We met at the airport at about 10:30am and checked in with no hassle at all. We headed up towards the dreaded departure gates. I gave Gary's parents Ivy and KT a hug and said my goodbyes (and Gary vice versa), before the floods of tears came as I had to say bye to my mam and Mandy :( lots of tears, hugs and I love yous later we managed to tear away to security.

In departure we headed straight to the Eagles bar for some whisky and breakie before our gate was announced. Our flight from Newcastle to Dubai left at 13.20. Emirates flight was really good nice food and seats, entertainment was good even had pocahontas yay!!! We arrived a little late to Dubai due to air traffic so flight was 7 and half hours in total.

My first impressions of Dubai airport was massive!!! Its so big and even at 1am in the morning it was so busy, after walking for what seemed miles we hit 8 huge queues of people all different nationalities waiting to get through customs......it took us an hour to get through much to Gary's amusement!! After that we had security again where we nearly had a bit of kerfaffle, Gary was getting accused of having a laser pen which he clearly didn't have but phew they didn't spill out his bag. We were starving at this point, although Emirates was good, they didn't offer us any snacks after our meals which was within the first 2-3 hours of the flight and so with time difference we were hungry!! Burger King hurray! So we scoffed our faces before getting into a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at the Ibis hotel in Al Rigga, all seemed very nice but to be honest after the flight and our food we hit the pillows pretty quick for some zzzzz time.

First morning we didn't leave our bed until 11am Dubai time as with the 4 hour time difference that was still pretty early for us. We unpacked some things and set out of our room to explore the hotel and our street, Al Rigga road. The hotel is nice, friendly staff, free internet and gym, spacious reception to chill in happy days. The area we are staying is good too, there are a lot of fast food joints and restaurants, a fair amount of pharmacies, supermarkets and hair salons. Strange through the salons are full of men workers no women at all!!

Within a mile radius there is a McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and plenty of take-away kebab places ideal for Gary!! He thought he had died and gone to heaven! We walked up one side of the street and found our nearest metro station and then walked back down the other side of the street popping into a supermarket for some water and banana's for our hotel room.

The weather was pretty mild to what I was expecting, still warm but not like you are walking into an oven, the sun wasn't out which helped and very low humidity. We did manage to find a Baskin Robins where we enjoyed a lovely ice cream while we were walking yum yum. Couple of hours later we were back at the hotel checking out the free gym, such a cute little gym it was great through we managed a canny little workout :) Very sweaty after, we showered and got dressed for our trip 'The Desert Safari'.

We were picked up at 4pm and guided to a white 4 by 4 truck. Inside there were already 4 other young Arab guys all very friendly, eager and ready to go! It took us nearly an hour (with a stop for petrol and snacks) to get to the desert. We parked up with about 8 other trucks with people doing the same trip and all the drivers hopped out the trucks to lower the air pressure on their tyres! Then the real journey began, in a convoy of trucks we set out into the desert, racing up and down the dunes in a crazy manner sliding down slopes getting thrown around inside the truck, laughing and shouting as we fly over bumps!!

It soon became apparent that the 4 young Arabs we were with were all slightly crazy and the driver needed little encouragement to hit the desert even harder as we blasted Michael Jackson tunes out, eeeeee we had an amazing time. After first half hour of this all the trucks stopped in a line so all the tourists could get out for photos opps and to have fun in sand, we rolled, ran and made sand angels in the desert, taking photos as we went. Although, with being in a Islamic country I was well informed by many friends and family to behave while in Dubai, no holding hands or kissing in public. Cover up the body, no boobies, arms, or thighs on show. I was all set and planned my outfit, a sensible dress with scarf as a wrap. I was doing a very good job keeping covered up and saying away from Gary.

What I didn't account was the wind showing more than my knees, was like a Marilyn Monroe moment repeatedly!!! So while I am trying to do all the right these especially with travelling on trip with 5 Islamic men I ended up not only showing odd glimpses of my legs but showing my whole bloody body, including my bridget jones style knickers about a hundred times!

While I was using my scarf to try hide my boobs and arms my dress lifts completely, so I then tried to use the scarf to tie down my dress then my arms are out and chest is showing. I really couldnt win so I do apologise to all the peeps, I did try my best but the bloody weather had other ideas!! How embarrassing!! Even getting into the truck was a nightmare because I was sitting in the back and had to get in first. So with Gary and 2 other Arabs behind me, I crawled into the back trying to hold my dress down as for sure the wind would blow right on cue. Regardless of that stress and fun we managed to have some fun in the sand and take a bunch of photos.

We continued driving along the desert the driver getting more ambitious with our encouragement for more craziness. Later we arrived at a camp-site where we joined many others on the same trip. Gary and me played on some quad bikes on the desert....................SO MUCH FUN!!Then we joined our Arab friends at a very low table with cushions to sit on the floor surrounding a dance floor where we would be later be entertained by performers.

