Got my wakeup call from the hotel at 06:00 and snoozed until about 07:30. Got ready and went down for breakfast and from there planned my day's activities - today was gonna be part 2 of my "Dubai City Tour" which I had started yesterday. Left the hotel at 09:00 and caught a taxi. There are always at least 5 or 10 taxis outside each hotel so you just walk out and straight into one.

I had decided to head down south for the morning, first starting off at the "Mall of the Emirates" - the largest shopping mall outside the United States. It opened recently, October 2005 and is about the size of 73 football fields apparently. Has over 400 shops, 65 resturants, 14 cinema screens, and of course, the main reason I wanted to see it, was the indoor ski slope - Ski Dubai. A skiing slope in the middle of the desert... wicked.

Firstly, the taxi ride to the mall was a first for me - the taxi drivers arent much different to those in SA, just get to the destination as quickly as possible. Between swerving between trucks and other cars and having the speed control continuously beeping for being over the speed limit, I got there ok, rather quickly and at a fair price. I walked around the mall for a while, which is massive - picture Gateway (Umhlanga, SA) times 10. Huge. Just as any other mall, nothing too exciting inside, unless you're shopping for stuff that is. Spent a while looking at Ski Dubai - weird to see actual snow falling and people wearing a beanie and scarf while its 40 degrees outside. The mall itself was rather quiet, their Fridays are like our Sundays, a day of rest. Apparently later on it gets busy again. Not early when I was there.

From there I, again, caught a taxi to Madinat Jumeirah hotel, which is the first hotel in a set of beach hotels. Unless you have a pass into the hotel, you're generally not allowed into any. But I knew that, so just another chance for more photos (which I will post as soon as I can). From the Madinat Jumeirah, I walked down the main road, which was a killer (far and in 40 degrees heat and no wind). The next hotel was the Burj Al Arab - Dubai's famous 7 star hotel, in the shape of a sail wind. Adjacent to the hotel, is Wild Wadi - a water theme park, similar to Sun City. Again, a water theme part in the desert also is awesome. You're not allowed anywhere close to the Burj Al Arab, but they have, so kindly, allowed an area at the security gate to take photos. Which I did... and a lot of.

Further down the road, still in the heat, walking past the Jumeirah Beach Hotel which also meant more photo opportunities. These two hotels (the Jumeirah and Burj Al Arab) are often photographed together - I'll include a picture of these two together soon. A few kilometers down the road, I went to one of the public beaches and sat there for while. Didnt have my costume with me, unfortunately, cos the beach was beautiful and the water colour was incredible. Will keep a note for next time :)

After spending a while at the beach walking around, took a stroll back up to the main road and caught a taxi back to the hotel, and got back about 13:00. So, between yesterday and today, I pretty much saw the highlights of Dubai, even though I missed the official tour but seemed to make up for it. Damn I'm cool. Was buggered from the heat and had a quick power-nap before lunch. Decided to have a burger in the resturant downstairs in the hotel. After lunch, I had organised the Desert Safari tour, so was holding thumbs that they were gonna pick me up this time. I had told them yesterday exactly which hotel I was at, so was holding thumbs while waiting in the hotel lobby.

I got picked up from my hotel at 15:30 and then got taken to the other hotels to pick the other people also on the tour up. There were another five people we had to fetch (two Indian guys and their grandfather, as well as a Korean couple who were on their honeymoon in Dubai). From picking everyone up, we headed out in the 4x4's away from the city. After about an hour out of the city, we turned off the main road and into the desert. We had to wait there for all the other vehicles in our "convoy" to meet us and then our desert safari / dune bashing began. It was like a rollercoaster but offroad over the sand dunes - ramping over the dunes, skidding around, kicking up dirt and sliding down the dune sides... awesome! We had to stop a few times to help other vehicles that had gotten themselves stuck in the sand and needed to be pulled out. The dune bashing went on for about an hour before we stopped for a short break just before sunset to take photos of a setting sun dissapearing over the bare desert.

We then went to our campsite, an enclosed area with a traditional Arabic setting. They had Persian rugs and pillows at tables, a shisha (hubbly) area, camel rides, sand boarding and in the background, had Arabic music playing. We also got to dress up in the traditional clothing, both guys and girls able to try on the approriate clothing. Later on we had supper, a buffet barbeque with all middle easten food - really tasty and spicy.

After a (huge) meal, we were entertained by a belly dancer for a while who later on got a few members of the crowd (including me) to join in individually as part of her dancing. She really was good and put on a good show, as well as embarassing the few people she called up (yes, me included).

Once the show was over with, we got back into the 4x4's and taken back to the city and all dropped at our own hotels. It was such an enjoyable evening, took a lot of photos, met some interesting people and got to experiance the Arabic life (for a few hours that is). A night really well worth it.

The next morning I got my wake up call at 06:00 and got all my bags together, ready to be picked up at 07:00 and taken to the airport, with my next stop - London, UK.... oh yeah! Well until then...