Visit to Dubai

After a lazy start to the day we left the house around 1pm. The motorway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai is so long and boring, made even worse today by having to make the journey in what Caz calls an "Indian" bus. We had to hire a 15 seater bus for the week while the kids are here to ferry them all about and do the airport runs with their luggage. This type of bus is almost exclusively used by Indian workers, so we were getting some very weird looks as we travelled about. Lots of workers by the side of the road couldn't understand why the bus didn't stop to pick them up.

Showed the kids all the places where the barriers had been smashed to pieces by car crashes and the endless skid marks. Idiot drivers - no shortage of them here. Cars over here have to make a beeping noise when they get to 120kmph and in hire cars they do not stop beeping until you go back below that speed. I prefer to drive faster than this and hate driving that slow. The cameras on this Abu Dhabi stretch are set at 160kmph (c.100mph) which what I would normally be doing in my car. I've kind of got used to the beeps on my regular trips to Dubai and can sort of mentally blank them. Caz however find them very annoying, so I had to try and keep myself from going over 120, not successfully at times, leading to a berating.

Made our first stop at Ibn Battuta Mall. This is our favourite mall in Dubai. Has quite normal shops and isn't stuck up it's own bottom. By now we were all starving so headed straight to Pizza Express. To no great surprise they got the order wrong.

Went round most of the shops, although for having 4 females with us, it wasn't too enduring. I did however make one purchase myself, a digital SLR camera which I was gently told by Caz I didn't need because I already had 3 digital cameras! This is of course true, however my last camera purchase a 10mp Nikon has a damaged screen (I sat on it) and so is rapidly becoming useless. I've wanted a digital SLR for a while, so when I get it up and running I'll be posting some results.

After the mall we headed for Burj Dubai, currently the tallest building in the world. Just a quick Kodak moment and then we went back up Sheikh Zayed Road to the Madinat Jumeirah, a really nice Souq with restuarants and a waterway which you can take boat rides on. there is a good spot here to take pictures of the Burj Al Arab hotel, but unfortunately it wasn't lit up (it was dark by now). I think this may have been because there is a week of official state mourning over the death of the Ruler of Uumm al Quwain (one of the 7 Emirates). This has also meant that the radio stations that normally play rock and pop are now playing classical music ad all others are reading from the Qur'an.

Same boring drive home. More berating. Starting writing this and was deemed "sad" by all for writing a blog. Beginning to wonder if they are right? Well, if at least a few friends and family read this to hear what we are up to that will be fine. I'm not looking to make world headlines and become a millionaire by blogging. Just as well I guess.