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After an emotional farewell we arrived in Dubai on Tuesday morning. The flight was fairly pleasant with a smooth take off and landing. Emirates was a real luxury with at least 300 TV channels aboard to keep us occupied and an endless supply of food and drink. The first thing to hit us on arriving was the searing heat. 39 degrees and it was only nine o'clock in the morning! Air conditioning is a godsend and they even have it in their bus stops over here!
Our hotel is situated in Diera, so it is a fair distance from the beaches but still close to a number of great shopping malls. Mandy thought she was in heaven when we visited Diera City Centre mall and her exact words were "I'll never be able to shop at West Quay again!". The malls are seriously huge with every shop imaginable. The beaches are about 20K away, but the taxi journey is very cheap, and the taxis are easy to acquire. We have had one funny experience with a taxi driver already. When we first left our hotel on Tuesday we where approached by a taxi driver offering to take us to the city centre for 40Dhs. We duly took him up on his offer only to discover that on the return journey home cost only 12Dhs with an alternative firm. The original guy had obviously spotted us from a mile off and over charged us…and we gave him a tip!! The beaches are good, extremely clean and the sea resembles a warm bath. It is so relaxing to swim and float around in. The beach also contains its own heli-pads! One thing Highcliffe does not!
Today we have been on a tour of the city. Highlights included the Dubai museum and an Islam arts gallery. We also visited the Burj Al Arab hotel on Jumeriah beach which is the world's tallest and most expensive, famous for the advert which Tiger Woods hits a golf ball from the heli-pad. The Palm Beach Island is close to here and although not yet finished is very impressive and will be fantastic when fully complete. We also visited the most amazing hotel and one we will celebrate in if we ever win the lottery! The driveway to the hotel was lined with golden statues of horses and there is an extravagant water fountain at the entrance to reception. There is a water theme to the hotel with guests ferried to their rooms by boat!
Unfortunately we are not able to upload any photos at the moment but hope to do so in Hong Kong. We would like to thank everyone for their messages. There does not seem to be a feature to reply back individually but we are reading and loving them all and really appreciate them. Keep them coming! Next stop Hong Kong! xx
PS Glyn & Ellie they BBQ hamsters over here!! Ha Ha xx
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