The Indian Stirling Moss of Dubai

 Today's "Dubai City Tour" was organised by the hotel tour lady after our guide was a no show yesterday.  That company actually called us later yesterday morning and said that the driver was having mechanical problems and that he was ready to come and pick us up now.... at about 11.30am.  

I said I'd prefer the refund.  She didn't argue.

So..... half an hour into our tour, The guide, Amjed after taking his 3rd phone call, informed us that he had to go back to near our hotel to pick up two more guests.  We thought that we had booked a private tour so I said that wasn't ok, which caused a flurry of phone calls back to the tour booking lady.  The then handed me the ear plug attached to his phone (ew!) and said that the lady wanted to speak to me.  She informed me that it was a sharing car and she was sorry because she forgot to tell us that it wasn't a private tour.... even though we had adapted the tour to suit us.  

So back we went to pick up the other guests, an Indian couple (who were really lovely people and invited us to visit India.... funny, she never gave us her contact details though.)  The whole debacle took about 30 minutes and then we were back at the same place for the newbies to take some pics of the creek.

The new couple and the driver, both being from Mumbai naturally spoke the same language.  I wasn't sure what it was, but guessed it was Hindi, only because I think I heard him say "Hindi" and also, I don't really know what other languages are spoken in that part of India.  However, our private tour was now us sitting in the middle of a Hindi conversation that we didn't understand. We contemplated asking him to drop us back at our hotel so we could just get a cab to drive us to the places we wanted to see, but we hesitated and then the opportunity, and our hotel passed us by.

So, our guide's name was Amjed, but we dubbed him Stirling Moss based solely on his driving skills.  It seems that everyone in Dubai has learnt to drive at the same driving school.  Amjed even pointed it out as a tour highlight!  I'm guessing they are taught the following:

1. The accelerator and the break should be used in quick succession and as often as possible.

2. Other drivers will appreciate you honking your horn, so do it often.

3. The white lines and lanes are there just as a guide only.

This was stuck on the back of most vans and my guess is that that number runs off the hook!

Some of the highlights were the Grand Mosque.  We stopped for exactly 37 seconds, just long enough to get out, take the shot and get back in the car.

Atlantas - The hotel at the end of the Palms island.  Apparently another 7 star hotel. You're not allowed to look around these hotels, you have to either be staying there or have a reservation at a restaurant.

 We were meant to go to the Marina, but instead Stirling slowed down on this bridge, which was appreciated by the drivers behind us so we could take a photo of it.

We were unwittingly taken to a carpet shop, Stirling just pulled into an underground car park and the Indian lady explained to us that they make handmade carpets here.  I hate it when tour companies do this - especially when it's not mentioned - AT ALL until you in the shop.

The carpet salesman saw us coming and rolled hie eyes, then proceeded to show us some terrible patterned carpets... in every size and repeatedly asking "what size would you like to see?"  I had to say "Sorry, It doesn't matter what you get out, I'm not going to buy anything."  

Really it was a very average tour.  He showed us the driveway of hotels, everyone along the beach and then pointed out things that we couldn't see because of the extensive construction sights around the city.  He also pointed out the Dubai Zoo and that you could see a giraffe, but as we were doing 100kms, we missed it.  We asked questions he couldn't answer.  He told us things that the Indian lady corrected. He stopped on round abouts so we could get out and take photos and he continuously took phone calls throughout the whole tour.  He was, however an excellent reverse parker.

Our last stop on the tour was back at the Burj Khalifa before driving back to our hotel.  We couldn't wait to get out of the car, so we asked Stirling to drop us off at the Burj.

After the showing of all things expensive, we decided to take a wander through Old Dubai, you know, to get in touch with the real people.  Apparently Dubai can have 95% humidity and we're pretty sure that we hit it today.  These little babies, plus many like them all around the city would have been working over time!

We searched for a spot to sit for a coldie and watch the world go by but they were few and far between.  There was one kebab shop with 3 tables out the front in the blazing sun on the main street and after a couple of hours of walking around getting thirstier and thirstier we came across Tavolino Juice House

 a quiet little 'hole in the wall' place with outside tables with a lovely tunnel of breeze blowing through.  

1 x Mango juice and 1 x pomegranate and watermelon juice... 

... and relax.