Holiday Highlights

Last day in the middle east-welcome to london

marleybp — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:55:00 GMT

Today was a bit of a half day. We were hoping to wake up early to say goodbye to simon but we didnt catch him. they work crazy long hours over in dubai.

instead we went to the beach at the burj hotel, the sail hotel that is 7 stars. it was cool to see it up close after seeing it from far away and in every single touristy shop as an ugly glass statue or whatever. We got there about 9 in the morning, by 10 we were absolutly buggered from being in the sun. i later googled the temperature and it was 44 degrees. the ocean was so warm and seemed extra salty-it was really easy to float.

Glyn and i thought we would be clever and walk home as it wasnt really that far in theory. We made it half way before we both thought we were going to die and we absolutly dripping wet in sweat. we caught a taxi the rest of the way home it was the best 10 dirhams we have EVER spent (about $3).

When we got home we recovered and packed up our things. We then wanted to grab a bite to eat so went behind us to beach road where there are restaurants. there was a nice looking caffetiriea (cant spell it ) straight across the road, only one problem the massive fence in the middle of the road. this meant we had to walk about 500m either way to cross the road and then back around. lucky the sandwhich was worth it. mine had 5 bits of bread, wierd. we then went to a crazy supermarket i bought heaps of gum coz they have awesome flavours like cinnamon!! yum

We then caught a cab to the airport, had a look around duty free and caught a 7hour plane ride to LONDON!!

Joe and Jacki, glyns uncle and his partner picked us up and took us to their house in Slough. We arrived about ten pm and it was still light. first impressions are just like a movie with all the houses looking the same like on harry potter.

Thats all for now :)

Biggest mall in the world and crazy gold souks

marleybp — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:36:00 GMT

Today we went to mall of dubai, it was so massive, it had a huge aquarium and an ice skating rink. Weirdly glyn did more shopping then me. It had so many shops and i even noticed a few australian brands. We had lunch at tgi fridays and it literally made me sick!! After a short recovery we continued shopping and went to the supermarket, they sell everythin even fridges!! Over here when u buy fruit u are meant to get the price i didnt no this and boy did i get some death stares when the people realised she checkout chick had to run and get it like 500m away!!

We then caught a taxi to the gold souks, which is in real dubai, it was quite hot and scabby! There aee people evert where trying to drag u into there shops, a man took us to his apartment full of fake bags! We also looked at jewellery i really wanted an 18c white gold ring, it was beautiful and had 6 princess cut diamonds at a little more than a carat, but i decided i couldnt afford it this early in the trip plus didnt wanna look after it on contiki!!

Although i did try on a 2 million dollar bracelet :)

I also bought some other souvineers For dinner we all went to mexican just down the road it was yummy.

Atlantis on the palm

marleybp — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:10:00 GMT

Saturday we went to spinneys to get some breaky and to the surfshop to get katie some boardies, i also bought a tshirt and a rashi for 1dirham, just because it would be sooo hot at aquaventure a waterpark at atlantis hotel. We then all went out to the palm, which is a man made island. Atlantis is at the very top, it was quite amazing to be on it and all the villas were really beautiful. The aquaventure is meant to be the biggest in the middle east. We had a really fun day and katie and i wont be wearing singlets for a while because we got a hideous tshirt tan, oops!!! It had some cool rides, waterslides that went up ones that went straight down and through a shark tank which was crazy, you also never need to get out of the water as u catch rapids on a tube to the next ride, this is good as u pretty muchget third degree buens on the soles of your feet from the hot paths. On the way home we went through maccas, they have kitkat mcflurrys here which are awesome. Once simon git home we got ready for dinner at souk al basha a really nice area down on the fake water near the burj, they have made in like a mini venice and it is actually really cool! We had dinner at a nice african restaurant then watched a new light and fountAIn show, which we got some good videos of! Here is a good story for brooke- i went to the mens toilet by accident obviously and it was lucky noone saw as apparently i could go to jail as its highly offensive to the men !! Woops

Brunch Brunch Brunch

marleybp — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:49:00 GMT

Friday 26th- the weekend

We woke up quite late and went for a drive around. Today is Simons only day off. Katie and Simon pointed out some different places and gave us some interesting facts like Dubai has 20% of the worlds cranes. Just looking in one spot i tried to count the cranes i got to 50 and was over it there is seriously that many everywhere!

We went to brunch (which is a very expat thing to do apparently its for the parents to get smashed and the kids go to the kidsclub) Brunch was amazing. it was at a 5 star hotel and was better than i could of imagined. There was so much food and it was all you could eat. No kidding i had about 4 plates full of stuff and then 3 plates full for desert. Fatty Fatty! It had every type of food imaginable. Asian-where you tell the chef exactly how to make your fried rice, italian, french breads and pastries, seafood-including whole crabs, sushi, roasts and the most AMAZING deserts ever. It had a chocolate fountain for fondue, and freshly made waffles and icecream! AHH so beautiful. In my first plate of desert i had white chocolate mousse, marshmallow fondue, creme brulee, devil cake, hedgehog slice, next i had a massive slice of strawberry shortcake which was beautiful, then waffles and icecream. yum

When we went to get Ash from the kids club, there was a jumping castle and the most beautiful chandeliers.

