Both of us were awake early, and this morning it was Narms off the starting block first. She was down at breakfast by about 7.30am, and I followed on about an hour later. Once again sat with the chap from Franz Josef Sky Dive Club. He had injured himself yesterday - apparently came down heavily on his heels and he was limping pretty badly this morning. He didn’t think he was going to be able to jump today and was pretty disappointed as the conditions have been perfect. After breakfast Narms headed off and I went over to the Mall of Emirates to buy a cabin bag to carry my goodies home. Everything is fitting in at the moment, but I want to be able to separate out the declarable stuff to make it easy at the airport. And the bag will come in handy for my next trip!!!! Oh where to next – I see on the Vuda website that the Croatia trip is listed for 2013, so I may have an extra 12 months to save for that. That will be a good idea. And so, as I sit here charging my laptop - I reflect on what the highlights of this trip have been – but like my Vietnam trip every day has been a highlight.

So what have I done • I’ve ticked hot air ballooning and a trip to the desert off my bucket list. • I have bartered for pashmina in the textile souk and • have smoked sheesha with an Arab, and

• gotten a henna tattoo (although it is starting to fade already).

• I have ridden a camel, been dune bashing in a four wheel drive , and • I have shopped and shopped, and then shopped some more, and

• I have been introduced to the Muslim faith, at the Sheik Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, shared a meal and learnt how to wear the abaya and sheila and walked home from the Mall wearing the abaya and • I have spoken to Muslim women from Bahrain and had lunch with a Muslim lady from Jordan and • I have chatted to Pakistanis, Indians, Sri Lankans, Iranians, and Malaysians, bartered with a Syrian and shared the Creek cruise on a dhow with a Venezuean Italian, and an Argentinian and • I got chatted up by a local in Abu Dhabi and had my photo taken with him • I have eaten Lebanese food, African food, Emirati food, Turkish food, Italian food and had a Starbucks Christmas Gingerbread Latte and eaten the most delicious fresh dates and

• I have been to the Rugby Sevens and had my photo taken with a couple of rugby players

• I’ve had a drink with a Welshman, a South African and two poms while watching the finals of the Sevens on TV at the hottest bar in Dubai (The Barasti where all the ex-pats hang out) and • I’ve lost my phone case containing all my credit cards and money card and drivers licence at the Sevens and made a panic phone call to NZ to cancel the card, only to find it again at the Lost and Found Tent on the way out and

• I’ve seen the largest dancing water fountain in the world, , taken photos of the tallest building in the world, visited the world’s 3rd largest mosque in Abu Dhabi, been to the world’s newest and most technological sound and light show, and I’ve paddled in the water alongside the Burj Al Arab and

• managed to negotiate the metro, the bus system and chatted my way out of paying the fare on a bus because my metro card had run out of money and ridden on the abra and • been trapped in a shoe shop by an Indian who wasn’t going to let us out until we bought the shoes and • seen the most gold I have ever seen and the most beautiful snake bracelets and rings and necklaces • and just when I thought I had done all the shopping I needed to I discovered the Dubai Mall and so then I’ve shopped some more. Well I had to didn’t I, there were 1200 shops there. Wow, what an amazing holiday, and the grand finale’ is yet to come. We have one night left here at Ibis Mall of the Emirates and then we go to Atlantis the Palm tomorrow morning. We plan to check in very early and make the most of our twenty four hours there. I am hoping to be able to swim with the dolphins – another of my bucket list items. The guy from Franz Josef said I just have to do the water slide ride, but I am not sure if I am brave enough to that. He said just get out of your comfort zone – alright for someone who jumps out of a perfectly good plane just for the hell of it, I said to him. He said you have got to do that someday too, and assured me that Franz Josef Sky Dive is the safest operation in NZ and if I decide to jump, then to go see him. Let’s see how I feel about that when I get home – maybe my birthday present to me!! So time to hit the road again – I’m meeting Narms at the Dubai Mall at 2pm. I’ve go till 1.30pm to use the last of my Big Bus pass, so I had better get a move on. I need to find the bus stop, somewhere over at that huge MOE. Dubai Mall – over 1200 shops. OMG.

Granny Goes Gallavanting

Up early and down to breakfast early while Narms was still asleep. I chatted with the chap from Franz Josef that we met the other morning. He is here for the World Parachute Champs. He was telling me that the Prince of Dubai is a sky diver so he has poured millions of dollars into developing a place to sky dive here. He said it was the best facility he had jumped at. Then upstairs to repack my bag to find that, amazingly, everything is still fitting into my case. Narms was just heading down for breakfast as I came back to our room I am humming and haaing about whether I need to buy another hand luggage bag to pack all my goodies to go through customs or whether to leave as is. I still have my overnight bag and my big blue denim shopping bag and back pack empty. I opted to go off on my own this morning and went down to catch up with Narms who was happy with that. So, off I went. I caught a taxi to Jumeirah Mosque in time for the guided tour at 10am. This was taken by two very lovely Musliim ladies and was done as part of the Sheik Mohammed Centre for Cultural Learning – Open Doors Open Minds programme.

That took just over an hour, and just as I came out from there I saw the Big Bus on the other side of the road. So I decided to catch this bus to travel around for the rest of the day. At Dh220 it was going to be good value I decided and it would land me at all the places I wanted to visit. Crossing the road was a bit of a mission, had to walk about 400m down the road to find a crossing, and then back up the other side. There was a fence down the middle of the road, so no J-walking here. Luckily the bus stop was right outside Starbucks (Yep all the franchises are here: KFC, McDonalds, Subway, and I see Burger Fuel is about to open) so time for an iced mocha before the next bus. The first stop was Burg al Arab – yes almost right outside this iconic building, and right on the beach so I even got to get my feet wet. The water was lovely and warm, and if I had had my togs with me, I may have been tempted to have a swim. Twenty minutes later it was back on the bus and next stop Jumeirah Madinat. This is a hotel complex but also has a traditional souk and lovely restaurants and the Arabian waterways. Did some souvenir shopping here and found another Pride of Kashmir outlet, and once again resisted the temptation to buy here. This shop is very expensive, but the merchandise is very beautiful. Had a cup of Earl Grey Tea and a cheese pastry for my lunch at Costa, overlooking the waterways and got a couple of good photos of Burg Al Arab from here. My camera was playing up today, keeps getting a message “unexpected error. Please turn your camera off” and then when I do that it keeps wanting to connect to the internet. And then it ran the battery down really quickly and by this time (only about 1pm) and I was down to only one bar of battery. Back on the bus to Wadi where I changed onto the Red Bus Line. I was hopeful of making it to Stop 5 in time for the 3.30 dhow cruise, but I was 7 minutes late and the next cruise was to be 5.30pm. I decided to hang around and do it, seeing I had made my way all the way here. Got talking to a guy from Malaysia – started chatting to him as he had a NZ World Cup polo shirt on so I thought he may have been a kiwi, but he wasn’t. He was from Malaysia and he hadn’t even gone to the World Cup. He was in NZ last year. He was interesting to talk to, he works for an American telecommunication company in Malaysia and travels all over the world. He decided not to wait for the cruise – wasting too much time having to wait for another hour and a half, he said. But I wanted to wait, and was hopeful that I was not going to be the only one waiting. Then got chatting to a guy from Argentina, Leandro, and his friend Hugo who was originally from Venezuela but living in Milan. Leandro is a librarian and Hugo a flight attendant for Air Italia. Charming young men, who are going off on a cruise tomorrow. We sat on the wharf chatting until we were allowed to board the dhow at about 5pm. Sat up on the deck and watched the sun going down, and finally the cruise started at 5.30pm on the dot. Not a minute sooner, not a minute later. Very nice cruise. Food and drinks were available and they were cooking a lamb kebab which smelt very good, but it was interesting to see that nobody on the boat (which was full by the way) had anything to eat and only a few people drank soft drinks or beer. The guys were excited to see their cruise boat at the wharf. Hugo had been to NZ on a cruise a couple of years ago, and Leandro was hopeful of coming to NZ so we exchanged email addresses and I told them to look me up if they ever come over. After the cruise we got back on the Big Bus and were taken to Burjaman Mall – yes another mall. The three of us wandered around for a while, but they wanted to do boy shopping so we parted company and I headed to the foyer to check out the Da Vinci exhibition which was the highlight of this mall for me. I am obviously over shopping. The exhibition was brilliant, all his paintings and inventions on display. From the mall I managed to find the Metro and get myself to the Mall of Emirates where I had dinner at Tribes, an African restaurant. I had another delicious salad, lettuce and 3 colours of chargrilled capsicum, red cabbage and grilled Haloumi cheese with a very light balsamic dressing. I even treated myself to a mocktail here – Tribe Special and it was strawberry, lime, cranberry and brown sugar. Yummo. While waiting for my meal to arrive they brought out a wooden bread board with a loaf of freshly made bread with a pottle of French butter. We were entertained by African drummers, very good but ever so loud. This place if very popular with young people – yep I would have been the oldest one in there. Behind me was a table of about 25 young girls, maybe early twenties, mixed ethnicities but very very very trendy dressers. No abaya, head scarves or buquas or covering of any sort, in fact very short skirts and very high heeled shoes. They were celebrating someone’s birthday, complete with birthday cake and candles. Very dark, shiny black wait staff, but extremely well spoken and incredibly polite and extremely efficient. My salad was delicious and I looked around to see what other people were eating and it also looked amazingly good. Put this one on the list of places to visit for any one coming here. On the Metro I sat by a young guy from Sri Lanka, his name was Dilan and works as a chef at a French restaurant at the Atlantis. He helped me to negotiate my way off the metro and through the MOE . Gave me his phone number and said to call him when we get to Atlantis and he will look after us. Wow, what an amazing day. People are just so friendly. I have said this many times in this blog, but it is so true. Even the tour guides, both at the mosque and on the dhow cruise said that all nationalities and ethnicities live together in harmony in Dubai. And that would be so true. I have not seen one angry person. Everyone smiles, helps you to find your way if you ask, opens doors, stands back to allow you to enter a lift, and I even had a young man stand up for me to sit down on the metro the other day. Wow, what a wonderful place. And now today it is Monday morning. Narms has beaten me up this morning and already she is down at breakfast. It is only 7.30 now and she has already been gone the whole time I have been typing this up, so I had better get a move on. So time for a quick shower and I will post this to my blog while I have my breakfast. Only one more sleep here at Ibis Mall of Emirates. Tomorrow we go to Atlantis. YEAH YEAH.

