The quickest was to put on half a stone? Ten days in Dubai

The plane landed and I eventually made it through customs after choosing the wrong queue, and by the time I reached the conveyor belt, there was only my bag and one other chugging around the lonely circuit.

My Dad and his wife Bita met me, and it was great to see them after so long, it was also great to be back in warmer climes after a chilly few weeks in New Zealand after the heat and humidity of South East Asia.

Bita and me at the airport

As Dubai is a new city, I didn't have a long list of must sees whilst I was there, so my time revolved around eating, drinking and socialising.

On the hubbly bubbly

Me, Bita and Belly at the Hilton

Me at the Movenpick

Dad and me at the Sofitel

My Dad lives on the 37th floor of an apartment block, right by the marina, so I had great views of the marina, the sea and the now completed Palm Jumeirah. The Apartment tower block was the tallest residential building in the world, but has since been surpassed by another building.

View of the marina from the balcony

The marina

View of the Palm from my bedroom

The pool at my Dad's place, I did go in a couple of times but it was pretty chilly!

View from the balcony at night

The marina

Everyone wanders around in their designer clothes and expensive perfume, and I felt extremely under dressed in the clothes I had been carrying around in my rucksack for the past seven months! Thank God for that top and two pairs of shorts I had made in Hoi An, Vietnam!
 
One thing that struck me in Dubai was the shockingly bad drivers, most of them all driving around in big 4x4's, so I didn't blame my Dad and Bita for having one themselves to make them feel a bit safer on the road, even if it was a bit of a beast to park! 

Yay! Bita parked successfully!

A stark reminder of the driving skills in Dubai was a parting vision of seeing a man who had been mowed down by a passing car, and the paramedics pulling a tarpaulin over him whilst still lying on the road.  You've got no chance if you are hit by one of those cars at the speeds they do, when safety isn't their priority.

Bita and I had a night out at the cinema to watch Contagion, but of course, this was no normal cinema!  It was in the Dubai Mall, and we were in the screen that had twenty four leather reclining seats, and came with butler service.  We lay there watching the movie with a blanket and pillow, reclined in our leather chairs and beckoning the butler to bring us drinks and gourmet popcorn! I don't know how I will ever go back to 'normal' cinemas again!

Our butler taking our photo before taking our seats

Bita relaxing at the cinema

In Dubai it's all about the money, and everywhere you look there are fabulous malls that are just vast, some with inbuilt aquariums, and also architectural wonders, including the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa and the Palm.

fountain show to music

Aquarium inside a mall

Fountain show to music at the Dubai Mall

You can't come to Dubai and not visit a gold souk!

Waterfall inside a mall

Bita by the waterfall

Me by the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world

Me and the Burj Al Arab in the background

One of the many malls

Burj Al Arab

We visited the Palm when we went to the Atlantis Hotel for dinner on my last night, another evening of fine dining. It's just incredible to think that it was under the waves ten years ago.

Enjoying a beer at the beach

At the Theatre

Something slightly arabic - a lantern

By the time I left Dubai, I had expanded my belt by one hole and decided it was probably best if I went home.  I had to get back to reality sometime, and no time like the present.  It was sad to say bye to my Dad and Bita, but I'm sure I will be back to see them soon.

So the end of my seven months has arrived, and one final journey to get me back to the start again - the UK. At least it'll be Christmas soon so that should soften the blow of being back in the English winter, and I am looking forward to spending time with my family, especially my little niece and nephew.  Oh, and not lugging that backpack around! 



So my original plan didn't quite work out, Australia, New Zealand and then America before flying home, but plans are there to be changed, and Dubai seemed like as good a place as any for my final destination before heading home.  America can wait a little while longer.

How long until my feet start itching again?  Only time will tell........................

The Ritz it aint - three nights in squallor

Having travelled halfway across the world and through twenty four countries, I had come to a decision, (which my fellow female travelling buddies had agreed with) - good looking men are few and far between in the world.  So, I was surprised and delighted to see a gorgeous man at customs, and handed my passport over to him with a glazed look in my eye and giggling like a delirious
school girl.

Luckily he didn't think I needed to be sectioned, stamped my passport, and let me into Australia.

I grabbed my back pack from the carousel, and took a taxi into town.  I arrived at the backpackers accommodation where I was staying for the next three nights, and headed for my room.  It certainly lived up to it's name, 'Maze', and I eventually got to my room having passed an incredible amount of other rooms, and plenty of people milling around, a total difference from the odd
person that used to stay in the hostels we stayed in whilst in New Zealand.  This was a hostel on steroids.  I opened the door to my room, a room with a single bed, small round table and fold-away chair, a frosted glass window that opened about 2 inches at the bottom, and a stench that can only be described as a rotting corpse.  The only accessories in the room was a small stick on mirror and a couple of hooks on the wall.  I shared the bathroom with about four hundred others, a bathroom that was screaming out for a bit of Mr Muscle's attention.

As it was late, I got ready for bed and spent the next six hours listening to weirdos and freaks wander about the hostel, and looked about my horrible room and understood what it would be like to be in prison.  I decided I would be spending as little time as possible in this hell hole. 

