Touched down in Dubai just after 5am this morning. Took us 2 hours to get through customs and collect our cases. I got randomly chosen to go through another customs point and l thought here we go....they're gonna ask me about all my medications and we'll be stuck for another hour or so but it was all good.

Caught a taxi to the Golden Square (can't get away from Bendigo) hotel and they've got 2 speeds.....flat out and stop!!! There is no speed zones so everyone just goes fast.

We were too early to book into the hotel so we went walking with the purpose of finding the gold souk which after stopping a few times for directions we finally found.

Wow!! The gold seemed to radiate with heat there was so much of it. We bargained down a few items and were pretty pleased with our purchases. We noticed lots of stores selling perfume so on the way back to the hotel we stopped at one and l bought some Chanel and Clinique. So much cheaper. All around the souk there were guys trying to entice us into their souvenir shops but we refrained only 'cause half the time we didn't know what they wer on about.

By mid afternoon it had started to get quite hot so once we'd booked into the hotel we decided to go for a swim but the pool boy had gone to lunch so the pool was closed. This evening we took a taxi to Jeramiah Beach as we wanted to try a restuarant called the Lime Tree. The taxi driver made a personal stop on the way and then charged us for it!! The cheek!! Anyway, by the time we found the restaurant it was closed so we walked around until we found somewhere else. Saw lots of mosques and very tall buildings while we were being driven around. Didn't see the one in the photo though....maybe tomorrow. The evening has become quite cool as was early this morning.

The Dubai Durham is 3.36 to $10 Aussie dollars.