DUBAI AGAIN - FOR NEW YEAR
AFTER OUR SAUDI ARABIAN DE-TOX IT'S BACK DUBAI
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Another 4 nights in a new apartment, much to-ing and fro-ing by Sara on this booking, prices through the roof for New Years Eve, so we bag a nice looking gaff on Airbnb for a decent price on the basis the building is new and the apartment has never been let before, so has no reviews. Risky. So Sara frets non stop for 24 hours. Lucky we book so late as it means she had less time to worry. All is fine and we check in just before midnight for another enjoyable few days here in the UAE.
The flat is the next door building to Milo so perfectly located for our travel guide to join us for more adventures. Only problem is our son has foresworn the devil drink for a month!! So rather muted adventures beckon, or we dump our son who we have flow thousands of miles to be with - so we dump our son.
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We taxi into a dodgy part of town as Sara has heard they do excellent knock-off handbags here. We go to Fake Street, get opportuned straight away, and then it starts...... A most amusing interlude of petty criminality. First we enter the shop of our opportunist, he establishes we are not old bill (mainly by establishing that I am actually too old to be bill), then we all three of us enter one of the shop's changing room and close the door behind us, all mirror walls, we are crowded and two out of the three are bewildered. I start to remove my trousers as one does in a changing room, to cover for my foolishness he presses a hidden switch and the back wall falls away, to reveal a shabby staircase up through, would you believe it, another false door, into an Aladdin's cave of knock-offs. Sadly not the exact knock-off Sara was after. So off we trot along some back street, up some dingy stairs in a tenement block, along a dirty corridor, a secret knock on a non-descript door and we are beckoned in, and the man inside does that weird thing crims do when they lean out of the door and look both ways - I mean what a give away!!! Put up a sign why don't you? Another 45 minutes of me scrutineering another 500 handbags and our host starting to scrutineer Sara with a bit of side-eye. No luck there either so back to the shop, back through the magic doors, more wrong knock-offs arrive, Sara makes one bid on one bag, opportunist quotes a price of 400 Dirhams, Sara offers 300, he says no, she says, in effect, "f**k you" and we depart. An all round fascinating experience for me I can say.
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I then use the magic word 'Souk'. Never use this word in vain, keep it for back-up. Sara loves a Souk, so off we trot to the historic (re-created) Dubai Old Town Souk, which was lovely. As you can see we met our first Camel, and we went to the world famous Museum of Illusions. Proper tourists.
Then back to the Marina because we had booked lunch at the amazing CIEL HOTEL, the tallest hotel only building in the world, 84 floors, 77 meters higher than The Shard!!!
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The pic on the left is the view from Miles's front door, the CIEL is the slim tower in the middle, just a short walk away.
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Great lunch on the 74th floor, a wander round the worlds highest infinity pool and are amazed at the concept because at 370 meters it is surprisingly windy, And then we are persuaded into the New Years Eve party on the 81st floor, all round view of every firework display in Dubai, dinner, and unlimited drinks, all for £200 a head. 9.30 start and a 1.30 finish. Bloody brilliant. We're IN, last table left.
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Back home to drag out the wedding suit for its THIRD outing, what with the wedding and Christmas, and off we trot. Turn up on the dot, sit down, served our first G&T's, they ask which Champagne we would like, we say we don't want any, they say well that's weird as it's included, we say no all the drinks are included, they say no they are not.
You can see where this is leading. Suffice to say we struck a deal. Credit us with the champers and we will drink that, and at £200 we were relaxed. Not totally, so I kept an exact tally of our booze intake on my phone.
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We had a great time.................................... Right up until it was time to leave at 1.30am.....................
Now this hotel only opened five weeks ago, this is their first big event, so fair play to them, it was great fun, but no countdown, no Auld Lang's Syne, which was a shame. And when at 1.30am we said "are we free to go?" they said not until you pay another £250, we said we kept in our budget, they said "no, you've been drinking doubles all night and of the good stuff", we said "not on your nelly" or something similar. I won't bore you but as the oldest person in the room by a couple of decades, and the only one in a suit, the manager probably thought I was an alien, or he though I was mad. He clearly thought it pretty weird that I had an exact list of our drinks on my phone. Any road up he gave up, literally gave up, shook my hand and said "OK. OK, OK, I GIVE UP!!". Excellent end to a cracking evening. Happy New Year!
