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!