A Busy day in Dubai

We have had a great day today and feel like we have managed to have a taste of the many different aspects of Dubai.
After breakfast in the hotel our day started with a 9:30am booking at the Burj Khalifa to go to the observation deck on floors 124 and 125. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest man made structure on land and is 828m tall. It took 75sec in the lift to get to the 125th floor!! And the view was amazing. Looking out you can clearly see how this city has sprung up out of the desert and the amount of construction work that is going on is incredible, Dubai is obviously still growing at a great rate.
After spending some time on both the 125th and 124th floors we had a rapid descent in the lifts back down to the bottom again. On the way out, there were lots of interactive displays showing how the building was constructed and how various operational factors take place today. Amazingly enough they use people attached to gantries and suspended from the roof to clean the 24, 000 windows of the building by hand!!
From the Burj Khalifa we caught a taxi to the Miracle Garden and were once again blown away by the grand scale on which Dubai does things. I was expecting the miracle garden to be a botanic garden but no, it was full of all sorts of structures and figures made from plants and flowers with blooms everywhere. Everywhere we looked there was something new and incredible to see. Again, truly amazing for a place that has

grown from the desert. The manpower and water required to keep these gardens looking so amazing really does make it a miracle garden. We had bought some wraps for lunch from Waitrose before leaving the Dubai Mall so we found a table and chairs in the shade and sat and enjoyed this once we had finished walking around the garden.
Then it was back to the hotel ready for our 2pm pick up to go on our desert safari. This was also a great experience. We picked up another couple – Helen and Roger from the UK - from their hotel and then the 6 of us with our guide Addriss drove in convoy with another 4WD from our tour company out into the desert. The afternoon started with some crazy desert driving – they call it a roller coaster, and I soon saw why as the way we raced up and down dunes and around corners as we drove through the desert was very much like a roller coaster. We stopped a couple of times to get some desert photos and then headed back to our desert camp where we were to spend the evening. On our way back to the camp we came across a 4WD from a different tour company who had got bogged up on the top of a dune ridge so our 2 guides stopped to help him out. It took a few attempts to get the vehicle positioned in the right place to then drag the bogged vehicle out of the sand using a snatch strap and I was worried that it was going to end in disaster, but it didn’t and the car was soon freed and on its way and we could return to camp as well. Addriss told us they had been there for about 30min waiting for someone else to show up so it was lucky we turned up when we did. It would have been a very long, cold night if they had been stuck in the desert all night! Once we got to our camp, Addriss showed us where we would be sitting for the buffet dinner and to watch the dancing shows. The seating was cushions on the floor around a low table so Roger and Helen decided to pay the upgrade to the VIP area which was table and chairs on a raised area and the food is brought to you rather than having to queue at the buffet. The 4 of us decided we were ok to sit on the cushions so didn’t worry about the VIP upgrade.
We took a walk up a dune to watch the sunset – it was certainly different seeing the sunset in the desert rather than over the ocean which we are used to – and it was beautiful. After this we went to get a henna design on our hand – this was free as part of the safari experience so Lauren and I decided we would get one. Brianna was also very keen but she is back at work this weekend so seeing as she wouldn’t be allowed it at work she decided not to. Also on offer were free camel rides so after the henna we went to this area – but the camel ride consisted of getting on the camel, walking about 50m, turning around, coming back and getting off again. After doing a camel safari along Cable Beach in Broome we decided we didn’t need to do this so after having photos with an eagle instead we headed back to our seats. The buffet dinner was nice enough but nothing to rave about – still it saved us paying an exorbitant amount for dinner elsewhere and instead we just paid an exorbitant amount for a beer each! Soft drink and water were free at least. The entertainment was good and between food courses we saw performances from a whirling dervish, a flame thrower and a belly dancer. The night ended at 8pm and we climbed back into the 4WD and Addriss returned us to our hotels.
Back at the hotel we re-packed our suitcases for the last time and went to bed after a very busy but enjoyable day.