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Up with a bit of hangover, and what is the best cure for a NYE hangover? Get forced onto an electric scooter and scoot a mere 7 miles to Kite Beach. On a route taking in both super smooth tarmac cycle ways, but also bone juddering cobbles, my poor head. That day we did almost 20 miles by scooter, and it's not cheap. Without buying bundles of miles its more than a cab!! But fresh air and views make it all worth while. And we visited another Souk!
The area is the Dubai equivalent of Muscle Beach in Los Angeles. Miles of sandy beaches, backed by lovely low rise buildings. Jogging track, cycle track, little cafes, great sand, lovely views.
Nice house on the beach, what more could you want? Well I for one would want the Chinese NOT to dump a million tons of rock a 100 yards off my beach and build a fuck-off great big 10 storey hotel on a man made island right in front of mi casa. It must be so depressing to have a lovely house in a lovely quiet location and have your whole area upended with a $1.2 billion project across from my garden gate. But that's Dubai for you. Never ending building bigger and taller.
The next day we set off for Dubai Mall to enjoy the Aquarium and then the Arte Museum, an interactive experience. We being proper tourists, not embarrassed by being drawn into obvious traps for the unwary.
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Trap number one was the Aquarium, two tickets please,. How much!! £100 for two??? We did however get the GOLD ticket, not deliberately, just two dumb tourists, out on the town.
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On the bright side it did allow us to see an actual mermaid, bottom left of the picture. Look to the right and see the frogman lurking with a stun stick. Look up and see two actual Tiger Sharks casting envious glances at said tasty mermaid. That is law of the jungle in action, obviously an underwater version. Sharks are known for their love of a bit of mermaid!
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I would have paid another £100 to see one of then take a chunk out of her tail in front of the children, maybe more.
It has to be said that the gold ticket was worth it as we did everything except climb in the actual tank dressed as a fish.
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We even got wet as when feeding the fishes (gold tickets only mind), Sara was mucking about and teasing them, caused a frenzy, and got soaked, :) :) :) .
Plus we saw all the growth stages of Jellyfish from baby to adult, and my lovely saw the final stage and made the mistake of saying out loud that she was amazed at how, when they are full grown, they look just like hands......
Obviously to anyone this was just a daft placement of a politically correct moan about plastics in the ocean. Anyone could see that. Except me. I too had though how weird it was that they grew into hands, I just didn't say it out loud, mainly as Sara got there ahead of me.
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We both agreed that this was one of the best aquariums we have been too.
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The variety of fish in the tanks was amazing and like nothing I have seen before or since. Such strange varieties of Bubble Fish and Red Headed Octopus, amazing to see. Worth every penny of £50 a head.
After that we tourists went to an immersive experience in the Arte Museum where played happily for hours, Massive place with loads of things to do.
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Including the piss take of the aquarium which, as you can see, amused me no end. Please tell me you didn't for one second think the video was real. When I saw this massive video wall in the museum showing fish I thought how boring, until Sara spotted crayons and paper. You draw your own fish, scan it, and up it pops in 3D. That's an hour of my life I won't get back! Continually re-scanning my fish until they were everywhere. Sara's is the cute red headed Octopus, but they don't breed as fast as the Brian Fish. Or taste as nice grilled with a slice of lemon.
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Our final outing while waiting for our red-eye flight to Zanzibar was popping out for a quick drink, which should have been easy, except, within yards of Miles's front door, we passed the eye wateringly expensive Buddha Bar and were magnetically attracted to Dim Sum and a few sherbets and parted with another wad of cash, enough to have got us upgraded on our flight I wouldn't wonder. But we got entertainment for free, so not too bad
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Say what you like about Dubai - but there's a lot going on.
Our next stop is Zanzibar for two weeks. 5.5 hour flight, economy, with extra legroom. Easy!
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Until we climb on board at 0100 and find the seats have no recline at all. Just like Ryan Air. bolt upright. No conducive to kipping in any way. So quite knackered on arrival.
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But good planning had us booking our hotel for the night we were flying, so when we staggered into reception at 06.45 they already had our room ready. No begging for an early check-in, no groggily sitting in a café until we could sleep the sleep of the Gods.
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So Dubai.... What a place. Not sure how I would enjoy living there full time but it has to be said it is amazing. So clean and tidy, so organised. We used electric scooters almost everywhere. Cabs really easy and cheap, no rip offs at all (forget NYE, they gave in remember). Got totally used to getting everything and anything delivered to your 20th floor apartment door door in literally minutes, normally 10 from order. Like living in the future!
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We like it so much we are trying Abu Dhabi, an hour or so down the road, on the way home for five days, Sara still needs a waterpark fix and a desert buggy ride. I did stres we are proper old school tourists, nothing is too naff for us!​​