On Our Way Home.

It is almost 8am and I am sitting quietly at Dubai Airport. Trish has headed off to spend the last of her Dirhums (UAE currency) and left me to sit quietly in the cool and jump on the net.

What a place Dubai Airport is!

Our final full day in Dubai was spent quietly. Being around 40 degrees outside precluded a lot of outdoor sightseeing.

We had a great lunch at our preferred small Cafe before returning to the cool of our hotel room. Around mid afternoon and almost at 40 degrees we jumped on the train to visit a spot called Souk Madinat. (Souk means market.)

It was a 30 minute train trip followed by 10 mins in a cab.  Souk Madinat is a part of a tourist complex.  Regular souks see you being regularly pestered to buy a cheap Rolex or being railroaded into a shop to buy stuff you don't need.

We are quite used to that and after saying "No thanks" about 9 times they get the message.

At Souk Madinat there is no pestering nor any haggling over prices. Everything is a set price, usually set to tourist prices.  The building is a reconstruction of what a genuine Souk  from years ago would have been like (see photo above left).  It has been created solely for the tourist.

The one big addition though is air conditioning. And thank heaven for that.  It was too touristy for what we prefer to do but we are glad to have experienced it.

Another cab ride and a short train trip and we were back at Dubai Mall for the Dubai Fountain display.  I must say though it is a 15 minute walk from the station to the mall, albeit air conditioned all the way. Dubai Mall is huge with all top brand and very expensive shops.  A 15 minute walk equates to around 1km, even if most is via travelator. 

The photo is where the Dubai Fountain Show happens. If you click on the photo for a larger view you can see where the jets of water are fired from.  Some jets reach up to 5 storeys high!

We watched the 6pm and 7pm fountain shows. Each performance only goes for a few minutes but it is a great experience. It was well worth the effort.

The photo left is the crowd just departing the 6pm early show.  Most were heading indoors to escape the heat.

We again caught the train back to our station after catching the 7 pm Dubai Fountain show. The train was so crowded that you were literally picked up by the crowd and deposited on the train!  It could have been frightening.

As we completed the 5 minute walk from the station back to the hotel at around 8pm the neon sign was flashing that the current temperature was 36 degrees.

What did we learn from our trip to Dubai? 

Select a much cooler time of the year to visit than June.  Two full days isn't really enough time to see and experience everything.  If you are staying for a short time carefully select your hotel so it is near the places you want to visit.

Dubai is a stunning experience, even if just to experience the wealth that a resource like oil can bring to a country.

A Samsung 4 Tab tablet will cost you around $400 in Dubai.  Recently Officeworks had them on special for $250. The current RRP at home for one is around $350.