Bean credit here as he took our vehicle to a back entrance so that Lance and Brazilian mama could easily get inside the camp. And then he got them chairs, as everyone else was sitting on cushions. The set up was great, small tables were set around the covered perimeter with Persian rugs layer out on the sand. The staging area in the middle also had Persian rugs and then there were a variety of tourist stalls, the food service and the bar all situated at the end. And best of all the toilets were proper toilets and very clean!

One of my goals was to have a camel ride, and I succeeded! Although I was very worried that I would fall off either on mounting, when the camel got up, when the camel got down or on my dismount. I am not going to tell you that it was easy, because it wasn’t, but I managed to maintain my dignity.

This was not the case when Lance and I went to the tent to dress up for photos. Lance really looked the part, in fact I think the long white shirt and head gear were quite distinguished. Not so for me, and most of my photos will remain forever in the vault! So much so that when the guy was showing us the photos on the screen he asked us to say yes or no as the photos appeared so that he could start to collate our choices. When my photo came up my mind was still in disarray with how disgusting I looked and my mouth hadn’t even begun to move when Lance blurted out “NO”. I tell you, my face looked like a bowling ball in my headdress. Maybe this is why my maker decided that I should not be born to an Islamic family.

The wine provided in our package was not to my liking, but Lance was prepared to suffer with the Amstel light beer. My decision to upgrade my package so that I could have a gin or two proved to be fruitful as it also included a beer upgrade. Lance was a happy chappy when I came back to the table with a Heineken!

The food and entertainment was very good and we had an entertaining evening. We would highly recommend this tour. However we do wish that we had been with our lovely Hameed (or any other tour guide for that matter) and not our Indian Mr Bean.

Dubai Day 2 27 April 2023

Day 2 After finding that Lance was just not going to be able to walk very far at all yesterday we decided to book a private car tour today. This was all done very efficiently by the tour desk at the hotel this morning. We breakfasted in the hotel restaurant and everything was lovely apart from the turkey bacon. We assumed that because we were in an Islamic country they probably don’t have proper bacon, only to find the seperate ‘pork section’ as we left. Our driver, Hameed, was a lovely gent dressed in his long white outfit and head dress. He gave us a run down of all that we could see and not see. His obvious pride in his country was to be admired, even though he and his children could never be citizens of Dubai. His father emigrated from Pakistan in 1963 and Hameed was born in Dubai, as were his five children. Only those with the lineage of United Arab Emirates can be citizens. Our first stop was at Al Seef. This is a new tourist area that has been built along side the river, or creek as they call it, but Al Seef has been built as an authentic village and houses a lovely and market stalls. The place was pretty much deserted as we were there at 10:30am. But I still managed a wee purchase.

Our four hour drive took us through old Dubai, which isn’t very old at all, and an area that is very old but didn’t look old as it was perfectly maintained. In fact everything is perfectly maintained. We have noticed that there is an over abundance of staff everywhere. The road side workers and gardeners come in bunches, the shops have almost more assistants that customers and at the airport there was someone to guide you every few metres. The service almost everywhere is fantastic and everyone is very courteous and attentive. Hameed told us that there is a ministry of happiness in their government. The minister’s responsibility is to harmonise all government plans, programmes and policies to achieve a happier society. Rewards are given for driving safely or working hard. How cool is that! A quick stop at La mer beach allowed me to dip my toes in the Arabian Sea. It was a perfect temperature and the beach was packed with people lounging and swimming. It was the classic resort style beach with umbrellas and loungers.

Tucked in behind the beach were numerous eating places which were closed when we were there, but I imagine it would be humming in the evenings.

Further on there were more beautiful beaches with no cafes or other facilities and they were deserted. Hameed took us to all of the attractions, filling us with information along the way. On the drive out to the Atlantis on the palm he told us that it took them only four years to build the area from scratch. Actually I should say from droplet, because it is all land reclaimed from the sea.

The Museum of the Future has been created in the shape of the ring that is placed through the camels nose and has Arabic writing that says something like, “We might not live for hundreds of years, but the products of our creativity leave a legacy long after we are gone”.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum lives in this magnificent palace. He is happy for people to check out the grounds and is apparently a well respected and clever King. His face and the face of his father are in super size all over the place.

We did pass other palaces of the Ruler’s family, but they were not as visible. Apart from one who has a zoo! And we could see the tops of the cages over the wall. I googled it and it appears that he has big cats like lions, tigers and cheetahs and other exotic animals like orangutans! Hameed dropped us back to our hotel where we rested before heading out for the evening. Lou’ana’s mum Louella lives in Abu Dhabi and some of her friends were joining us for a drink and a bite to eat. Louella had booked us into Neo’s on the 63rd floor of some building. When googling the address before heading out to get a taxi I encountered some confusion. It just kept coming up with The Address! After some bad words and several attempts at google I realised the the building is called The Address! And luckily I had been googling because I picked up that you can’t wear flip flops or shorts and guess who had shorts on! Not me, but Lance wears shorts everywhere summer and winter. The traffic as we got into the city was terrible and we were 20 minutes late and anyone who knows Lance well, knows that he is NEVER late! Leaping out of the taxi at The Address I would like to say that we flew inside, but actually one of us hobbled. Only to find confusion because the elevator didn’t go up to 63. The very obliging and huge security guard showed us to the correct elevator that would take us down and then a short walk along to another elevator to go up. He quipped “it’s like in life, you need to go down before you can go up”. Down took us to the most pristine underground car park that I have ever seen, and into a rather fancy lobby. The woman took our names and sent us up. Louella had done a great job in choosing this place. And we needn’t have worried because they had been also stuck in traffic coming from Abu Dhabi.

We had a lovely evening catching up and meeting her friends. And the view was spectacular!

We left for bed at 9pm (jet lag) and the city was pumping with people of all sorts. I just had to snap this guy directing traffic. High viz goes with anything!

Also I need to mention the call to prayer that is audible via speakers at various times during the day. It is quite lovely, almost mystical.