Destination Dubai. Our arrival at 5:15am was quite rude as we were all a bit like zombies, Craig and Zoe had not slept at all. Within minutes of arrival we realised that Dubai works to a different set of rules. A taxi for five is the same as a taxi for four only difference is two people have to share a seat belt. The airport is quite an impressive building and is spotlessly clean. Our lady taxi driver took us to our hotel in the early hours, all the night lights we still on with extra celebration lights for the shopping festival. Our hotel is in the old part of the city, across from the textile souk, a mosque and the river. Trying to catch up on a bit of sleep before heading out we realised just how noisy Dubai can be. The traffic picked up significantly and the call to prayer from the mosque made us give up on the sleep idea. By 3pm we were picked up by our driver in an off road vehicle. Heading past signs to Abu Dabi and Oman we very suddenly pulled off the motorway, the driver let down all four tyres and we entered the desert. Bearing in mind we had two children strapped into the same lap belt our desert safari was more than entertaining. Thank goodness the driver from Pakistan was more than competent; we gripped the handle bars, roll bars and roof bars while he threw the car over the dunes spraying sand all the while moving fast. All I could think was that I had forgotten to tell everyone how much I loved them before the trip. Even Craig thought we were going to roll where he normally has more faith than me. The driver very kindly stopped to let us get out and take some pictures of camels, I think he realised I needed to touch solid ground for a few minutes. After the craziness of the dunes we were dropped at a Bedouin tent for dinner and some entertainment. We had fun riding camels, went sand boarding and got henna tattoos, all good fun in the desert with the sun going down. Oli is now 'well hard' and very proud as his tattoo of a scorpion. The entertainment before dinner was traditional Arab dancing performed by a man who was very good at spinning round and wowed everyone with his costume which lit up. The men seemed to enjoy the belly dancer more, even though in true Emirati style she was showing very little flesh and had very good moves. I am definitely in food heaven here, even the children love the Middle Eastern style cooking and spices.

Today we awoke sort of well rested and excited about spending the day at the Atlantis Palm Aquapark. The scenery on the taxi ride over was gorgeous, all these stunning buildings in the same place. The Burj Khalifa demands attention and looks stunning day and night. The water park more than lives up to the hype, our only regret being that we didn't get there in time for opening. Unfortunately for Oli his height meant he couldn't go on the big rides. Craig and the girls braved the leap of faith and almost every ride available. The leap of faith is almost identical though allot higher than Sun City (27m high and 60m long) except this one goes into a tube through the shark cage. Nobody who does the leap of faith even knows this as their eyes are still closed while hurtling past the sharks. There is another fun ride on a tube which goes through the tank as well and this one is slow enough to take in all the fish. We saw a couple of rays having a rest on top of the tube. The park closes at sunset and off we headed back towards our hotel. None of us were really hungry yet so we wondered around the textile souk. Almost every shopkeeper tried to dress the children in traditional clothes; funnily one of them put dancing beads on all 3 of them before realising Oli was a boy. He removed them very fast horrified at his mistake. They all took the constant touting for business in their stride but stayed very close. By the time we sat down to dinner Oli and Zoe were so worn out they managed to fall asleep in their chairs after eating very little and ended up being carried upstairs as they were so far gone.