Today we went on our 4WD desert safari which they call "dune bashing". We were supposed to be picked up from the hotel at 9.30am this morning but got a phone call from the tour desk downstairs at the hotel at 9.05am asking if we could come down in 5 minutes! We told them we would be down in 10 minutes. When we got downstairs we met our driver and got into the 4WD. we drove for about 20 minutes out of Dubai and stopped at a small group of shops where the driver le...

Yesterday we went on a walking tour of Bur Dubai, the old part of Dubai on the opposite side of the creek to where we walked on Tuesday. We caught the metro to al-Fahidi station then walked down to the creek to walk through the Bastakia Quarter which was full of restored old buildings from the 1860's. We walked through the maze alleyways between the old buildings until we reached the Dubai Museum which is inside the old al-Fahidi fort which is one of the olde...

Today we had our tour out to the east coast of the United Arab Emirates. We were picked up at 8.30am and then taken to the meeting point where we changed minibuses for our tour. Once on our way we first stopped at a petrol station to use the toilets. Apparently some people on the tour had been on the bus for an hour before we arrived. The toilets were absolutely disgusting so it was amusing to see the cleaning log on the wall signed off as being cleaned 5 minutes...

Today we spent the day at Aquaventure water park. After breakfast, which included "beef bacon" which is thin slices of beef made to look like bacon but tasting nothing like bacon, we caught the metro down to Dubai Internet City. From there you had to get a taxi to the water park. We got to the taxi rank just as another couple were getting into a taxi so we asked if they were going to the water park, they were, and if they wanted to share the taxi. They agreed so ...

Today we went on a walking tour around the old town of Dubai. We caught the metro to an area called Al Ras and then walked to the Heritage house which was one of the older houses in Dubai turned into a small museum. Entry was free and they had various rooms in the house set up as it was originally with mannequins in each room as well as original furniture and information on how each room was used. It was quite good. Right next to the Heritage house was the Al Ama...