4 very expensive days in Dubai

Sunday Jan 27th - Friday 1st Feb

Not off to the best start as the flight was delayed from Manchester, so while we were waiting on the big benches I leaned back and the whole thing went flying.

Not a major problem in itself, but there was loads of empty glasses on the table bit in the middle.

It was like the scene from Die Hard with smashed glass everywhere. As with anywhere in the UK, finding not only a helpful member of staff but one who understands English was impossible, so I made the best use of the TV magazine from the paper and swept it in the corner.

Many hours later we arrive in Dubai at 9am local time. Bought some champers, vodka and beer in duty free for the room. Intercontinental hotel is mega and the service and amount of staff and their friendliness is the best I have ever experienced anywhere in the world.

Went for a wander while waiting for room, and John decides he has been robbed and lost 350 pound. On way back to hotel he finds it in one of the 300 compartments of his new executive travel bag. Durr.

Fantastic view from the room, especially the bath that fills from the ceiling and also has a splash floor which means you can splash as much as you want and the floor has grills around the edge like a swimming pool to stop it from flooding.Coool.

Restaurant is mega and has Arab, Japanese, Thai, French etc etc sections within it, so we went for the buffet option and eat nearly everything starting with the sushi.

We were still eating at midnight and no-one batted an eyelid, although the restaurant manager had taken a bit of a shine to us.

Decided to book a rental car, for the day, and in true budget backpacker option went for a 2.4 sports Audi A6.

Nearly crashed countless times and ended up in the desert. Finally found the bit we wanted and parked at the Marina.

Dubai is 10 times bigger than I imagined and just one big building site. The scale of construction has to be seen to be believed, and as everything so far is virtually new, it is out of this world.

It would be nice to come back in 5 years time and see how far they have got.

Drove past the world's tallest skyscraper under construction. You can see it in the background of the pictures. It will be 160 floors when it is finished. Drove on to Palm Island which is ten times bigger than it looks on TV, but is under construction still, and we ended up in the builder's yard.

Hiring the car was a bit of a waste of money, but it was great to drive down Sheik Zayed road at night time which has most of the sky scrapers, and also to pull upside and throw the keys at the valet and ask him to have the bags brought to my room after he had parked it for me.

Everyone has a white Porsche turbo convertible, I am very jealous.

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Went on a desert safari. Would have been really good, but we were sat right at the back in the 4x4 and we were still hungover from the night before.

We drove out in to the desert, then went flying all over the dunes for half an hour and then stopped at a traditional desert settlement for some grub and some belly dancing.

Funny how on Laurence of Arabia, there was no bar, loud speakers with disco music, a gift shop and a photo booth. ???????

Still, would have been surprised at anything less I suppose. Fell really lucky and sat next to a load of yanks on shore leave that would not stop whooping and drinking bottles of whiskey.

Great.

Good job jonnie was not with us. We wished the night would never end.

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Decided we wanted to see inside the world famous Burj Al Arab seven star hotel, but the only way you can get in now is to stay there at 1000 a night or eat there.

So we went for the eat there option. The cheapest is afternoon tea, but they were fully booked, so we had no choice but to go for the underwater seafood restaurant at 125 pound a go.

After the concierge had booked it for us, we realized you had to dress up, and I had only brought jeans and t shirts, so we had to have a mad dash to buy me some trousers and shoes. This trip was getting very expensive. Oh well, you only live once.

Unfortunately the submarine that takes you to the restaurant was down for maintenance, so we had to take the lift. Hotel is amazing. We went for a wander and got booted out of the top floor as they had rumbled we were not guests.

Restaurant was very expensive, so we went for a glass of orange juice and water, but it still set us back 20 quid. Food was ok.

Went over to the emirates mall that has the indoor ski slope and john maxed out his credit card. Got a range rover taxi on the way back home.

Went out on the town and asked the taxi man to take us to a place full of girls.

Ended up behind a hotel at a seedy entrance of a club called the Rattlesnake. All was quiet on the outside, but on the inside it was like a scene from a western saloon, full of smoke, music, and more hookers than I have ever seen in my life. We were in the world's biggest knocking shop!!

Anyway we stayed for a couple of beers………..

2 hours sleep later we were at the airport and off to Bangkok.