Dubai 3, 4 June

An uneventful 14 hour flight saw us arrive in Dubai at 3.30 AM. We had a reasonable amount of sleep, so after a bit more snoozing and a great breakfast at the hotel, we headed off to explore.

The Metro is flash, as you would expect.

After the metro ride, we walked through some of the souks.

Also along the Dubai Creek. These are the ferries to take you to the other side.

We enjoyed the Dubai Museum, which is in an old fort.

 

The earlier inhabitants of this area were fisherman and pearl divers. Their dwellings had towers designed to remove hot air from the house and bring cool air in.  Great idea, considering how hot it was!

Inside were many dioramas illustrating most aspects of life in Dubai.

Traditional costumes.

Mid afternoon we went on a 'Desert Safari' in a Hummer.

They don't do anything by halves here and the road to the desert was a near deserted six lane highway. Roundabouts apear to go nowhere.

Our guide letting down the tyres in preparation for the hair raising dune bashing.

The dunes from the car. The photo doesn't even begin to tell how scary it was. We are not into adrenaline rushes really!

Standing on firm ground is more our cup of tea.

We arrived at a 'traditional Bedouin camp' and the next thing on the agenda was the canal ride.

Pretty sedate really.

A falconer.

The traditional Bedouin feast was tasty. Our little group from the Hummer bonded well after our scary dune ride and stuck together for all our 'adventures'. Tried to get Bill to dress up as a sheik, but that didn't go down well. Despite wanting to keep up with Mary, skipped the henna painting too when we found out how long lasting it is.

 

Some great dancing rounded up the evening. We thought the food and the dancing is quite similar to what we ate and saw in Turkey.