Gab and Paul:Grand tour- Italy: June 2014

27/5,28/5 and 30/5
We have 2 days in Dubai on our way home to Australia, free as part of our Emirates flight.

Sand, sun, and smoke just about says it all for Dubai.

After 4 weeks of travel, we are slowing down a bit and Dubai is an effort and did I mention how hot it is!!! 40 degrees with a nice cool 30 degrees at night.

On our arrival, our room was not ready so cost us for an extra day so we could have a shower. Also a brand new room tax we have to pay and then the charges for anything that moved. So much for a free 2 days.
The first day in Dubai was the day of the first State of Origin, (rugby league game between cane toads and cockroaches, big deal in Australia). A colleague of Paul's had searched Dubai (by internet I presume) to find somewhere in Dubai where we might watch this grand spectacle.
You might remember 2 years ago on our previous trip that we watched the third state of Origin in an Irish pub in Paris completely on our own.

Well when we finally found the Irish pub in Dubai, Fibber McGhee, they did have it on but again we were the only people in the pub actually watching the game. Others were eating, drinking and smoking.
Asides:
-Smoking- popular in Dubai, even worse than in Italy. appear to be no rules about smoking indoors, in restaurants, pubs, shopping centres or anywhere else. We are so spoilt in Australia.
-Taxi drivers- they are everywhere in Dubai as are private taxis hired by hotels with kickbacks and corruption! Anyway our hotel (Hotel Ibis-ie small, no @#$% wifi in the room, only in the lobby which was the world's smelliest of smoke lobby) provided one of those private taxis and gave some instructions on finding the pub which was hard to find as per web site. Our driver had no idea and neither did any of the next 3 taxi drivers he asked for help. We ended up getting there after he got out of the taxi and went looking. Would have been funny if one of us was not so keen to get there at the start of the game and not pay an exorbitant amount of money to a taxi driver with no idea where he was going, then getting stuck in traffic and then navigating around an accident. Very tense 40 minutes but arrived missing only the first 9.07 minutes. Cost us 50 dirrums or something and no one died. So worth it. What a great game!

The Ibis lobby. looks OK but smells of smoke

Lots of people in Fibber McGhee oblivious to the State of Origin game.

That first day we also went to what we thought was the huge shopping centre everyone had told us about, one of us as the other had expressed little interest. Our hotel was very near the Mall of the Emirates which had a ski jump, wow,. looked amazing but otherwise just like any other shopping centre. We thought it was the big one but.....

looks like a French street

Looks nice

This is the ski jump in a snowy wonderland within the shopping centre. Very pretty.

Of course there is a snow man

This is a photo of where we came in to help us find our way out.

more snow.

The following day we went back to the mall thinking there was nothing else to do in the heat of the day and watched a movie 'A Million Ways to Die in the West' with Seth McFarlane. It apparently also died at the box office but we enjoyed it.

That afternoon we did the Arabian Nights thing that one of us had been looking forward to for ever..

Underwhelming like Dubai in general.

The Arabian Nights tour started with a drive to the nearby desert. Then some driving through sand to a talk about falconry with a falcon present and swooping for food. Not that exciting.

where did that falcon go?

This was also meant to be a toilet stop but the toilets were not working. When the hosts were asked multiple times about the toilets they suggested we just use the bushes. That went down well. Not a satisfactory solution to this problem for half the population. We may sue.

We then experienced a highlight of the tour, a 4wheel drive sand dune ride involving about 12 cars going up and down sand dunes and doing wheelies or something like that.

Described as a roller coaster of sand. Unfortunately, our driver went down one dune too fast and hit the rock below with a huge thump. He quickly got out of the car to check the damage to the car and then turned to his 6 passengers to check on our welfare. No major damage other than glasses flying around the car, seat belt burns, a cut lip and general bruising. We still may sue.

After this exciting ride, we stopped to watch the sun set over the desert which was pretty nice. Walking on sand in the desert means lots of sand in your shoes which is not so nice. (Particularly with bad ankles)

And then for food. It was an Arabian feast in the desert in a typical (simulated) Bedouin oasis.

But first a camel ride:

Notice the camels are wearing mouth guards. Due perhaps to the camel flu that is spreading throughout the middle east????The dinner was bountiful and good after which there was belly dancing and viewing of the night sky.

we tried to take photos of the night sky but no stars but at least we got the belly dancer.

While on this tour and in discussions with our fellow travellers, we found out that it was the Dubai Mall that was meant to be wondrous and not to be missed, (not the Mall of the Emirates where we had spent our time). We were leaving early the next day and were in great danger of missing this delight. So after returning to our hotel just before 10pm, we taxied to the Dubai mall, once more through the traffic determined not to miss the dancing fountain show of which we had heard so much though relatively recently but which we were assured was not to be missed.

Amazingly we found it in time to see the 11pm show and it was pretty spectacular. Actually night time was the best time to see it as the lights made it wonderful.

Paul in the Mall.