Seven’s Day Awoke to an amazing sunrise and hot air balloons drifting past. It is a very busy weekend in Dubai – the Rugby Sevens, the world parachuting championships and the UAE ballooning championships. We went downstairs for breakfast – this hotel is much nicer and the breakfast much nicer. The staff are certainly way more friendly and helpful here as well.

I can’t really remember what time we got away now, but it must have been around 9.30am. We had heard that taxi was the best way to get out to the stadium – about a 30 minute ride and it should cost around Dh85. We went out the front of the hotel and walked down past the Novotel and then asked the security guard how much a taxi should cost us. He told us Dh85 and then called one of his mates from across the road to come over. He chatted away to him, then told us he had negotiated a price for us. The driver said yes Dh85 and showed us into a really nice car. Narms said, No, we were expecting a taxi with a meter. He explained that the security guard had negotiated a price and that he was a limousine and he would take us for the same price as a taxi. So we had a nice comfortable trip out to the stadium.

What an amazing set up they have here. Very efficient. And so much to do – there are four pitches where games are being played and there are dozens of other activities – such as ball skill games and pushing a Landcruiser. Loads of stuff for kids, and all the food and drinks can only be purchased with tokens which you purchase from a stall. Plenty of food and drink choices. Oh forgot to mention, we had our bags searched – not allowed to take any food or drink into the stadium. Luckily Narms had heard about this and so I emptied my bag before we left the hotel, but Narms smuggled her lunch in. Not sure how she got away with it, as her handbag was only tiny. We made it to the main grandstand just as New Zealand were about to play England. And to our shock, horror, England beat New Zealand. And then later in the day, NZ was beaten (well actually thrashed) by the Australians. Oh dear. Not a good day for the kiwis. I managed to get some good photos of the kiwi players

but shortly after taking my last photo, I realised that I had lost my camera bag, containing my credit cards. OMG, panic panic panic. I emptied my backpack three times to check that it wasn’t hiding in there somewhere, but no such luck. So then we walked backwards and forwards around where we were standing taking photos of the NZ team, but couldn’t find anything. I had this awful sick feeling, but I rang the ANZ Bank and cancelled my money card. Luckily I had my travel diary with me and it had photocopies of the cards in the back so that was easy to do. My Diners card was proving a bit more difficult to cancel as I hadn’t copied that one into my diary, but I was hopeful that it would be okay as I had tried to use it twice and had not been able to, do it would seem that not been places accept it. So decided to wait until I got back to the hotel and then worry about that one.

Because NZ were now not in the final we decided around 5pm to head home, I was pretty much rugbied out (and I must admit that the games were not particularly exciting and just as you they get into it, it’s all over) And it would seem that pretty much everyone is just here for the partying. We did catch up with Narms friends in the Heineken tent, and yep they had partied hard yesterday and last night, and it appeared that was what they were going to do tonight as well. So we headed off to catch one of the free buses. On the way out I asked if there was a “Lost and Found” and was directed out a side gate, to the last tent in the row. As I went in the door I saw a young lady holding onto my phone case, and the guy beside her was going through my cards. Oh phew!!! What an incredibly amazing feeling. And they were concerned because my phone/camera was not in the wallet, but I assured them that I had the phone. How lucky was that. Just another example of what an amazing country this is. So we proceeded out to the bus line-up. We had been told by Narms friends to head to Barasti – that was the place to be – so we got on the Barasti Bus at just after 5pm. The bus was scheduled to leave at 5.30 or when the bus was full, whichever was last. And because the rugby was still being played, there weren’t a hell of a lot of people wanting to leave right now, so we waited and we waited and we waited. Guys got on, some got annoyed at waiting so long and got off and went and got taxis, but we waiting and finally we were full. We then had to wait another ten minutes, (not sure why, but a great cheer went up went we finally pulled out of the car park. It was a forty minute drive back to Barasti and when we got off the bus, a group of guys escorted us into the bar. One was a South African, one Welsh and two poms. Really nice guys who then showed us around the place and bought us a drink. They had all been working in the Middle East for many years, and told us that the Barasti Bar was the place where all the ex-pats hung out. What an amazing place, absolutely buzzing. Just across the water is the Atlantis Hotel. Yeehaaaa, only three more sleeps and we will be there. The guys gave us heaps of suggestions about places to go and things to see – we need at least another three weeks here!!!!! Two of the guys – the one from South Africa and the Welshman, work at the airport and they gave Narms their card and told us to ring when we get there on Thursday and they will look after us during our two hour wait. We caught a taxi back to Ibis MOE and after a shower I went down to the hotel restaurant for a very late dinner. I was feeling incredibly tired by this time – Narms had already crashed!! But a yummy dinner – lamb chops with skinny chips and a delicious salad. Doing well on salads still but not getting to experience very much of the local cuisine. I was too tired, to continue writing this to post last night, so headed up in the lift, walked into the room, lay down and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. It is now almost 7am and I am about to get up and go down for breakfast. I want to head off to Jumeriah today – would like to go to the Mosque and there’s a big themed mall, with one section Egyptian, one Persian and three others which I can’t just remember what they are at the moment. Narms is wanting to go to the Outlet Mall, but I am pretty much over shopping, just want to see the different cultural things now. So we will probably go our own ways today. Only four more days. 

