Shopping day in Dubai with a forecast temperature of around 40 degrees so we travelled by taxi & train to stay out of the sun. Visited the Gold Souk where we were the "first customers of the day" & made a couple of purchases from a store where they didn't hassle us - a nice change. Took the very efficient train to the Dubai Mall which was more crowded this visit as today was the public holiday of Eid to mark the end of Ramadan & lots of families were ...

Explored some of old Dubai today at the gold & spice souks. Very hot walking about in the sun but amazing displays of gold, diamonds & pearls - might be worth making a purchase here if we have any money left on our way back home! Sarah thinks there should be a rule about not leaving Dubai without a diamond! The spice souk was full of interesting scents including a combined frankincense & myrrh which we've never seen before & loose saffron. Dinner ...

Spent most of the day in the enormous Dubai Mall - quite an achievement for non-shop-going Geoff. We actually hardly entered any of the thousands of stores & didn't buy anything except food but had a great day. The high end stores, fashion & souk are frequented by local Emerati who seem to shop in several groups - tall, dark & (very) handsome young men wearing their immaculate white kandura robe & white headscarf ( or black baseball cap!) Young wo...

Great flight to Dubai - got to love Emirates & the new airport huge but super efficient. It's hot here but not as bad as expected - 37 degrees but dry like home in summer. Given dates & spiced coffee in a tiny cup on check-in at Al Murooj Rotana across the highway from Dubai Mall then spent a while snoozing by the pool. Walked across to the mall to watch the fountain lightshow & have dinner by the lake across from the Burj Khalifa. Lovely choreographe...