Dubai... and nearing the finish line

My how time flys. We arrived in Dubai at 5.30am and by this time it had already reached a barmy 38 degrees, we knew at this point we were in for a sweaty few days.................


Nadia and I in traditional dress trying to pull off our best 'emiraty' pose.



We went on a desert safari where the locals treat you to some Dune Bashing. Dune Bashing involves flattening the tyres of your brand new Toyota Landcruiser and then randomly flying up and down the sand dunes as fast as possible. I acknowledge the photograpghy was not great on this one but I challenge you to take a photo when you are being thrown around like a rag doll.

Yes- the desert is as hot as it looks.

Nadia gets some traditional tatooing - Henna painting (ink that lasts about 10 days) apparently its all the rage over there.

Above- If you look hard you can just see Nadia mouthing the words 'hurry up and take the photo, I'm sweating like a bore' maybe not those exact words but something similar.

Camel Riding! Hot tip, if you are at the front make sure you hang on tight as the incline when they sit down is sharp as Nadia and I discovered.

Above- A local with his Falcon. Falconing is a national sport over there. I would be paranoid that my bird would fly away though, no problems for this guy as it is tied to his arm!

Whilst in Dubai we mangaed to catch up with Jeremy (a colleague of Nadia's from EY) and his girlfriend, Rochelle. They took us cruising in their new Wrangler Jeep (mandatory in Dubai-if your not in some form of land crusier/SUV you gain no respect on the roads).

We then went out for some Lebanise cusine and tried some of the local delights.

Above- Jeremy and Rochelle

Puff the Magic Dragon lives in Winton... Nadia samples some of the local 'shesha' aka hubbly bubbly- this one was apple flavoured, but they have many to choose from.

Before

and after.... you would have thought Nadia would have been fine after all those years smoking behind the bike sheds at Central Southland College, but evidently not.

Above- The worlds only 7 star hotel, we stayed there 3 nights- the rooms were nice and the food was good but we thought definately only a 6 star, rather than 7 (yeah right).

Actually this was us with Steve and Johanna Raynor enjoying the bath water that was the beach and looking on in admiration at the Burj Dubai from afar.

We crashed at the Raynors (family friends) for a night and having not seen the crew for at least 5 years it made for a great catch up. They showed us sites including, pointing out the boundaries of the city when they first arrived in Dubai, 6 years ago (which was about one quarter of the city as it is today) and the world's tallest building (with 51 floors still to be built). FYI 20% of the worlds cranes are based in Dubai.

That's it for us now off to the big smoke- London!

Hong Kong aka 'Skyscrapersville'

Hong Kong is an amazing city, they seemed to have crammed a riduculous amount of people in a really small space and yet they get away with it through there organisation and infrastructure. The MTR is brilliantly efficent and the place is so nice and clean. I suppose a near NZ$100 fine for spitting or littering does the trick, maybe we should introduce this to NZ.

We stayed on Hong Kong Island the land you can see immediately behind Nadia in the photo below. Across that short body of water is Kowloon.

Above- After taking one of the steepest trains in the world we arrived at a lookout building which offers 360 degree panaramic views of the city. It is only then that you realise how many skyscrapers there are. Lots of these buildings are not all for businesses, but also residential living for the many people living there.
Every night in Hong Kong at 8pm, there is a laser light show from the top of some of the tallest the buildings within the central city. It is the largest and longest serving light show in the world and were well worth the look.

Above- statue of Bruce Lee from the Parade of Stars on Kowloon.

Nadia managed to catch up with David Beckham (at Madame Tussad's) before we even hit London, unfortunately I couldnt find Posh anywhere.........

Random poses and silly photos a plenty in the Madam Tussauds wax museum. I think Nadia had me take her photo with every single wax sculpture in there (except for the random Asian stars that we hadn't heard of).

Tiger just wasn't getting it, he was picking the wrong line so I gave him the heads up.

Above- The Reunification Monument to signify the signing over from British rule back to the Chinese in 1998. Despite China taking over there seems to be very few changes that have occured in Hong Kong as a result.

On our last night in Hong Kong we were treated to one night of luxury. The crew at Colenso (the advertising agency at Frucor) gave me a leaving present of 1 night at the Harbourside Renaissance on the harbour of Hong Kongs Wanchai District. The corner room had views of the harbour, Kowloon and the pool pictured below.

Housekeeping come in at night to 'turn down' the bed and there were enough goodies in the bathroom to start your own 'body shop' store. All this extrvagance did come at a cost, we just had to enquire as to how much a room like that would set the average punter back and apparently for NZ$640 per night you can stay there too. I'm sure the agency will be pleased to know that I amost certainly would have made some of that money back on the buffet breakfast, where I gorged myself on.

Nadia managed to get poolside and one of the highlights was the pool boys who run around spraying cool mist on your face to keep you refreshed- yes this place was extravagance personified!

Thats all for Hong Kong- next stop Dubai.