After breakfast we had our last visit to Deira City mall to post my blogs before being picked up at the hotel for our overnight safari. I had tried to get hold of the tour company to see if they could help with transporting our luggage – the hotel were most unhelpful. No we could not use the Ibis shuttle service. And no, they would not ring the company for me. So much for being an Accor Club Member. We got back to the hotel lobby early because each courier so far has turned up at least fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled. We were picked up by a ‘cute as’ Arab in an awesome 4 wheel drive Toyota Landcruiser or some such vehicle. You would love it Rowan. There was one other couple with us, from Korea, and they spoke very little English which made communication very difficult. We headed out on the road towards Oman, and had a short stop about half way for a loo stop and some souvenir shopping, where we had our photos taken with a falcon on our arm. Shortly after this we turned off-road and headed into the desert. We stopped to wait for about four or five other groups to join us and then off we went – into the sand dunes.

Only one word to describe the whole experience – AWESOME. I was in the back seat so difficult to get a good video, but it was just like the video on You-Tube. We stopped to take photos of the sunset which was spectacular, before going on to the campsite.

What an amazingly organised operation – a permanent campsite set up, complete with souvenir shop, henna tattoo, a place for people to try and have photos taken in Arabic dress, the camel rides, sheesha smoking.

We were greeted with Arabic coffee or tea and dates, and settled down at our allotted table for nibbles – which comprised of chicken shawarma and falafel. It was then off to have our tattoos done and camel ride. Back to our table for dinner and entertainment. Dinner was barbeque of chicken, lamb or fish (no baby camel as mentioned in the brochure).

Entertainment was the belly dancer – she dances for 25 minutes non-stop (such energy) and then a guy dancing for about 15 minutes – a very theatrical performance. Phew!!! Would like have of that amount of energy. There were about 500 people at the dinner and would you believe it – Narms and I were the only ones staying the night. So we had the cute Arab all to ourselves. We sat and I tried the sheesha – it was okay, smelt nice and fruity (strawberry I think or apple and something) In the middle of our dinner, the camel ride guy came and found us, we had had our photo taken and Narms then did her haggling bit and got the price down from Dh for four to Dh 60 for three, but then came back with all four photos for Dh 60. Way to go Narms. She’s really good at that. ($21.95 for four photos) After everybody left they brought us our mattresses and sleeping bags and we made up our bed. At about 9.30 they turned the generator off and I sat out under the stars for about ½ an hour after Narms went to bed. You could hear dune buggies belting around outside the compound and there was a constant stream of planes coming and going – we were directly under the flight path. We both had a great nights sleep – in fact we both thought it was the best we had had since we got here – only waking once, and seeing what we thought was a dog come into the tent. Narms was a bit concerned, but I said it was probably a pet dog belonging to the staff who live on site, and we both settled back to sleep. I awoke at 6.30am and Narms was already up, and sitting up on a sand dune waiting for the sun to come up. Breakfast was at 7am – sausage, egg, juice, Nescafe coffee, bread, cream cheese, strawberry jam (once we got the jar opened) and yummy orange juice, plus fresh fruit – which we put into our bags for later.

Back on the track again, stopping briefly to take some photos at the camel farm (breeding farm for racing camels) and then out onto the highway to Dubai. We asked the driver about the dog – he said it might have been the German shepherd or it might have been a fox coming in to scavenge the food scraps from last night’s barbeque. OMG Our driver very kindly took us back to Deira Ibis instead of dropping us at Ibis Mall of Emirates, so we could pick up our luggage and we then caught a taxi to MOE which cost us Dh42.50. Ibis Mall of Emirates is really nice – the staff at reception were very friendly and extremely helpful – way more so than at Ibis Deira. (Hard to believe it is the same hotel chain) At first we were told we couldn’t check in until 2pm (and this was just after 9.30am) but we could store our luggage until then. We sat in reception and sorted our gear and charged our phones, and within about ½ an hour the chap came across to give us our room keys and directed us up to the sixth floor to a very nice room with a fabulous view. What wonderful service. He also gave us tourist pamphlets and advised us which trips to do. Will certainly recommend this hotel to people coming to Dubai, and it is only costing us $71 NZ per night. After getting up to our room and sorting our luggage and having a shower, it was off to the Mall of Emirates. Oh my gosh – this is very posh, very expensive. All the big labels here – Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Armani, Dior, etc etc etc. Way out of my league. But to my delight, I did find the Pride of Kashmir. Checked out Pashmina and carpets. Very nice. Found a lovely wee carpet 2’ by 3’ with the starting price of around $2000 NZ but because I come from NZ and because I have been to Kashmir he halved the price. Used the excuse it was too big and heavy to carry home, and he folded it up into a reasonably small parcel. Told him this was my first day here at MOE and I would be back later in the week, so managed to get out before I bought anything. But it is a really nice carpet and would cover up the spot on my carpet at home where I spilt the bottle of bright pink finger nail polish!! The pashmina are more expensive than the ones I bought at the textile souq. We split up about here and Narms went off to do some more shopping at Carrefour and I headed to Costa Coffee to check in to the free wi-fi to load some photos to Snapfish. I am loading photos each day, so hopefully it will be all done by the end of the trip and will arrive at home just a couple of days after we arrive home – well, that’s the plan anyway. So now I am sitting at the window in our 6th floor hotel room watching night falling over Dubai. What a beautiful sight. It’s only 5.45pm and it’s dark already. And there is an amazing coverage on television of the Anniversary Celebrations. I don’t think I have mentioned anywhere in the blog about the celebrations going on this week. It’s the 40th celebration of the UAE and everywhere there are flags and bunting of Black, red, green and white. Every building is adorned with flags, every lamp post has a flag flying from it, people are wearing scarves, or ties, teeshirts and hats, and even the ladies are wearing shayla decorated with the national colours. Cars and four wheel drive vehicles are painted with the Sheik’s photo, and flags or painted in the national colours. The ceremony has just come to an end, and because of the language difficulties we have been unable to establish whether it is here in Dubai, or in Abu Dhabi, which is the capital of the UAE. But what a spectacular show involving thousands of people, but also some very high tech imagery and lasers, mixed with fireworks at the end. It would have been great to have been there, if only we had known where it was. Wooops, I thought it had finished, but it appears that there is more. Now we are being entertained by Arab men dancing (quite sedately actually). Dressed in traditional gear and carrying walking sticks, they are chanting (or is it singing) and bobbing up and down and waving the sticks, and in the background the crowd is cheering and applauding. And now we are seeing images of the UAE military, which is interesting because all the tour guides we have have mentioned that this is a very peaceful country and has not had any wars. Must remember to check that out when next I get onto google. Not sure how much longer this programme is going to continue so I will stop here and say - that’s it for another day. Ela al Lekaa (see you later)

