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We arrived in Dubai at 615 in the morning, lost 2 hours. Plane was very full and we didn't sleep well. We sat next to an 82yo grandmother who had just finished her trip to Holland, she was dutch speaking but her home was Johannesberg in South Africa. Mariska didn't want to eat her dinner so I "had" to have her prawn entree and chicken dinner in addition to my entree and salmon dinner. I might have eaten a bit more than I should especially after Jolanda had fed us before leaving Holland.
The plans landed in some obscure part of the Dubai airport and we had to walk down stairs into buses. we got our first hit of the UAE heat and humidity. We had to stand in the bus for 20 minutes while it drove round and round to get us to the terminal. We got to glimpse the coach they have for first class passengers, everyone had huge white armchairs.
After lots of walking thru the huge Dubai airport terminals, we were finally chauffered to the Sheraton Mall of the Emirates. Impressive skyline of very modern buildings. The 6 lane highways were very quiet because of Ramadan.
It was still early enough for breakfast, we all loved the luxury. Our rooms seemed to be huge after what we got in Paris. Our Paris hotel bedroom would have fitted into the Dubai hotel bathroom.
We found out that the attached Mall of the Emirates opened at 10am and closed at 2am because of Ramadan. None of us were in any mood to shop and went to bed for a few hours.
We finally got up and shopping by 2pm in the Mall. Everything is so huge and also usually expensive. The girls eagerly set about buying appropirate modest clothes for the UAE - Mariska had her green number, Elly had her black number and Cate had her Princess Jasmine number. As a male, I could wear anything I wanted - shorts were appropriate. I felt good with my harem of 3 girls and I made sure they all walked behind me.
At 430pm we were picked up for our Arabian adventure safari. We were driven in a Land cruiser to the deserts outside the city. We were caught in a traffic jam. It was amusing to see the locals drive off the 6 lane highway into the desert terrain in their 4 wheel drives to try and bypass the traffic jam. We finally passed the accident that was causing the jam - some local's S65 AMG Mercedes had a smashed front end - I am so jealous.
Back to our arabian adventure - first we stopped to let all the tyre pressures down so we could drive on the sand. Then we saw a demonstration of falconry. Mariska left us at this time and went in another geenteel Land Cruiser drive around the desert looking at the local Orix and antelopes in the conservation park. The rest of us carried on and we went sand dune bashing - up and down and sideways along the dunes in multiple Land Cruisers all in a line. We stopped for a while to see the magnificent sunset over the desert.
Then it was on to the camp where Mariska was waiting. We had a really good meal and were entertained by a whirling Dervish, henna painting and camel rides. Then it was a night drive thru the desert and back to the hotel.
Too tired to go shopping till 2am. Tomorrow we have high tea at the Bhurj al-Arab. We also learned that the Mall of Dubai Is even bigger than the Mall of the Emirates!!
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