This morning we were meant to be picked up by a chauffeur driven limo and shown the sights of Dubai. However, at 9.30am, we decided that our driver wasn't going to make our arranged 9.00am pick up time.
After trying all the numbers that I had for the tour company and getting a "I'm sorry, we're there's nobody available to take your call" message because it was Saturday and even though somebody told us yesterday that Thursday and Friday were the weekend days in Dubai, it turns out that it's Friday and Saturday!
Not willing to waste anymore time, we booked another tour for the next day, sent a scathing email to the first tour company and hightailed it to the Dubai Mall.
Look Darl, Cartier!
This shopping centre was pure opulence!
Check out these babies!
There is an ice-skating rink - right there inside
A waterfall - complete with dive statues!
And... what every shopping mall needs - an aquarium!
This little guy was doing a spot of window shopping.
And this guy - simply happy with his purchase!
In the afternoon we had a High Tea booked at the Burj Al Arab. We raced home after the Dubai Mall to get changed and spruse up a bit because we'd read that you needed to dress appropriately to even get past the hotel security gates.... also the lady at the hotel bookings desk told us we probably wouldn't get in dressed the way we were - whatever, where does she get off?
So, home, spruse, car - Burj.
The Burj Al Arab is the supposed 7 star hotel - although they say that they don't call themselves that and they don't advertise themselves as a 7 starer, the media just called them that and they've never corrected them.
Do you think someone was struggling to name this street and the person writing down the ideas was a bit too fastidious at his note-taking?
It's the big hotel that sits on an island that juts out from the beach in-between the Palm Island and The World - the group of islands that are supposed to resemble a map of the world.
The Sky Bar is located on the 27th floor and once you get over the vertigo and motion sickness from the extremely fast elevator, the views are spectacular!
We sat, as prearranged by Lyn, the wonder travel agent, in the window with a great outlook and then bring on the High Tea.
This was written on the menu as "The Chef's Cavery"..... seems a little lacking?
(Warning: food may look larger than it really is)
We had tasty little sandwiches and cakes and scones
and tea..... lots of tea!
Because Lyn also mentioned that it was my birthday (in a few weeks) they gave me a rose and a little chocolate cake that we couldn't eat because we were massively full from all the little bits of joyous goodness.
However, since we'd just eaten everything in sight, we couldn't possibly fit another thing in, not even the wafer thin Happy Birthday sign! So we asked if we could have a cake box..... ⬇
Overkill?
Jenny had read and been told about the dancing fountain show at the Burj Khalifa (or Khaleesi, as I keep calling it... Game of Throners will understand), so that's where we headed next.
We joined the throng of people to find our spot on the bridge and waited. The shows are on every 20 minutes from 6pm and go for about 6-7 minutes. It's performed to some lovely, fitting music and reminded me of Mickey Mouse's Fantastia. Quite mesmorising.
We hung around for a bit, looking at some shops and when the show started again, we thought we'd watch it again, after all it was only 6 minutes, but because we didn't have the best position, this is how I watched it.
Hot, tired, full and ready for a sit down with no shoes on, we headed back to our hotel. On the way we noticed (hard to miss) that every single palm tree (and there are hundreds!) was wrapped up like these ⬇
Not just around the shopping centre, but all the way down both sides of the main roads..... all they way!
I'd hate to be the poor bastard in charge of putting those up!
Thank you Dubai - it's been a lovely day!
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