On the way home we asked for a loo stop, and Narms decided it was time to eat – she chose a chicken burger (similar to a KFC) and I chose a chicken and cheese roll from the Indian food bar. It was a very timely stop as our driver had been looking decidedly tired for the past ten or so kilometres. I haven’t done too well on the Emirati food as yet, and then at this stop I finished off with an Iced Mocha – very delicious. It was then back on the road and Narms asked the tour guide if we could make a small detour to stop off at her friend Mel’s to pick up our tickets for the Sevens for Saturday. Bit of a mix-up, as Mel had bought Friday/Saturday tickets for Dh350 each, but Narms is very good at negotiating and got the price down to Dh 200 and left Mel to sell the Friday tickets. We got back to the hotel and while Narms had her Nana Nap I typed up the blog. We had decided in the car to dress up tonight for dinner – me in my new abaya and Narms in her long black dress and my black shawl, and go down to the Turkish Restaurant just next door for a meal. But – disaster one – I spilt make-up down the front of brand new and very expensive abaya – I said a fit “sh.. bug… and dams” under my breath, and then I couldn’t get the shayla to sit proper and felt a bit of a fraud and uncomfortable and worried that I might cause offence, so did a quck change into my long black and silver dress and used the shayla as a scarf and headed off to the restaurant. When we got there Narms decided she didn’t want to eat there as she felt the need for some vegetables – they have certainly been lacking in our diet since we got here and said she would head over the foodcourt at the mall. I had already decided that Turkish was my choice for the night, so I stayed, and as it turned out, Narms ended up just next door at a Chinese restaurant called Four Seasons where she enjoyed a Beef Stir Fry. I had a kebab which was very tasty, followed by a cup of Turkish tea, which tasted better when I put a couple of sugar cubes in it. After dinner we packed our bags ready to check out in the morning and packed a backpack for the overnight trip to the desert tomorrow. So far so good, I can still fit all my gear plus purchases into my suitcase. Will maybe have to buy a new carry-on bag to put all the foodstuffs in for the trip home, which will make it easier for clearing through customs. And another good thing – I have been able to balance my spending money at the end of each day, and apart from the one purchase which I put onto my Visa card (the Abaya) I have stuck to my spending allowance pretty much every day. And that reminds me – got a text from the National Bank on the way to Abu Dhabi asking me to telephone the bank urgently. I immediately knew why – I had forgotten to let them know I was going to be out of the country. I remembered when I went to Vietnam, but for some reason I forgot this time. And so, a big red alert on my account today as the shop processed my purchase, and my credit card had been stopped until they established that I was in Dubai and they then authorised the transaction. Wow, what a great service. The bank officer did say that I may get texts again if they are worried about any use of my card, and hoped that it would not inconvenience me. I said no, I was pleased that they were so alert. And, so we settled in for our last night at Ibis Deira. Tomorrow we check out and put our luggage into storage until we get back from the desert.

I left off last yesterday afternoon saying we were going to go off on the Big Bus Tour. Well we got over to the Deira City Mall where the bus leaves from to find that the last bus had left about ten minutes ago and there was a two hour wait till the Night Tour started at 7.15pm. So Narms went off to get her hair straightened and I went searching for souvenirs, but decided against buying any in case I found just what I was looking for at the Women’s Heritage Centre in Abu Dhabi. The bus trip was great – very informative, but the bus driver didn’t stop or even slow down so we could get any decent photos, except for a stop at Atlantis The Palm. WOW it looks fantastic. Can’t wait to get there!!!!!! The bus trip included a stop at the Wafi Centre for the Sound and Light Show which was pretty amazing. The city looks incredible at night – so many huge buildings and the Burj Al Arab looking pretty stunning in the colour purple, but unfortunately the photos I got really don’t do it justice. Hard to take good photos from a moving bus. The tour ended back at the Deira City Mall, so we had a very late dinner (10pm) in the food hall. I opted for New York Fries where I had fries and an Arabic Salad. Not quite the traditional food I was hoping for, but yummy all the same. Today we were on the Day Trip to Abu Dhabi. Our Sri Lankan tour guide was waiting for us when we came out from breakfast. We were expecting to be in a bus, or a mini-van at least, but we came outside to find that there was just the two of us and we were to spend the day in a very luxurious car. Way to go girls!!!!! Thank you Kylee. We headed out of the city on a 7 lane highway at about 120 kph and passed all the huge buildings we drove past last night. Good to see them in the daylight. Abu Dhabi was quite different from Dubai, but again very luxurious – the place is just money money money. The buildings here are huge as well, and the gardens are beautiful. We visited the Emirates Palace – well that is we drove in the drive, to the foot of the stairs for a photo stop and then back out the drive. The property is beautifully maintained and the garden has 9000 trees planted in it, and all fed by underground irrigation. We visited the Mosque – the third largest in the world ( the largest is in Mecca, and the second is the Blue Mosque and I can’t remember if he said Pakistan or Iran, but I know I have been there) We had to put on an abaya before we could enter and of course take off our shoes. The mosque is built of marble from Italy, Thailand and Indonesia. Inside there was a 5,000 square metre hand woven carpet from Iran and the hugest and most beautiful chandelier. It can hold 5000 people for prayer. Surprisingly we were allowed to take photos inside, although it felt a bit wrong to me, although I did take lots of photos We went to a very up-market place selling genuine Arabic art, clothes and jewellery and we had a personal tour through here by a charming young man who did his best to sell me some more pashmina. You will be pleased to hear that I resisted the very very expensive Kashmiri pashmina, but I was very impressed with the quality of the goods. Had to buy something so bought a table runner - now have one from Italy, Vietnam and Abu Dhabi. From there we visited the heritage centre and then the date market before starting on the journey home. Here I got to try about five of the 168 varieties of date and learned that there are 52 million date palms planted in Abu Dhabi alone. The tour guide said that the very best dates come from Saudi Arabia, but the ones I have had here taste pretty good. Our guide on the Big Bus Tour and the one today filled us in with lots of statistics - Won’t bore you with them all but here are some to think about. Population of the UAE is 9 million and of that 1.5 million are Emirati; 4.5 million Indian/Pakistani/Bengalese; 1 million Filipino and the other 2 million are “others” and altogether there are 156 nationalities represented in the UAE. Wow and I thought we were doing well with 41 in Tauranga. And get this – water is more expensive that petrol which costs 7 Dh ($2.86 NZ ) per gallon and Deisel is 10 Dh per gallon. There is no tax here and the government gives an Emirati couple (that is local marrying local) 70,000 Dh for a wedding present and a house. There is free education but everyone must have medical insurance. Working Emirati’s have their insurance paid by their employers, but others have to pay their insurance, which is compulsory. Non-Emirati coming to the UAE must have jobs. No job – no stay. Abu Dhabi is the richest of the emirates, because of the oil – 1460 oil rigs (mostly offshore, but some onshore) producing 2.6 million barrels of oil per day. Last night on the tour we drove past the court house, and the tour guide told us that the courts are kept busy with recording births, deaths and marriages and handling divorces. There is very little crime – a little white collar embezzling, buy no violence or murders. Phew, what an amazing place. No wonder people want to come here to work.

Day 3 An uneventful morning as Narms caught up on her sleep and I wrote the blog and sorted photos on the laptop. Then we headed once more back to Diera City Mall as Narms was having problems with her phone. We had lunch at Colours Café and it was there that I was able to get one hour free wi-fi so I could post the first two days notes to my blog. I wasn’t able to add photos which was a bit of a pain. Not sure why, but I will try today to do that. While I was doing that Narms went twice back to the phone shop before finally getting it sorted. It was then up to the second floor to Carrefour where we did our serious shopping. I got the gift boxes of dates I was after – probably the only dates I am likely to have!!! Woops, forgot to mention the lovely lady we sat with while we ate our lunch. A professor at the university teaching structural engineering. She came from Jordan and had previously worked for some time in the USA. She is married with young boys, so her and Narms shared children stories. We spent a good couple of hours shopping in Carrefour, it is huge and sells absolutely everything. After we got back to our room Narms discovered that she had left one of her shopping bags in a shop called Forever 21, so she headed back there to recover it. We had earlier decided that an early night was in order as we had had a phone call from the tour company advising that pick-up time for the Hot Air Balloon trip in the morning is 4.30am. OMG, I wasn’t sure there was such a time.

