Last Day

Friday dawned, the last day of our trip, and the first day of the local weekend. As it was the only day that Enda would be free to show us around, we were heading out to the desert for the day. But first, we were going to try something that we hadn't done yet: go to the beach. We headed off early fromt eh hotel on the complimentary shuttle bus, and were at the beach by 10am. Already it was 30 degrees! Michelle doesn't swim, so we rented a sunshade for her to sit around under while I went in for a dip. The water wasn't as warm as I was expecting: it wasn't nearly as chilly as my xmas day dips, but there was still a bit of a shiver when I walked in - nowhere near as warm as the water off Bali or Singapore. Then I re-discovered how much the sun really doesn't like me - I'd managed not to get burned so far on the trip by liberal applications of factor 40 sunblock, but in the 15mins I was in the water and getting dried out after, my shoulders and back were already starting to go a bit pink! Sometimes I think I must be part vampire or something....

After our little sojurn in the sun, we hopped in a taxi and headed over to Enda & Joanna's place. Before we headed off, we decided to go for brunch in a local cafe that they frequented. Like most places in Dubai, there wasn't an emirati in sight, all the patrons were ex-pats and all the staff were indian or filipino. Good food tho! Fortified for our journey, we hopped in Enda's big fancy jeep, and headed off.

Contrary to what the movies would have you believe, most deserts aren't just big huge sand dunes, and on the way out we saw the various kinds, scrubland, rocks, and yes some sand (but of various colors). Our destination was on the eastern side of the peninsula, a place called Hatta in the mountains, where there are a series of pools (it seems Enda has a set itinerary for everyone that comes visiting, and this was the desert destination....). About 90mins out of Dubai tho, we hit a bit of a snag. The border between the UAE and Oman isn't straight, and on the way to Hatta you dip in and out of Oman a few times. Normally this is no problem, the only way you know what country you're in is by the flag on the flagpole of whatever little village you go into on the way, but occasionally the 2 countries have a bit of a diplomatic spat (or as enda called it, "a dick-swinging contest") and they close off the borders. So, at one point between one patch of sandy nowhere and another patch, we got stopped by a roadbock manned by a few bored-looking army dudes with M-16s and a humvee with a roof-mounted M60 manned by another equally bored-looking soldier. They were checking IDs, which was a bit unfortunate as, not expecting that we'd need htem, we'd left our passports in the hotel and Enda & Joanna had let their local ID cards back in the house. We could get through that roadblock no problems, but the guard told us that while he could let us though, we'd have problems with the guards on the other side of the road when we got back, and we mightn't be able to get back in without IDs. This wasn't all that good, as Joanna's visa had actually expired 2 days before, and so if we got stopped she was screwed. When it comes to zero tolerance, the emiratis make the NY cops look like irish gardai, and while she was ok so long as she was in the UAE and had her ticket home, if she went out and they checked her on the way back in she wasn't getting back in, period. So, we decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and we did a u-turn and headed back to Dubai.

On the way back Enda decided that we'd go back a bit more of a scenic route, so that we could get a better view of the Dubai skyline. So, we turned off the main road and took a detour through the desert. Along the way, we saw a herd of camels so we took veered off into the desert so we could get a closer look. I had my new big shiny camera, but Joanna, being a fashion designer, had an even bigger one, so we both started snapping away while the other 2 looked at us as if we were mad. After that, the next stop was to see the skyline, which we were seeing at right-angles to the way we came in from Abu Dhabi so we got to see it all, as all the big-ass skyscrapers pretty much was along the side of Sheihk Zayeid Road. Even from this distance, the Burj Dubai was head and shoulders above all the rest, nearly twice as tall as any of the other ones.





Once we got back into the city, we headed for The Palm Jumeira, the man-made islands in the shape of a palm tree. You were allowed drive out on it as far as the Atlantis hotel, the big 5-star hotel at the end (about a mile out from shore), but if you were a resident there, you were able to take the monorail - the bloody palm has its own public transport system! Thing is, once you're on it, it doesn't actually seem like it's any different from any normal island, the only way you can see the shape of it is from the air. After seeing the Palm, we headed out for Jumeira Beach, which was as close as you could get to the Burj Al Arab as you could get without paying. The place is so bloody exclusive (well it would be being a 7-star hotel and all), you can't just walk in and take a look around, you have to book a meal or "afternoon tea" - and at 80 quid a head for afternoon tea, we decided to give it a miss (even if it was an all-you-could eat buffet, which sounded like a good challenge to me - could I eat 80 quid's worth of buffet food?). We got to the beach just as the sun was setting, so the view was quite impressive - and the beach was cool enough to walk on, even better! :-)



After that, we headed back to Enda & Joanna's place to change and go out for dinner. On the way out, my parents had given me their leftover dirhams from when they were over (about €100 worth), on the understanding that I used some/most of it to bring "Little Enda" and his fiancee out for a meal. So, we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the Madinat Jumeira, a huge shopping/eating/entertainment complex near the Burj Al Arab. Place is so big and swanky they don't have streets, they have canals and water taxis to bring you from shop to shop and restaurant to restaurant! We weren't sure whether we'd be able to get into the hotel bar, place was one of those ones where if you're not one of "the beautiful people", you're probably not getting in, and while we weren't exactly scruffy looking, we didn't have a designer label between us. We blagged our way in tho (the trick is to walk fast and look bored apparently), and soon found the down-side of the "good life" - over €35 for a round of 4 drinks, 2 of them being beer!



After our lovely posh drinks, we wandered around the souk, a very up-market version of the souks in the old town, and Enda showed us the infamous stall where my mother had managed to haggle the stall owner into giving her a lantern at what was probably below cost price the year before (she'd thought she got one for Dh35 the day before at that stall, so she wouldn't give in until she got it at that price, turns out after she'd got it for Dh70... Never haggle with my mother!). Unfortunately there were no lanterns there that I could bring her back, but there was a shop around the corner which was selling xmas decorations so we got a few in there for the ppl back home. We also got some bars of camel chocolate - chocolate made from camel milk, which is apparently extra-creamy!! Once the shopping was done, we decided to go for food. Problem was, there were too many choices! We sort of narrowed it down to a Mexican place, a Cajun place, and an Italian place. We tried the mexican, but they were full up - we could have waited for a table, but we'd be waiting something like 45mins! No-one bar me was really brave enough to try the Cajun place, so we decided to go for the safest option, the Italian. Food was fairly OK, nothing overly spectacular but adequate. Afterwards, we hung around for another drink and then decided to leave, as me & Michelle had to be up at around 4am to catch out 5am bus to the airport. So ended our little adventure in Dubai!