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?