Both of us had restless nights, waking hourly and so by 3.45am we were both wide awake. We showered and dressed and were ready to go by the time our wake-up call came from reception. We headed down for early breakfast – available from 4am – just tea/coffee and croissants, and the bus arrived fifteen minutes early. I had to run upstairs to pick up my phone which was on charge. The battery had run down overnight – dammed thing. I am having to recharge at least twice a day, not sure why, as I have turned off all the applications and am keeping it off-line. There was a couple already on the bus when we got on and we picked up an Australian family of four and proceeded to drive out of the city to meet another van load before heading out to the desert. We were quickly briefed on safety procedures and the landing procedure before jumping in the basket – all 24 of us and off we took. We shared our corner of the basket with a guy from France and a couple of girls from Baharain – quite delightful they were – quite scared to start, and terrified as we came in to land. It was great chatting with them when we got back onto firm land. One of them is married (and she added unfortunately and when we asked if it was an arranged marriage she replied no her choice, but it is only after marriage that you find out what someone is really like – ain’t that the truth and appears to be a universal problem) She works at the airport and she is in charge of flight scheduling. Her friend, single and vowed to remain that way, works for a tele-communications company handling all the complaints. This is their second trip together to Dubai. The balloon ride was fabulous, very smooth, it was a still calm morning and although cool before we got in, it soon warmed up from the heat of the hot air. It was very cosy, not a lot of room to move about. The sunrise was beautiful but not as dramatic a colour as our sunrises in New Zealand – not as red across the horizon. The landscape was just as I expected it to be and we flew at about 3-4000 feet above sea level.

The landing was very bumpy – we came in at about 20kph and the basket tipped on it’s side – the pilot hadn’t warned us of that and we certainly weren’t expecting it. The pilot jumped out and took a photo of us all hanging on for grim death. And so, the flight, like all good things, was over too soon. By 8am we were back on the road again. Of course we ordered the traditional tourist photo of the flight and the landing which cost me $US30. It was a very quiet group on the ride back to town. Not one person spoke and the driver was very erratic. A couple of the passengers, including Narms were feeling a bit motion-sick . and by the time we got back to the Hotel around 10am Narms was feeling rather poorly with a migraine and carsick feeling, so she put herself straight to bed and said she was going to lie low for a couple of hours. I went downstairs for a coffee and croissant and got chatting to a young Iranian man who joined my table. We chatted about his life and how difficult everything is for an Iranian. He wants to set up a transport business with his brother here in Dubai but cannot get a visa to stay here. He said that most countries make it very difficult for them to enter. Made me realise how very lucky we are to be New Zealanders.. We so take life for granted. We have so much freedom and for us to come to Dubai we just had to buy a ticket and get a stamp in our passport when we arrived at the airport. How simple is that. I came back upstairs and had a quick shower then headed over to the Mall. I wanted to check out the Arabian Perfume place. I had read that they mix perfumes to suit you personally, but alas, that was not the case when I got there. However I did find some lovely shops selling the most exquisite fabrics – Again wish you were here Roxy, you would love it. And then some shops selling abaya. They are also absolutely exquisite, with embroidered trim, jewelled trim or coloured fabrics. I tried on a couple and of course I just wanted fairly plain black for I am wanting to wear mine for the theatre. A lovely young Filopino girl helped me and showed me how to fix the head scarf (I think called shayla but I will check that spelling when I get a chance) An older lady, wearing an absolutely gorgeous abaya and head scarf trimmed with purple jewels came to talk to me and ask where I was from and wanted to encourage me to buy one with more colours. I explained I wanted fairly plain and the reason why. This lady came to live in Dubai with her husband 21 years ago and this was her husband’s shop. She took off her scarf and showed me the piece they put in their hair to make the scarf sit so nicely. She then took it out of her hair and fixed it on my hair. What a lovely thing to do. These woman are just so beautiful, not only in looks but also in their nature. I chose an abaya, but it needed an extra button so that it didn’t gape across my boobs, so the lovely wee Filipino girl said she would fix it for me and to come back in an hour and a half. So I headed off to find some lunch. I was wanting to eat something local, but there were restaurants of every nationality – Chinese, Thai, French, Italian, so I settled for a Lebanese one called L’Auberge. Didn’t sound particularly Lebanese but I ordered an Arabic Salad, which was really yummy – lettuce, tomato, cucumber, spring onion, lemon and radish. But it was the dressing that made it, and I have absolutely no idea what that was. Perhaps quite lemony, but hard to distinguish the other flavours. As I sat there in the restaurant I did a lot of people watching. This place is so fascinating – so many nationalities – such a diverse range of clothes. But the Emirati women are beautiful and their abaya are absolute fashion statements. And the Arab men in their white outfits and headdress are just so dashing. I went back to pick up my abaya and the ladies and the guy who owns the shop talked me into wearing it back to the hotel. What an amazing experience. It is so beautiful, the fabric really soft and flowing and I felt like I just blended in with the locals. Got back to the hotel, but Narms had gone out, so she missed my grand entrance – we must have just missed each other – or maybe she didn’t recognise me!!!! We are now off on a bus tour around the city so time to say Ela al lekaa. – see you later.