I re-acquainted myself with Sydney, and soon realised that the backpackers I was staying in was slap bang in the middle of where I'd stayed when I had been to Sydney twice before.  Lovely hotels, with comfy beds and clean sheets, and en-suite bathrooms. A far cry from the hovel I was in now. 

I visited the aquarium and spent the morning wandering round admiring the Dugongs, they were very cute and totally enchanting.

It was strange being on my own, and I kept looking around for someone to talk to, but there was no-one there.  A funny feeling after being in other peoples company for the last seven months.

Shark model in the aquarium

Octopus clinging to the glass

Look at those lips!

Cute little face!

Shark swimming overhead

Massive Dugong

A gorgeous Dugong

The rest of my time in Sydney was spent visiting the Maritime museum, the Sydney observation building, the opera house, harbour bridge, Paddy's market and Darling Harbour. 

Sydney Harbour Bridge - a climb I did 5 years ago

Observation building

Playing the didgeridoo

This ones for you Mel!

It was soon time to leave my prison cell, and in the middle of the night, I headed to the airport.  I was on the first flight out of Sydney headed to Dubai, and my final destination before home, and looking forward to ten nights there with my Dad and his wife.  Before that, a fourteen hour flight, five movies, four seats to lie across, comfy pillow and blanket, and food and drink delivered to my seat. The most comfort I'd had for three days!

New Zealand advenures climax with a bungy!!

The last couple of days in New Zealand were spent enjoying some luxurious accommodation, well luxurious in comparison to the grotty joints we'd stayed in, we even had a washing machine and a tumble dryer in our apartment so made good use of it and saved our poor hands from the harsh hand washing soap we'd grown accustomed to.

The first evening was a trip to the week overdue showing of the Inbetweeners at the cinema that we'd missed the previous Wednesday, and it was a couple of hours reprieve whilst we were there, and a bit of light relief from the growing dread and fear of what was to come approximately 12 hours later.  I had been dreading this day for two weeks, since we had decided that we would do the bungy jump from Auckland Harbour Bridge.  

When I was last in New Zealand  five years ago, I was on a ferry heading to Devenport, and as we passed under the bridge someone did a bungy off it, and I said that if I was to return to New Zealand, I would do a bungy there.  So, I had returned, and I had to stick to my word.  We were booked in for the next morning along with Serfine, Aoife's friend from Dublin who had recently emigrated to Auckland not long before with her husband Dan and their little daughter Robyn.

I woke up in the morning feeling slightly nauseous, and just didn't know if I had the guts to do it, I honestly did not know if I would be able to throw myself off a perfectly good bridge. 

We arrived at the Bungy offices just by the bridge, and got kitted out for the jump, and ready to climb the bridge.  All of a sudden a bus load of people arrived who were to be our spectators, so now the pressure was really on!  The group were on a taster tour with a company, and were to do some of the bridge climb and watch us jump. 

Getting ready for the bungy jump

Starting to sweat!

Before we knew it we were off, single file along the bridge, hooked on for safety.  It took about ten minutes of gentle climbing before reaching the middle of the bridge where we then climbed two long stair cases to take us to the top of the bridge, and into the 'pod'.  My knees started knocking at this point, but pounding music and the eyes of the spectators kept me focused and as I was to go first, in no time at all I was sitting in the hot-seat getting my feet tied and being given advise of how to pull the cord to flip myself upright before being winched back up to the pod after the jump.

Next, it was a hop off the seat and a shuffle to the edge, and a quick look down to see the water below.  Far below. God only knows why I did that.  The weight got put over the edge which gives a pulling sensation, so I grabbed onto the guy next to me as I was feeling that I was being pulled over!  Then it was arms up like an Olympic diver, and on the commands of one, two, three, I flung myself off with no hesitation.  The dawning realisation hits about 0.5 seconds after you've left the platform and you know there's no going back, only down, and then down you go until BOUNCE! On the third bounce I released the cord strapping my feet to allow myself to turn upright and be winched back up to the pod under the bridge and enjoy the view of Auckland and the ships below.  I felt so happy that I had actually done it, as I really wasn't sure if I could!  I then had the pleasure of watching Aoife do hers, then a lady we didn't know, and then Serafine went last.  She had done one before, so decided this time she would jump backwards and even went for the dunking in the water, so we watched as she did hers, and came back up drenched!

Yay, I did it!

Been there, done that, got the T shirt

We celebrated with fish and chips from the fish market, and during the afternoon felt the adrenalin slowly leave our bodies.  We went out for one last meal, and it could only be our favourite food court, where we all chose our
favourite dish from our country of choice, mine was an Indian curry, washed down with a bargain priced glass of red wine.

Final supper at the food court

The last day we went to have a look at the sky tower, and stupidly I said that if I come back to New Zealand I am going to do the jump from the tower.  You heard it here first. 

Auckland Sky Tower

Jumping off the top!

So a great few weeks was had in New Zealand, revisiting some fabulous places and also discovering new ones.  Aoife and I certainly had some adventures, and all too soon it was time to say goodbye and jump on the shuttle bus to the airport, and be alone for the first time in seven months.  I was off to Sydney.  On another Jet Star flight.  God help me.