Our 14 hour flight went well without any hitches and went on schedule.
Nice plane, good service, food was actually delish and movies were great.
I kept dozing off during first movie (Oppenheimer) and it’s an incredible story! Wow intense.
Then 2 other movies were Dune 1 and Dune 2.

Anyway, Dubai….airport is so huge they have a train to take us to baggage claims and to go through customs. We all get given a free SIM card with 10 gb free data! Even though at hotel we get free wifi but once out of doors it stop, so this free sim is quite handy.

The heat is oppressively hot!

We found our complimentary shuttle (you know how thrilling it is seeing your name on a held up cardboard  ) and drive to our hotel (Kempinski Mall if the Emirates) 5 star!

There’s a snow place next to this with people all rugged up and skiing!
And then there’s 700 shops! Oh I just remembered I need to buy a wand from Harry Potter shop before I leave.

Day2. Breakfast here was frikken amazing as! I are so well I didn’t have to have lunch or dinner!
As I’m one to hardly eat breakfast.

We decided to book a private van instead of doing the hop on hop off bus. In this heat of 39 deg I’m so glad we did it that way. Smart move.

So we left 11.40 am and returned 9 pm … long day out but learned a lot and saw a lot.

We went to 2 different markets, and I think we all liked the old Dubai town and market.
Was getting a bit tired of all them tall modern buildings… the tallest in the world, the biggest canter levered building in the world, the fastest growing city in the world, the less crime rate in the world, etc etc etc and the biggest gold ring that’s even got a place in Guinness book of records at the old Dubai souk (never seen so much dripping gold everywhere!)

We saw a marina with that Burj Khalifa building in background.
We were dying for ice cream and it’s expensive (25 Dirham) and I decided against buying then… this young lass sitting nearby smoking one of those shisha…. offered to pay … at first we kindly refused… well the others did… I didn’t…  I was very great full and accepted …. and oh boy did that ice cream cool my body core!

We we y on this 2 hour boat ride and I did say it was oppressively hot didn’t I?
We went to see that Burj Khalifa from the water view. It is a beautiful building.

Museum of the future, interesting huge art piece… and inside was just basically souvenir stuff, and as we only had 20 minutes out of our schedule to look … we saw one of those electronic steel computerised dogs. Interesting but scary!

As we got stuck in peak traffic … their roads are 8 lanes wide each side! I look at all the shops and so many prestigious cars for sale. Wish we could’ve gone to Ferrari world but maybe another time.
I saw this advert…. 0 interest rate for 5 years when you buy a Tesla!

It’s nearly 7am now so I’m about to go to breakfast and pack bags to be gone by 11.30 am as our shuttle takes us to airport to catch plane….
So will chat when I’m in London next!
Goodbye Dubai …

Huge contrast weather wise. Seems UK is having an unusual colder than average weather. We come from 42 degrees in Dubai to 7 degrees in Gatwick, West Sussex. About 48 kms from central London.

Our view from airport hotel window… I must add… exceptionally quiet hotel being right next door to airport.

Camels…. How amazing I just found out this about them….
My only regret… I didn’t spend more time in Dubai (even though the 40 deg heat was a killer!) to go to the desert dinner at night and ride the camels.
Next time I will.

Quote:

The camel drinks both fresh and salt water. It can even drink water from the Dead Sea and nothing will happen to it. This is because the camel's kidneys filter the water: they separate it from the salt and turn it into fresh water suitable for drinking. The camel also eats thorns and they do not harm its stomach or intestines because its saliva dissolves the thorns like acid.
The camel has two eyelids: one is thin and transparent, the other thick and fleshy. When a sandstorm starts in the desert, it closes its transparent eyelid to prevent sand from getting into its eyes. A camel can also change its body temperature: if it is cold its temperature increases, if it is hot in the hot desert its body temperature decreases. The qualities that this beautiful little animal possesses are impressive

Jasin wrote on Nov 30^th, 2024 at 2:48pm:


Huh! Thanks Jasin, I will take the compli and run  I’m chuffed. I like to do my best 
You had an inkling and went forward in the right direction.
I think being community minded and sharing information, inspiring ideas, and experiences helps in forum communities.

Here is the words largest heaviest gold ring … with certificate with Guinness World Record
It’s ridiculously big that it looks more like a boxers heavy weight championship belt!

😲

Glad you enjoyed that Sprint… I read it again too and found typos I had made…so I went in and fixed them 
Hence why you will see the edit at bottom of your post.

Beautiful dresses for her…