Watch out Dubai – Narms and Heather are here! Up at 7am and feeling good after a good nights sleep, and downstairs for breakfast by 8am. We left the hotel with a bit of a plan, but knowing that we had the cultural centre booked for 1pm. We caught the Metro – that was fun and very easy. We bought a Silver concession card for Dh20 (about $NZ 7.00). The metro is amazingly efficient and clean and safe. The carriages are contained within a double doored tunnel which warn you when they are going to open, and then when they are going to shut. Everything is spotlessly clean and tidy, the rubbish bins around the stations are stainless steel and we saw a man actually polishing them all and they simply sparkle. We caught the train to the Souq area and here began our “Shopping Experience” The salesmen (mostly Indian) are quite persistent and will never tell you the price until you are ready to buy and then the bargaining begins. And of course everything starts at a ridiculous price (although still cheap by NZ prices). Narms is a great bargainer - and she can very strongly say no as well. And there started our first adventure. We were buying shoes. Narms had two pairs and I had one pair and we were trying to bargain. His first price was four hundred and something Dhs. Narms said No too dear and he knocked the price down a bit, Narms still said No and he knocked a bit more off the price. Narms was still insistent that this was too much and he was busy telling us what good quality the shoes were and we couldn’t recognise quality. We started to leave the shop, a very tiny shop, very narrow as well, and by this time he had positioned himself between us and the exit. Not a nice feeling and we will make sure that this doesn’t happen again. As we tried to push past him, he used the steel pole he used for getting the shoes off the high displays, to block the doorway. Not a very nice feeling, but Narms was very assertive, told him he was not being nice, and this was illegal and we were not happy at being treated like this. An older man came in from outside and he appeared a little upset at what this younger chap was doing, so he agreed on the price Narms had been bargaining for , took the Dh 180 handed us the bag with our three pairs of shoes and allowed us to leave the shop. We laughed all the way down the street – we had gone from about 460 to 180 Dh so paid 60 for each pair (about $22). A bit further down the street Narms put her sandals on and so much for quality – about an hour and a half later they broke!! We found a shop selling abaya and I spent some time trying them on. It was quite strange that this shop was also being run by an Indian man. I would have expected a Muslim lady to be serving me there. I didn’t find one I really liked, so we ended up buying a scarf each. By now it was midday and we were booked for lunch at the Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding at 1pm and we so didn’t want to be late, so we flagged down a taxi. We had tried to catch a bus, but that wasn’t as easy as the Metro, so we opted for the taxi option. But that wasn’t entirely successful as the taxi-driver had no idea where to take us. So Narms kept showing him on the map. So with a taxi driver who didn’t know where we were going and the midday traffic jam (this was Sunday, but the first business day of the Arab week - there weekend is Friday/Saturday) it was a very slow trip and we were getting anxious as it was 2mins to 1 when he dropped us – somewhere in the vicinity. We found the place, ran down the alley way and presented ourselves at the reception desk. A very lovely English girl greeted us and told us we were not late and that 90% of today’s guests had not arrived yet. She directed us into the house and we had to take off our shoes and make our way in the room. I was very aware of my dusty, dirty smelly feet and so made my way to the ladies room, where I washed my feet over the toilet with the house. How good that felt. The cultural experience was fabulous. We were welcomed with Arabic coffee (very light roast so not bitter or strong) and fresh dates – yummy. The scrumptious Emirati guy talked to us about their culture and dispelled a number of myths and told stories and spoke quite openly and bluntly. He had lived for a number of years in America . We then enjoyed a delicious lunch of a sweet rice dish flavoured with brown sugar and caramelised onions , a chicken dish very like a dahl, another chicken rice dish similar to biriyani and a white rice with a fish dish. And there were also whole fish. I didn’t eat the fishy stuff but the ones I tried were absolutely delicious. The meal was ended with a cup of tea. The young girl then spoke to us and talked about her choice to ‘cover’ She was obviously from a wealthy family , although we didn’t find out what her parents did. She had gone to an international private school and her English was excellent. She was very beautiful and under her abaya she wore very expensive designer jeans. Her finger and toe nails were beautifully manicured and she had the most beautiful skin. She talked about choosing to cover at the age of 10, and now at 17 she will cover when in her own environment, but if out and about with non-covered friends from university or the international school she will choose not to cover so as not to be the odd one out or to make her friends feel uncomfortable. She then asked for a volunteer to try on the abaya and I very quickly put up my hand, and she dressed me, explaining the process and the reasons why as she did it. It felt very comfortable and even with the full veil on it was amazing how easy it was to see. We asked about the bulk of hair under the veil and she explained that some women have very long hair bundled up under the veil, but for others like her, they use hair pieces and beautiful artificial flower arrangements that they make to bulk the vel out and help the veil to stay in place without the use of pins. She admitted that she is very particular about her hair and her last hair do cost Dh 650 (over $NZ 250) and we couldn’t even see it. Seems like a waste to me, but she did look very lovely in the veil. After leaving the Cultural Centre we made our way up the road to the Museum. This was an amazing place with fabulous exhibits and well worth the Dh3 entry fee. ($1.10) That’s a far cry from the $20+ we pay at home to get into places like that. It was also nice and cool in inside. Although I haven’t found it too hot yet. I think the temperature is probably about 22 or so. The rain that was forecast the other day hasn’t eventuated yet and looking out the hotel window as I write this on Monday morning the sky looks overcast and there is a bit of a breeze so it should be a comfortable day. After the museum it was time for some serious shopping. First stop the Textile Souq. Pure heaven. Fabrics like you wouldn’t believe. Just shops and shops and shops, and all selling different stuff. Have never seen such a range of fabric in my whole life. And then there are the Pashmina shops. I went into one and got fussed over for an hour. Ended up buying three more pashmina. Narms was happy to sit and rest and drink a complimentary juice from the owner. They are so friendly and attentive. We then caught the boat across the creek to the Perfume Souq. Here we met a young man from Iran, who introduced us to frankinsence and myrrh. He told us we can’t take it out of the country. Now will have to check that out, because I thought we could. Next stop was the Gold Souq. By this time we were both exhausted. It was about 7pm and we had been out and about since 8.30. But the temptation of all that jewellery kept us going. It was interesting because at about 5pm we had decided to make our way home, have a rest and eat our dinner ( we had a take-home pack of food from the cultural centre lunch we had been carrying around all afternoon) but somewhere between making the decision and heading in a homeward direction we got our second breath and kept going!! Narms was looking at rings, and I was determined not to be tempted by expensive stuff this trip. I was quietly sitting and waiting for Narms when I spotted a snake necklace, bracelet and earing set in 18c white gold. I made the mistake of trying it on!!! But it was way expensive and the first asking price was Dh6970 about $2500. O I said no thank you very much and before I walked out the price had reduced to Dh 5500 and there was still room for bargaining. Whatever Narms had been looking at had been halved when she walked out saying she was too tired to think about it right now and we will come back. And of course this was the first shop we had been into, so we didn’t want to rush our decisions. If I don’t spend too much more by the end of the holiday I may go back and see how much more I can drop the price. We wandered to the other end of the Gold Souq and just did window shopping. I found a number of other snake necklaces and rings which I will go and check out before going back to the first place. Managed to find our way through the Souq and out to the main road, and finally the metro station. Caught the train home and we both just collapsed after having a shower. I nibbled a little of the chicken and rice we had been carrying around all day, because I needed to take some Ibuprofen – my feet were very swollen and may ankle extremely sore by this time, but Narms crashed and was asleep within five minutes of being back in our room. I wrote a few lines in my diary, but my eyes were soon closing on me, so I gave in and went to sleep, must have been around 10pm and we slept right through to about 7.30am. Breakfast downstairs, and then back up to the room to write up my blog while Narms had a wee rest. She is still feeling quite jet-lagged and it is now 11.30am so I will see if I can find out how to get this attached via Wi-fi. And then set out for Day 3. We have nothing planned for today – we might do the bus tour, and re-visit the Diera City Mall, and find somewhere nice to eat tonight. We have to get up early tomorrow – have the 5am start for the Balloon Ride so need an early night and good sleep.

Phew – here we are, settled into our room in the Ibis Hotel. A room with a double bed !!!! Woops not quite what we ordered, but the reception desk promised to fix that this afternoon for us. In the meantime we’ve showered and changed and been downstairs for breakfast and now Narms is having a ‘Nana Nap’ and I’m doing the blog. So much for those comments at work a couple of weeks ago about putting me in a wheelchair at the airport and Narms telling everyone she was taking her ‘granny’ on a holiday. She’s the one asleep, and I’m awake still. To be fair though it has been a long and tiring trip. We were both awake at 5.30 on Friday morning and although our flight wasn’t leaving until 6pm and we were due at the airport at 4pm, Narms mother wanted to take us through to Auckland earlier and we left Tauranga just after 10.15am. A wee detour at Waihi for me to say goodbye to Rowan and we then had a good trip through arriving at the airport around 1.30pm. So a long wait, but it was good not having to rush and stress and we were right at the front of the queue as soon as check-in for the flight was announced, so we had plenty of time to look around in Duty Free and to buy our souvenir soft toys for the Sevens – Narms got a kiwi and I got a wee pukeko. Boarding the plane was very efficient and we both had aisle seats which was good,. Dinner was served on the flight to Sydney and then we had a 45 minute wait there. We had to come off the plane and go through security, but not as strict as in NZ, we only had to put our fluids and cosmetics in the tray. In NZ you have to put your camera, phone, lap top, keys etc . My bag and I were scanned for explosives as we left NZ and Narms was picked on in Australia. But apart from that all was well. From Sydney it was a fourteen hour flight – and on this flight we got another dinner, a supper and a breakfast – it seemed that we did a lot of eating. I had reading and writing with me, but chose instead to catch up on a couple of movies - saw Larry Crowne which I had missed at home and watched Last Night – another chick-flick. Then caught up on four episodes of Sea Patrol and the first three episodes of Hawaii 5-0 which I had also missed at home. Even managed to get quite a bit of sleep as well. We landed at 5.30am and it took about an hour to get through the arrival process, although for us it was very easy. They just scanned and then stamped our passports and that was it. For some of those arriving it took ages and they needed to have had eye scans done and needed to be carrying that documentation with them. We only had to put our hand luggage through the scanners, didn’t need to empty anything out, and just picked up our checked luggage and walked straight on out. No checks in place at all, and although there were two doors – one saying “Nothing to Declare” and the other saying “Goods to Declare” there didn’t appear to be anyone on duty to check things out. We came out into the arrival hall to find a man standing with a sign saying Mr Heather Graham. He was quite surprised to discover that his passengers were in fact women, and chuckled and joked about that on the way to our hotel. He gave us little snippets of information along the way ,pointed out the shopping mall and the food hall, and when he got us to the hotel he carried our bags in, took our passports off us and got us all checked in before leaving us. He even gave me his telephone number to ring him if we needed any help with anything while we are in the country!!!! He shook our hands and kissed us both on both cheeks before leaving us. Pretty good service. Thank you Kylee for organising that for us. The view out the window of the hotel is interesting – we look out onto high rise buildings and the airport must be fairly close as there is a constant stream of planes coming and going past the window. There is some sort of construction or landscaping going on right outside the hotel – and as it is not quite 10am local time (6.53pm NZ time Saturday) there isn’t a lot of traffic around as yet. Friday and Saturday are the weekend days here, and the shops open from 10am to 10pm or midnight . We studied our guide books and itinerary downstairs at breakfast this morning and the loose plan is to go over to the Diera Mall this morning, have a rest this afternoon and then head to the Diera Souqs this afternoon around 4.30pm and pretty much follow the itinerary as set out in our guide book. The temperature is supposed to be about 22-28 degrees and there was showers forecast, although it is not looking much like rain at the moment. The sky is a funny bluey grey colour, but not a rain clouds type of grey, more just a murky, smoky smoggy looking grey. But it will be interesting to see how the day pans out. We’ve got the aircon on so a bit hard to judge how hot it might be out there. After my last two long flights I had incredibly swollen feet and ankles, so this time I invested in a pair of travel stockings – and it would seem that that was a very good $48 investment. My feet aren’t swollen at all, and in fact feel pretty comfortable. So hopefully they will stay like that. The pharmacist suggested I wear them the whole time, but if we are going to be doing a lot of walking today I don’t think I will bother keeping them on. So now it is just about 6pm. We spent our first day at the Diera City Mall – what an amazing place. It’s quite big by our standards, but relatively small apparently by Dubai standards with only about 350 shops. A wide variety of both local flavour shops and all the labels – including Debenhems and Marks and Spencers and Boots. Narms bought a GHD which was on special price today only, and we spent a bit of time wandering around the local version of the Warehouse. We bought some water and pringles, and Narms bought some shoes. The range of clothes was amazing – and they even sold some reasonably priced Abaya – albeit they were a bit plain looking. We saw some women in the most amazingly embroidered and jewelled abaya – I would love to have one of those and will certainly be on the lookout for one in the Mall of Emirates and in the fabric souq. The fashions are wide and diverse, as are the people. Some very modern and westernised, and others very traditional. The men look interesting in their white dress and head gear. And they are so impeccably white and immaculate. It would seem that they never sit down in them as there is not a single crinkle or crease in them. !! So with very tired and swollen feet we came back to the hotel for a ‘nana nap’ and the plan was to have a rest, go on a bus tour and then to go back to the mall for dinner. We went downstairs and got our room changed to a room with twin beds and carted our gear from the 3rd floor down to the 1st floor on the other side of the building, so now we look out onto the back of some other buildings. But hey, now we have a bed each. And we lay down for our naps, and awoke at 9pm, turned over and went back to sleep and woke at 11.45pm. Luckily neither of us was very hungry, so a nibble on some fruit, a few pringles and a drink of water and we chatted and planned our next day, and poured over our guide books to get ourselves orientated to the city before turning out the light at 3am. We woke again briefly at about 5pm and finally woke for real at 6.15 with Narms sitting bolt upright in bed saying – “Oh no . My GHD will have a Dubai plug.” I jokingly told her, now you will have to buy a conversion plug which will cost you $100 and now your GHD costs the same as it would have cost you at home. When she realised I was joking, she called me a shithead. What a nice travelling companion ha. And so now to start on day 2. We are off to the Gold Souq and we are booked in the Islamic Culture Centre for lunch, so we’ll catch you all at later.

