It wasn’t a late night for Gert, Steve, John or me after our late flight from Athens and early arrival at Dubai. The 4 of us left Liz and Ron in the pub enjoying the atmosphere.
For the next morning we had planned to meet at the pool for a swim about 8am - then have breakfast - then meet in the foyer to catch the shuttle bus to the Mall of the Emirates. John and I woke at 9.35 am - something had gone wrong with the alarm and John, who unlike me, is a morning person (and usually my reliable alarm clock) kept sleeping. Mind you, if it had been left to me to wake up, it would have been much later. We scurried down to breakfast just as the others were getting ready to leave. No-one had made it to the pool.
In the foyer at 10am we found out that the shuttle does pickups at other places. Hence, this makes the trip to the mall about 50 minutes duration. John and I were being picked up at the hotel at 4.30pm to go on our second Arabian Adventure, so we all chose to take the taxi. A wise choice - we were there in 15 minutes.All I can say about Mall of the Emirates is ‘think huge’ and it’s still not going to prepare you for the overwhelming size and grandeur it offers. It is located in what is now deemed ‘New Dubai’. It is 223,000 square metres.
This is the mall that has an operational snowfield in it - Ski Dubai. It is complete with chairlifts and everything else you would expect to find at ski fields. It was ‘pick your jaw up’ time again! It also has a Magic Planet family entertainment area (we didn't get to see it) and a 14 screen cinema complex.We spent a couple of hours wandering around and decided to use the Dubai Metro to catch the train to the Dubai Mall. In hindsight, it would have been more economical to get another taxi but, it was the experience we were after and we weren’t disappointed. 
Their trains are nothing like ours - their train stations are nothing like hours - their train tracks are nothing like ours. It reminded me of (I know I’m showing my age) something you would have seen on the Jetsons TV cartoon show ('Meet George Jetson, his son Elroy, Jane his wife.... I know you have heard enough!). Once you depart the train at the Dubai Mall stop you are then transported the short distance to the mall by bus. You need to purchase a ticket for the bus sector - some of the tickets worked in the machine on the bus - others did not. Our bus driver was not happy about this dilly dallying as those whose tickets didn’t work had to go back and be reissued with new tickets. No doubt, this put the drivers schedule out. We had a very fast trip to the mall. It was necessary to plant your feet firmly and grasp whatever you could on to in a very full bus. It wasn't possibe to fall too far though.
Dubai Mall is on a par with Mall of the Emirates except it’s features are a huge aquarium, an iceskating rink, and the Dubai Fountain, a huge and spectacular ‘lake’ by day that turns into a colourful fountain shooting sprays of water over 150 metres into the air complete with stunning sound, every half hour from 6.30pm - 10pm. The tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, is next to Dubai Mall. The food court had an excellent selection of cuisine from all cultures to choose from. After a couple of hours here - believe me you would need 3 days to check the 1200 stores out - we decided to head to the Karama Markets. This we did by taxi - it was not far from the mall. Unfortunately, John and I were on a tight time schedule as we needed to get back to the hotel for our tour pickup. We only had about 20 minutes to browse in one small section of the markets. They had many buildings - both of us would have liked more time there. John and I caught a taxi back to the hotel to quickly change ready for our Sundowner Dune Dinner Safari, leaving the others to wander around the markets.
We were collected by a four wheel drive from the hotel. Also in the vehicle were an English couple and a young Irish couple on their honeymoon. Before coming to Dubai, they had been in Mauritius. We had about a 45 minute drive out to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, deep in the heart of the desert. It was fascinating to watch the landscape change as we left the main section of Dubai and headed into the desert. This is where the driver let air out of the tyres in readiness for what was to come next.
We were in a convoy of 20 similar vehicles. They all followed a similar path but not identical to the vehicle before. Each driver made sure there was clearance from the vehicle in front before he headed up the steep crests. It really was thrilling to drive over the rolling dunes. From the crests of dunes we watched the sun casting it’s orange glow over the vast expanse of rippling sand around us, as it began to set. We had several short stops - some for photos, one for a drink and one to enjoy the serenity at sunset. These stops allowed the passengers to swap seats so everyone had the opportunity to ride in the front seat - yee haa! - (and the back seat).
Our driver was J - quite a happy chappy at the start. That was until he found a nail in his rear tyre at our last stop before the dinner stop. He went very quiet - and his driving tamed down just a tad for that last section. He hadn’t been driving in a reckless manner before but he certainly was giving us a great ride experience prior to the discovery of the nail. We travelled in total about 20 kilometres over the dunes. Of course during the dinner break J had to not only ‘work the bar’ but also change a tyre. The dinner spot was like a shimmering mirage in the distance with the flickering lights of the ‘Bedu’ tents. We were welcomed with an Arabian style coffee and dates (even though we are not coffee drinkers we gave it a try - it tasted like a cross between weak coffee and herbal tea). 
We all sat on cushions at low tables to enjoy the entertainment - of course, a stunning belly dancer - and the yummy meal. I’m not really sure what was in the meal as it was dark and the lights were low. It all tasted good and there were no repercussions that night or the next day. If you chose (and of course we did) you could have a camel ride.
The ladies were invited to have an intricate henna design painted on their hand, foot or arm (and I did). Also offered was the opportunity to enjoy the aromatic shisha (which we didn’t do). All of this was included in the basic price - mind you it was an expensive tour but well worth it! Drinks were also included. We had the white wine. There were canvasses and sand paintings on sale. 
All in all it was a fantastic experience! I was sorry when it came to an end. We returned to the hotel just shy of 11pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment