Dubai, United Arab Emirates April 2016

Dubai - Madrid - Portugal- Morocco - France - Italy - Denmark

Gold

Dubai, in the Persian Gulf, is the first stop on our 2.5 month trip this year. Jenny and Peter are our travelling companions for the most part, but they will fly home from Copenhagen when we join our Baltic Sea cruise with other friends, two American couples, Jan and Dick, and Rainie and Tom. The map above shows our itinerary from 25 April until we get to Copenhagen a month later.

After a relatively smooth 14.5 hour Emirates flight from Brisbane direct to Dubai, we landed at 5.30am on Tuesday and the temperature was already 25 C (77 F). Our accommodation has been in a traditional heritage guest house in the original city of Dubai. It is conveniently located near the gold and spice souks (markets) and only a short walk to the 'Creek' which is a hive of dhow activity day and night. Most days we jumped on a small dhow used as a water taxi and paid our 1 dirham (about 35 cents) fee, and went across the river to the cafes and market stalls on the other side. We also hired a dhow to do a 1 hr cruise around the area which was a great way to see this part of Dubai. Over time we have learnt that while Dubai has been on the silk road trade route for centuries, the United Arab Emirates only formed in December 1971.

Not wanting to waste a minute, we jumped on a train on our first day and visited the world's largest shopping mall - the Dubai Mall. Only a handful of skaters were using the indoor skating rink but hundreds of fish could be seen through the world's largest aquarium viewing window which can be viewed from three floors within the mall. After catching a water taxi and dining beside the river as the sun set, we wandered back to our hotel via the spice and gold souks - street after street of shops selling mainly 21 carat gold jewellery - 250 shops in fact! We walked over 18,000 steps on our first day in Dubai and many of these were walked around the gold souk!

Cruising on a dhow: Peter, Jen and Murray

We managed to hit most of the high spots during our 4 day visit: the Burj Khalifa (highest building in the world); the 3 storey aquarium and watching the water fountain at the Dubai Mall (largest mall in the world) as it danced to music; the iconic sail of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah (most luxurious hotel in the world: rooms start at $1400 per night) and we watched the live penguin show and also skiers at the indoor ski field in the Mall of the Emirates. The sails of the Burj Khalifa can be seen in photo on left.

Live penguin display

Murray going local

Within 1.5 hrs drive of Dubai is the capital city of the Emirates, Abu Dhabi. We took a trip there and saw the 3rd largest mosque in the world, the Sheikh Zayed - without question it is touted as the prettiest Mosque of them all. The largest Mosque is in Mecca, and the second largest is in Morocco, and we expect to see that in a few days time. Despite both Jen and I having a shawl that covered our arms, plus I had a long sleeved cardigan and we were wearing long trousers/dress, we were not allowed in as we needed to both be wearing long sleeves as well as a head scarf. It was such a hot day (34 C/93 F) but felt hotter due to all the concrete), so we were thankful to be able to escape to the air-conditioned bus to wait for Peter and Murray while they braved the oppressive heat to take some photos of the interior for us. 

We paid a short visit to the Abu Dhabi Heritage Village where we were able to get a good photo looking back to the Abu Dhabi skyline. The heat gave a haze to the photos. It's not evident in these photos, but everywhere you look in Dubai and Abu Dhabi there is construction going on - the Emirates must have the largest explosion of new buildings in the world! Jenny and Peter visited here only two years ago, and they hardly recognise the place. Many businesses are attracted to operating out of Dubai as it provides a tax free haven, and tourism (for Brand shopping) is a huge economy here. Wealthy people from places like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar buy luxury properties here and enjoy the luxury lifestyle.

Panorama of Abu Dhabi skyline

Map showing route from Dubai in the North to Abu Dhabi (South) with Persian Gulf to West (left)

Did you know that only two man-made structures can be seen on earth from outer space? One is the Great Wall of China, and the other is the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. See photo on left. The Palm is an artificial archipelago, 5.5 km long and in the shape of a palm tree. It is densely filled with luxurious resorts and apartments that began selling in 2006 with a 99 year lease. The amazing coincidence is that on the same day that my friend Rainie was visiting the Great Wall, I was visiting the second structure, the Palm Jumeirah! Uncanny!

On our last day in Dubai, we did a desert tour to experience a little of how the traditional bedouins lived - surrounded by sand, riding camels and eating under the stars…We were picked up in a 4WD - V8 Toyota Land Cruiser (one of 18 in our group making a total of 100 people) and taken sand dune bashing in the Arabian Desert. Thrilling, but not for the faint hearted - one of the cars had to stop as a passenger was violently ill. 

What a ride!

Sand, sand and more sand

It was 41 C (106 F) as we drove into the desert and it sure felt like it too. We were thankful for the efficient  air-conditioning in the vehicle. After the dune bashing we paid a visit to a camel farm, then made our way to a meeting place where we had a camel ride, held a Falcon hawk, and were entertained by 2 Egyptian dancers, one who was a very, very talented belly dancer. 

Peter and Jenny holding a Falcon

As the sun set we were served a tasty buffet dinner including salads, lamb chops, tandoori chicken and beef rissoles. There was light cloud cover which obscured most of the stars, but a few were twinkling merrily. What a wonderful experience. The four of us were very impressed with this particular desert tour and would highly recommend it. We will say farewell to Dubai in the morning, and be in Madrid soon after lunchtime. 

Sunset in the Arabian Desert

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Christmas 2015 to April 2016

One of my American friends from Louisiana emailed today and reminded me to keep them updated with the blog. I realised that it had been some time since I had done an update, however I was shocked to read my last entry was before Christmas last year! So here I am in catch up mode...

L-R: Aunty Dympna, Benn, Daina, Kim, Murray, Trish and Ret

What an exciting Christmas we had with lots of family around. Benn and Daina were both over from Japan, and Kim bought 3 of her Danish friends over from Copenhagen to share their first Aussie Christmas with us. In the photo at left Kim's Danish friends Sara, Adam and Sine are with Kim and Murray on our back patio. We shared a few of our Christmas traditions with them (lighting of the plum pudding) and they shared theirs with us (home-made paper decorations). In the photo below you can see most of the 21 family (includes 3 Danes) at our Christmas feast. 

 Christmas feast - missed my youngest son Mark

In the second week of March, Ret and I flew to Sydney to look after two of her grandsons for a few days while their mum and dad took a break. While the boys were at school/day care, we took a bus and met some friends for lunch at Sydney Harbour, but mainly just enjoyed our time with her grandsons Jethro and Noah. If all kids were as well behaved as these two, parents would be a lot less stressed!

Later in March we got to catch up with dear friends from our Air Force days, Toni and Ron Cox. They have a 'summer' property not too far away from us in Ballina, and hopefully we will get to catch up with them a bit more frequently. 

Time stands still for no man, and before we knew it, Easter had arrived. Murray flew to Melbourne to spend time with his kids and grandsons and I drove up to the Gold Coast for a family lunch at Ret and Pete's, followed by an overnighter at Tony, Yudian and Jackson's. The next morning  Ret and I joined Tony and Jackson for their usual Surfers Paradise early morning walk - well, 6.30am is early for me!! 

The big family event for us so far this year has been my brother Tony's 70th birthday in April. The revolving restaurant in Surfers Paradise is the ideal location for a celebration and 18 of us enjoyed the function. Tony's eldest son Nicholas was the birthday surprise - his mum Bronwyn flew him over from Canada as her gift to Tony, and Nicholas's presence was the icing on the cake for all of us! Tony had his 4 children there - Nicholas from Canada, Kate from Brisbane, Anna from Darwin, and Jackson (RIP Rebecca). 

Yudian, Tony, Kate, Anna, Nicholas, Bron 

Siblings: Ret, Trish, Rose, Tony, Gemma, Tracy (Missing Peter RIP, Chris in Japan)

We last saw Benn and Daina at Christmas, but had the opportunity to catch up again recently. They had taken 7 days to complete the epic 9 day Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea, which they followed by a few days deep sea diving and paddle boarding. They were flying back to work in Japan with a planned overnight stop in Brisbane. We knew they would be  exhausted, but as they weren't likely to get back to Australia before the end of the year, I wanted to see them (if only briefly), before their flight the next morning. We arranged to pick them up from the airport and have a quiet dinner with them. Benn hadn't seen his cousin Nicholas for some time as he lives in Canada, so he joined us as well. We picked Nick up from Tony's en route, and I took the opportunity for a cuddle with Jackson. The quiet dinner catchup in Brisbane was just what the doctor ordered, and after too many yawns to ignore, we let Benn and Daina hit the hay. 

Daina, Benn, Trish, Nick (Murray took the photo)

Only days before we are due to fly to Dubai and Europe for a 2.5 month trip, I spent a delightful two days sharing a resort apartment with my Aunt Dympna in the seaside town of Yamba. Located less than 1.5 hours drive from home, Yamba has only one quarter the population of Ballina and is a popular holiday destination. Staying in another apartment in the same resort were my sister Ret, her husband Peter, Ret's son Peter and his 3 sons. It was a nice battery charge for me before the final packing for, and rigours of our upcoming travel...

Jethro, Noah and Ret