Seven sleeps till we leave. My bag is almost packed, I've done all the research I can do, I've made up my Travel Journal, I've registered with Safe Travel NZ. Is there anything I've forgotten?

Preparing for the next adventure - Dubai here we come

August 11 - working at CMed with Narms in the admin office and we made a spontaneous decision to go to Dubai in November. Wow, how cool is that. Just do it!!!!

So when I got home from work that day, I did a bit of research - it looked like an amazing place to visit and so the real serious planning started. On the Sunday we went to the Flight Centre expo and picked up some brochures and got some prices for flights, then we got together over the next few days and planned our itinerary before forwarding it to Kylee at Vuda, who then did all our bookings for us.

And now, here we are just four weeks out from departure. Everything is booked, and we are on the final countdown. I had to apply for a new passport, and I had the booster Hepatitis shot from the course I started for my Vietnam trip, we've changed our money, done our insurance and really all we have to do now is pack our bags. Well - you know me, I've already started doing that. It's been such fun planning our itinerary and we both wanted to do the same things, so it was easy - we've got a pretty action packed holiday planned - a visit to a cultural centre for lunch, a hot air balloon ride, an overnight safari in the desert, a day trip to Abu Dhabi and a day at the rugby sevens. And then of course there is shopping, shopping and more shopping, and throw in a bit of eating and drinking and a night at Atlantis The Palm, and it all adds up to a pretty exciting holiday. I think we can steal the Vuda slogan from my Vietnam trip to describe this holiday as well - A bit of an adventure, a splash of luxury, a heap of culture, a taste of exotic cusiine = one amazing Vuda experience.

Hoi An to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

A very early start – early morning call at 5.30am and we had to have our bags outside our doors by 6.15 and at reception ready to go by 6.30am. The hotel provided a breakfast box for us – some bacon a little sausage and a boiled egg – two slices of toast bread with a cheese slice, a croissant, a banana and a pottle of yoghurt which we could either eat on the bus or on the plane.

Checking in at Da Nang airport was interesting and our guide Van was there to make sure all went smoothly – and I was pleased to find that my suitcase weighed 19.3kg. The usual security checks – no sharps, no weapons and LAGs in the plastic bags and Mary had her mango slicer in her hand luggage and this was confiscated.

The flight was late taking off – a passenger was sick and had to be taken off and the luggage removed as well, so about 20minutes late arriving at Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Here we were met by the last of our local tour guides – a delightful chap by the name of Cheung. He is a real character, with a great sense of humour. His English is great and he is much easier than both Nam and Van to understand.

Not quite so hot here in Saigon, I think it’s the humidity is a bit lower. We were taken on a tour of the city - we visited the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Saigon Post Office, with a fancy lunch included in there as well.

The War Remnants Museum was sobering – the photos and stories showing the full horror of the war here in Viet Nam. It is so hard to believe that these atrocities were allowed to happen, and the long term effects of Agent Orange are horrific. How these people have moved on from all that is amazing, and it is shocking to realise that we didn’t really know or understand the full story of what was happening here. And to think that at the end of all that fighting and all those lives lost, the country still became communist and it really was all in vain. The statistics on the wall in the War Office at the Reunification Palace show that there were (I think, I remember – I didn’t write it down at the time – I may have taken a photo of the board) 563 New Zealand troops here in 1972.

The cathedral and the post office were both built by the French – the cathedral looked quite spectacular from the outside but was quite unimpressive on the inside – nowhere near as ornate as I would have expected – and certainly nowhere near as decorative as the Budhist or Hindu temples are.

After our sightseeing trip we were delivered to our hotel – The Majestic, a fabulous old building which looks just like the photos on the website. I am sharing with Dianne again and after settling into our room, showering and changing we headed up to the bar on the 5th floor for a drink. The cocktail of the day was a “Sweet Saigon” which was pretty yummy. The view from the 5th floor looked down on the hectic traffic of Saigon – more motor bikes, thousands of people and the traffic wending it’s way round and across the huge intersection in the road.

Gradually everyone joined us and we then headed away with Kylee to a restaurant for a Vietnamese Barbeque at a busy little rooftop restaurant which we reached by taxi.

The meal was delicious – barbequed beef rolls wrapped around cheese and fried rice (which I was told was safe to eat until Kathy discovered a shrimp in her bowlful) salad and morning glory.



Each night Kylee has chosen a different type of restaurant to take us to introduce us to Vietnamese food, and each one has been quite quite different. Tonight’s restaurant was doing well in the popularity stakes until the waiter brought out the prawn kebabs. Everyone was impressed until they realised that the shrimps were in fact still alive and jumping about on the plate. The squeamish stomachs started to complain until Kylee asked the waiter to take them away and bring them to us cooked, which they did, and then everyone felt comfortable eating them !!