We chilled at the camp site for a couple of hours enjoying the company of each other, free Persian BBQ food and drinks, tea, shisha's, traditional dance performance and then a flirtatious belly dancer, the night was amazing. Felt very authentic and great to be sitting in a camp-site surrounded by all kinds of people under the stars in the middle of a desert in Dubai. The night continued to get better, after our journey back to the hotel hugely entertained by our Arab friends, we quickly changed and headed out in a taxi to the 360 bar my brother and sister Paul and Mandy recommended.

Oh my god what a beautiful sight! The taxi pulled up at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and we walked down the side into a gorgeous beach resort with yachts like I've never seen other than in movies with the rich and famous. As we walked along, the Burj Al Arab hotel was becoming clearer, we walked along a pier following the sound of music pumping, the Burj looked amazing such an architectural beauty. We walked until we reached the end and bouncers stood outside this circular building, the 360. We climbed up the stairs and we were amazed this was a bar a 360 view of Dubai on the end of a pier!!! We bought cocktails (we'll not mention the prices!!) and admired the views. Best bar award for sure!! While dancing away we met an english lady who has been living in Dubai for 20 years....she recommended going to bar called Barista after the 360, another amazing bar. An hour or so later we left 360 and headed towards the entrance and hopped in a taxi to this Barista Bar. A very busy place, this bar had its own pool, 2 massive storeys and wait for it..........private beach area. So yea, while sipping away at frozen cocktails we were dancing on the beach, tipping our toes in the sea and enjoying the lounges and hammocks set out on the beach under the stars, with a backdrop of some of Dubai skyscrapers behind us!!!! Wow!! We didn't arrive back to our hotel room until around 2am.

Next day we handed to Atlantis!! After a long journey on the metro to Mall of the Emirates and then jumped in taxi to Atlantis Hotel, and wow what a hotel! We bought tickets for the aquaventure waterpark and enjoyed the day in the sunshine playing on water slides and checking out the beach (where we fell asleep and I turned into a nice tomato shade). The rides there are awesome but 2 are worth mentioning, one where you are travel on rings and go through an aquarium tank full of fish, rays and sharks so cool. The other ride is like a vertical drop straight down.....oh my god such fun although the hour standing in a queue was not!!. By the end of the day we were shattered after behaving like big kids we handed out for a taxi....2 hours later we made it back to our room. It took an hour queueing at Atlantis for a taxi and then there was traffic, and the metro was insanely busy huh long trip home. That night we went out in our local area nice walk around, went to Hardees for tea (fast food joint) and then shared a cookie n cream pud at Haagen Daaz place nom nom!! We chilled in the room writing journal, washing clothes and reading, enjoying our last night in a hotel room together.

Our last day in Dubai :( time has gone so quickly already. We asked for late check-out which was 1pm so we had plenty of time to sort our bags and get dressed for our long day ahead. Luckily we were able to leave our big bags at the hotel, which allowed us to walk around freely in the afternoon to find Dubai's Creek and the well-known Souq markets - hell of a lot of spices especially bloody Saffron ugh!! We had lovely afternoon walking around the different areas of Dubai, enjoyed some local food, and experienced some of Dubai's big rain drops!! With plenty of time to spare we decided to treat ourselves to a date. I can tell you it has been much harder than I thought walking around with Gary and not holding his hand, something we so naturally do and even just pecking each other on the cheek and these, all the little intimate coupley things we do was a real miss.

Anyway, we went to the cinema and saw the Hunger Games - really good we thought!! We could hold hands, enjoy sitting in air con, very relaxing. Afterwards we went for a real Dubai delicacy...............KFC hahaha but we did sit outside which was different, and we got bread buns with our snack boxes!! We walked back to hotel, made use of the free internet in the lobby then got our bags and headed to airport by metro. Only cost both of us 9Dhs to get to terminal 3 (like £3 opposed to on the way we spend near £10 in taxi). The journey was interesting, and quite funny watching Gary attempting to carry his big bag hehehe but we checked in no probs and went through departure straight away with only 5 hours to wait!!! Plenty of time to type up journal, have some grub and do some shopping in the best duty free hello alcohol!!

Our flight is 2.45am to Brisbane, a 16 hour flight stopping at Singapore.

Dubai is such an amazing but strange place, anyone wanting to go should come and experience it. Its kinda like Gods playground, as if someone above is playing the game Sims and is building their dream world. There is almost two worlds, a normal Arab style world similar to Egypt or even some Asian countries such as Korea, Malaysia (minus the religions), its very cultural, clean and true to their roots. However, this other world exists where the best of the best buildings, malls and hotels are alongside, with the most beautiful architectural designs and views. This is the tourism world, where Dubai has gone above and beyond with so much is being built in such short time. Like seriously Dubai has the largest shopping mall in the world and inside is the world's largest aquarium!! In another mall there is a sky slope!!. There is a 7 star hotel another best in the world with air-con underneath the sand on the beach! Its just an insane place but I love it, we both do, we will defo go back when we get a chance!!