OK guys, lets go to Dubai, first we had to pack our cases, clean and stall the caravan and all that took about 3 days, djee what a mess can people create in 4 months!!
After the whole family had brought us to the Airport, cried our eyes out saying goodbye and check in, we drank our last Belgium Beer...
14 Hours to go to Dubai......
Dubai has an old (Deira) and a new part, of course what you always see on the tellie is the new part, like the artificial palm in the water and the very modern shopping centres.
We like to be under the local people so we choose to stay in a hotel in the old part.
Dubai is so bloo.... hot, the streets are empty during the day and life starts approx. 5 o clock in the afternoon. Shops go open and people come out of there houses to do the shopping, go to the Mosque and go for a dinner.
Dubai Creek runs northeast-southwest through the city. The eastern section of the city forms the locality of Deira and is flanked by the emirate of Sharjah in the east and the town of Al Aweer in the south. The Dubai International Airport is located south of Deira, while the Palm Deira is located north of Deira in the Persian Gulf.
I can tell you it was a very strange situation as first of all, we came to Dubai very early in the morning, left our big suitcases at the lockers on the airport and took a taxi, a pink one which meant you had a woman as a chauffeur, and went to the hotel. It didn't take long before our room was ready and after a few hours sleep we went outside to buy some beer and wine for the evening because after investigation of the mini-bar we found only soft drinks.
When we wandered off into the streets at approx. 1 o clock we thus found out that not a sole was to be found and also shops were closed, luckily we suddenly found a supermarket but also again we had to learn that no alcohol was there. OF COURSE, it's a Muslim country so alcohol was banned so they told us. Only some large international hotels had a bar with drinks and so we ended up at our neighbours bar for a beer.
I don't know what they were doing with all these boxes, these boats were very old and didn't seem to sail anymore but they were packed with stuff, most electrical things like refrigerators, dishwashers, TV's etc. all loaded and unloaded by hand.
At night we tried again our luck on the streets to find out how these people live and of course we wanted to go for dinner. Besides a lot of men in white dresses going in or out Mosque there were hardly any women and also in the small restaurants you could only see men sitting there eating.
Just a few shops to see how colourful they are...
Dubai is also known as the City of Gold, because a major part of the economy is based on gold trades.
After surging for a long time, finely a waiter in a restaurant came out and beckoned us to come in, he most probably had seen us passing a few times peeping inside if the situation had changed and maybe some women were inside now.
Our stomach told us to listen to him and to follow. He went through the busy restaurant towards the back where he went up the stairs, through another room were only man were eating and in the back he pointed at some empty seats were we took place. Then he closed a curtain and there we were, sitting behind a curtain with a menu we couldn't read and/or understand.
We just pointed at two numbers and then there came a whole explanation out of his mouth we couldn't understand a word. Noticing our helpless faces he gave us the sign not to worry about a thing and there he went. After approx. 10 minutes he came back with all sorts of dishes on plates, a big round flat bread and salads.
In the mean time, during waiting, we had learnt from the men we could just see through the curtains, how to eat that stuff. I can tell you: IT WAS DELICIOUS.
That's the way we want to explore an other country and culture in stead of going to fancy hotels, Kentucky or Mac.Donald's!!
Back in our room we were satisfied and sat in front of the window, looking at the river with all the lights of the boats, drinking a non-alcohol beer.
Next day, after a terrific breakfast, we went with the metro to the till now, highest tower in the world; Burj Khalifa, 829.8 meter high. Because it is very popular, I already had booked a ticket the last day in the Netherlands.
We had a ticket at 12 o'clock. We took the metro to the tower but that took much longer then we thought so we got there, half running, at 1 minute before 12. Luckily the whole way from the metro to the tower was air conditioned.
The elevator took just a minute, 124 stories!! The view was amazing!!
Somewhere there in the distance in the sea, the Palm is hiding in the pollution so you could hardly see it.
After that we went into the shopping mall situated on the foot of the Tower, what an amazing Mall....
Movie time!!
When we came back in our room to rest a bit later that day, I checked my emails and found one from Emirates that I could check in online for next day. All the months after I booked the flights, I thought that we would fly 10.00 at night but when I was checking in and looked at the time better, counting the hours we would arrive in Melbourne, I suddenly saw to my concern that we had to fly 10 AM!!
So the whole schedule I had made to see Dubai collapsed and the plan we had to visit the Palm in the water next day, fell into the water haha!! Panic??!! just a bit, luckily I saw it in time otherwise we would have missed our plane!!
After all these excitement we finely had some rest in the plane and we could fill up our level of alcohol again.
See ya next time, back in Aussie Country!!
Cheers!
