11th June

Dubai. Very Hot 40c Hazy

Today we were booked on a tour which took us for a short tour on the way to the Palm Jumeirah which is an amazing development on reclaimed land in the shape of a Palm. It is huge and includes the Atlantis Hotel where the top room costs over $7000. After a drive around some part of the estate which has lots of apartments and villas we were taken on a Catamaran sail around it which turned out to be rather boring are very hot. A couple of people on there were quite affected by the heat. Back on our coach we then went to the highlight of the trip afternoon high tea on the 27 floor of the Burj Al Arab which is the sail shaped building which I am sure you have all seen at some time. The hotel is billed as the only 7 star hotel in the world and it has more gold in it than Fort Knox I even took a photo of the vanity in the men’s toilet because in had so much gold around it. Betty says that the afternoon tea was not quite up to the standard of the Windsor in Melbourne but it was still good.

Back on the ship we met Bev & Ian who had been to the top of the Burj Khalifa and went to La Scala Pizzeria for a Pizza. We had previously arranged to go to the Burj Khalifa in the evening to see the Dancing waters at night. We had seen them during the day on a previous trip but they are spectacular at night. We went by taxis. The Dubai Mall which is at the base of the Burj Khalifa is of course the biggest in the world and it is open until Midnight. There were crowds there and they were not all tourists but quite a lot of locals, many ladies in their burkas and the gentlemen in their long white outfits. The water show runs every half hour and when we got there the crowd was 6 deep which made it impossible to see so we stood back for the first show and when it was over got a front row place for the next one. After a cool iced coffee at Starbucks and a stroll around the shopping centre we caught a taxis back to the ship. We are overnighting here. Tomorrow Bev and Ian have an early trip to a dentist to get a filling replaced in Bev’s teeth. She is not looking forward to that. Dubai continues to impress with all the development going on.