When we got home everyone had a nap except me and Asha. Then we had beers in the front yard with Kim, a lady from sydney who lives in the front of their villa in a little apartment thing. We then got pizza hut for tea, which is directly behind their house. it was really yummy, and even had stuffed crust which glyn was very impressed with!

We also had vanilla vodka and ginger ale. it was sooo nice tasted like creaming soda. Michael Jackson also died today which is soo random.

We had a pretty early night ready for a big day tomorrow!

Welcome to Arabia

marleybp — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:10:00 GMT

Thursday 25th June

WOW-what an amazing first day! We have crammed soo much into and it feels like we havent slept in about 4 days straight, which we later worked out was actually that we havent lied down for 44 hours.

First impressions of Dubai were amazing! everything is soo big and impressive. When flying in, we looked out the window and all you could see were sand dunes and really long straight highways that looked like they would never end.

Customs here is sooo quick it took a total of about 5 mins, this may be due to the fact it was 5.30am oh and also a toasty 34 degrees. Even the airport had a massive water fall with coloured fountains in it that you actually caught the lift down into to get to ground floor and baggage area. The lift was massive, i heard someone say it was bigger than their house!!

Katie and Simon then picked us up, which was really nice of them as it was soo early. They gave us a little tour and pointed out different things on the way home to their place in Jumeirah. Laina their made even had pancakes made when we got there for breaky. Petrol here is really cheap and it only cost Simon about $35 Australian to fill their massive 4wd. No wonder everyone here has either 4wd's or sports cars. It is so weird to go to the supermarket and see soo many rangerovers, bmws, mercedes,porches, etc, etc. I'm sure you get the idea.

We then took Asha to school with Katie, she seems so grown up and is very cute. There are so many different nationalities of kids there. I hadn't met Eli before and he was a bit scared of us at first but it didn't take him long to warm up to us, he is soo cute too! After this we went to the supermarket and past some beautiful villas on the way home-so so big!

After getting freshened up we went to the mall of emirates to go to ski Dubai. It was amazing-can't beleive it was inside a mall!! It really felt like the real thing, actually probly colder, or that may have just been the contrast of the dry humid 40degree plus heat outside!! haha

Glyn tried to snowboard at first but then switched to skiing which he was really good at for a first timer. After 2 hours of the same thing we were a bit over it but still had a great time and awesome expirience. The mall was massive and reallly clean, although i didn't buy anything considering it was only the first day!

That afternoon we were off to the desert! Talk about from one extreme to another. It cost about 150 dirhams so about $50 AUD. We went out of the city into the desert where it is just like you imagine- so sparse and freaking HOT! We even seen wild camels and like 2 random desert nomads. Our driver-Hussien, was intense. If one of the other cars in our fleet of about 10 did something we would have to do it better, faster, higher. He actually made me really carsick and almost ripped the holy shit handle off a few times. We had another couple in our car- 2 polish chemists. the man was humongous- even taller than luke. The driver stopped for me to be sick and made me splash water on my face. apparently i wasn't doing a good enough job- he grabbed my water and threw it all over me. it felt really nice and took like 5 mins to dry as it was that hot!

After what seemed like forever or duning we got to "camp" where we drank, ate traditional food-yum, and even tried on their clothes. The burqa is not something i will be taking up in normal life. It felt like i was going to die because it was that hot, in the 2 mins i had it on. After dinner there was belly dancing, which was really cool and the chick even got Glyn up to dance with her. He had to copy what she was doing.

After that we came home past the city to drop the other couple off. The Burj looks even taller at night time! i guess it is the tallest building in the world at 800m so it probly should.

Even the bus shelters over here at airconditioned it is that hot!!

The Plane trip

marleybp — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:01:00 GMT

We left Goulburn about 2pm after some last minite repacking. We then stopped for lunch in Mittagong. John then dropped us off at the airport and we got through customs and everything really quickly, which meant we had plenty of time to relax, have a drink, and grab a snack or 3 for the plane. I also bought a book.

The plane ride was fine, i only watched 2 movies in the 17 hours and was either eating or sleeping the rest of the time. We seemed to get to Bangkok really quickly. We choose to get off and stretch our legs even though it was only for 30mins. The change of scenery and a walk was really good though.

We then got back on the plane for the second leg. Bangkok to Dubai, it was only 7 hours which was a bit better than the first leg. This flight was also good. Emirates has reallly nice food, and other little touches like blankets and pillows. The attendants were also really nice, our main ones name was Mohammed Ali.

1 more sleep

marleybp — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:27:00 GMT

Cant believe there is only 1 more sleep.

its gone soo fast.

hope i have packed everything and my next post will either be from singapore or dubai! how exciting :)

1 month to go

marleybp — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:11:00 GMT

Well the countdown is on.

Only one month to go!! i can't beleive how fast time has flown since we booked the trip. It is all starting to become very real now, which is so exciting. After getting my luggage (thanks lyndal), contiki pack in the mail and just buying little bits and pieces to help along the way!

That is what inspired me to start writing this! Dad always keeps a diary and in Hawaii made me write in it too! it was soo annoying at the time but now it is great to look back on :)