It was then a ten minute walk back to the hotel and time for bed – we were all pretty tired and we knew we had to be up and have had breakfast and be ready to on the bus by 8am in the morning.

Last day in Hoi An

Four of us were up and ready at 8am to catch the shuttle bus to go to Cham Island for the diving. The day was perfect, warm – not too hot, with a little cloud cover and the one and a bit hour boat ride out was a little bumpy but not too bad. A couple of the passengers became seasick, one of them was really quite sick by the time we reached the dive site, and didn’t recover when she got into the water and spent the hour we were snorkelling or diving resting on the rocks.

Despite wanting to dive, I took advice from home not to do an initial dive here, and just snorkel and I am so glad I did, the snorkelling was amazing. The coral was beautiful, so many beautiful shapes and colours. Not a lot of fish, but the ones we saw were very colourful and all shapes and sizes. I would say that this snorkelling site was better than the one I did four years ago at Lady Musgrove on the Barrier. The coral was way more spectacular.

We spent an hour in the water and then went ashore for lunch and a bit of sunbathe. We weren’t expecting lunch so had snaffled some bread and cakes at breakfast time, and I had wrapped mine in one of the hotel serviettes and smuggled into my back pack, but certainly didn’t need it – the lunch was great. Once more my little allergy card came to the rescue – that card has been a god-send, and I would certainly recommend them to anyone travelling with diet requirements.

Because there was a storm brewing, we didn’t get the extra hour of snorkelling or diving after lunch, instead headed home. The four of us headed for the top deck – it was beautiful and warm up there, with just a gentle breeze, certainly not too hot. I got a wee touch of the sun, not bad and just enough to add a little tan colour to my arms and legs.

The ride home was a little bumpier, but not too uncomfortable and later that evening when we called in to the dive centre, the boss said they had made the decision to head home for the comfort of all the passengers, it may have been okay to stay, but safety is paramount and so the decision was made to head home. An interesting comment as the four of us had been discussing the trip over dinner and we felt that safety was perhaps not the biggest concern. There had certainly not been any discussion with the snorklers as to how comfortable we were, and there was no help sorting out masks or getting into the water. Didn’t bother me because I knew what I was doing, and so it seemed did everyone else. However there were no instructions on what we were doing, how to know where to go or how far, or when to know that the boat was going to leave. Maybe I am just so used to living in NZ where everything is documented in triplicate and OSH is the main concern and we can’t do anything without having the right instructions and safety precautions in place.

But the day was awesome, the water was just a nice temperature, there was plenty to see, and the bonus of the lunch thrown in. The boat was full of interesting people, and we got talking to a German Swiss professor who was visiting Hanoi to lecture, there was an interesting German guy who had been living in Ireland and so spoke with an amazing Irish accent, and a chap from Darwin who had been in Hanoi for the World Life Saving Convention (and it turned out that it was the Australian Premiere who had opened the conference and that was all the hoo-ha in Hanoi with police convoys and road closures etc that I spoke about earlier.

The next day I headed into town early, but none of my purchases were ready to be collected, so I headed back to the hotel for a bite to eat and then it was off down the road with Caroline and Diane as we had booked a full body massage. Wow those girls have the strongest thumbs, and they managed to find every one of my trigger points, but what an incredible massage. Started with the back, then the legs and feet and then the arms and fingers, finishing off with the face and scalp. Wow, I am going to treat myself to one of those regularly at home.

We got picked up at 5pm to be taken on a boat trip on the river – Double whammy celebration here in Hoi An tonight – the Full Moon Celebration but it is also Budha’s birthday, so a very special night. The trip down the river was lovely, we watched the moon come up as we cruised along, and then headed back to the town. A quick trip around the shops to pick up my purchases. My suit and shirt were ready but the dress needed some alteration, one pair of shoes was ready, but the wee boots needed stretching and altering, and the pant suit was ready. Phew, what a lot of shopping that was and I am thrilled with it all so far.

A real carnival atmosphere in the old town – lanterns everywhere and each shop had set up a shrine and was burning incense and were turning out the electricity and just working in the lantern light. Street performers were all over the place and the locals were out in full force. We headed to Cargo Club for dinner, another of Miss Vy’s restaurants and again the food was sensational. An incredibly busy restaurant with both locals and tourists and from the balcony restaurant we watched the parade of floats on the other side of the river – dragons and lotus flowers and other assorted designs.

After dinner (I had a grilled chicken salad with an icecream sundae for dessert) we headed out to each light a candle and send it off down the river. Apparently this is a cleansing ritual ( a little like going to confession) Candles, lanterns, people everywhere, music and the full moon casting amazing light across the river – what a magical night.

And at 10pm we made it back to the bus for the ride back to the hotel. What a privilege to have been able to witness all that. This truly is a magical place – the people are so lovely, and I think that Hoi An has been the highlight for me. Everywhere in this country the people have been gentle and friendly and helpful, but here in Hoi An they have been truly amazing. Even though the shopkeepers are there to take your money, they are so friendly and you leave their shop feeling as if you have just made a new friend. They want to know all about you, your life, your family. They seem to crave information about the visitors to their country and they are happy to talk about themselves. Their English is really good and they love talking to you.

I have just loved it here and would love to come back again really soon. Roxy – start saving – you and I could have a ball here

Hoi An - A shopper's paradise

Each of the places we have visited have had their own particular charm, but Hoi An is fabulous – the shopping, the people and the food.

After coming back from My Son on Sunday, it was time for the serious shopping to start. This is the place we had all been hanging out to reach – the place to get shoes and clothes made. When we arrived on Saturday, Van our local guide had taken us on an orientation walk through the Ancient Town and shown us some of the most reputable shops to buy from. Diane and I headed in to the town on the hotel shuttle bus, and the driver got talking to us on the way in. He asked if we had special shops we wanted to go, we said yes, Van had shown us. He said he would drop us at a very good tailor, but we weren’t to tell anyone he dropped us there. (it turns out he was only supposed to take us as far as the bus stop, and not to anywhere in particular). Anyway, the wee girl in the shop that took a shine to me, Dom, she got busy showing me designs and fabric and I decided on getting a suit made. So very quickly she had me measured and we had the fabric chosen. It turned out to be a bit more expensive than the place Van had shown us yesterday, but I was happy with both the fabric and the wee girl who was serving me, so I agreed on a price, paid my money and was most content. I ordered a suit, a blouse and a dress. Meanwhile Diane was feeling very uncomfortable with the whole deal, she felt she could get a suit made at home for less than that, so decided against buying there. But, I was happy and went ahead with my purchase.

From there it was on to the next place Van had showed us to get some shoes made. I had my evening slides with me, and I chose to get another pair of those made, but in blue leather. And I had also chosen a picture from a catalogue yesterday and the young girl had remembered and very quickly had me measured up for them. I asked for a slightly lower heel, and a more rounded toe, and she said no problem!! With all that shopping under our belts, it was time to meet the others at Morning Glory – for our cooking class.

What an amazing experience – Miss Vy the owner of the shop was an amazing woman – she spoke with such passion about food and ingredients and the reason why they use certain ingredients and every ingredient had a use. She spoke of the harmony of food – the ying and yang and balance and showed us how to make spring rolls, crispy pancakes, grilled chicken and the most delicious mango salad. It was to die for. She has written the most informative cook book, and it only cost $39.95, but it is very heavy and I just haven’t got room for it in my suitcase. However we did get a copy of the recipes we cooked tonight so I will just have to be content with that. We ate the spring rolls and the pancake at our cooking stations, but after the chicken was grilled, we took that and our salads into the restaurant and ate them there. She then sent out some kind of curry soup, but I was content with what I had already eaten so didn’t try that, and we finished off with a crème caramel dessert. What a fantastic night, and the food (and considering that we had cooked it our ourselves) was delicious. And to top off a fantastic evening, we were all given a mango slicer as a gift. What a bonus.