Dubai

I woke up at 10.40 and jumped out of bed, bleary eyed and confused. ‘Ive slept late!’ I thought. I threw open my blinds and stared at the dark skies. It took me about a minute to realize that it was in fact 10.40pm. I had only slept for 3 hours, not 15.

I went back to bed.

At 7.15am I woke up again, this time feeling much fresher (and much less confused). I looked out my hotel window and once again felt proud of myself for being here alone.

Dubai has been a funny place to start, but it really has given me the chance to be confronted by my own capabilities. I have loved navigating this beautiful, confusing, new city on my own. Sometimes I am scared, and sometimes I even think I want to give up and go home. But usually, I just feel proud of myself for being on my own. I feel excited. I feel surprised.

So after I had my moment of pride, showered and dressed in modest clothes that covered far too much of my body for this beautiful 26 degree day, I set off to find my bus tour. I got lost again (there is a huge shopping mall next to my hotel – and literally every time I leave my hotel, I get lost in the mall) but still managed to be on the very first bus.

Oh, and a highlight of my morning - while I was lost I stumbled across the hugest, biggest, largest megahugesupermarket that you can imagine. It was like if you took Kmart, Harvey Norman, Toys R Us, Goldmark (yes jewellery), and Coles, and put them all in one big huge shop. I wandered through every aisle in awe, took a photo of the Barbie wearing a burqa, bought a carton of cigarettes and a pack of gum for 76 dirham ($20), and left, impressed.

The bus tour started out as I expected. Several tourists were on board (some loud jolly Germans, a few Frenchies and a huge Indian family who sat inside the bus and seemed far more interested in rationing their packets of food then the tour). I was the only one who was alone at first, so I plugged in my headphones and listened to the audio commentary which was pretty good, I learned many little facts - which I have now forgotten (except did you know that Dubai consumes the most water out of any country in the world? Yes. Amazing.)

Eventually I made a couple of friends, an Australian couple about my age who kept having to slap eachother’s hands away because of the laws about public affection, and an English guy in his late 50s named Peter. I sat with Peter for most of the day, he’s retired, has kids my age and bought me lunch (no mum, he was not sleazy). At about 2pm, the Aussie couple, Peter and I, went wandering through the textile souk – which is an amazing market full of divine fabrics. I thought of mum a lot here, and took photos of the sparkles and sequins that I knew she would love.  It was around this point where we all realized that we had no idea where the tour bus had dropped us off, or how to get back on it. To cut a very long story short, we were lost for about two hours, and the bus tour became a self guided walking tour, with a very dodgy map provided by the bus company, and four tourists with absolutely no idea.  It was awesome. I even saw a camel. 

Here are some photos from my day...

This is a shopping mall, I didn't get off the tour bus here, but I am told the architecture is stunning. 

I don't remember what this is, but it's cool. 

This is a bank, I liked the way the water is reflected in the glass, and also how there is a giant hole in the bottom of the building. 

This mermaid was at the front of our boat.  Pretty. 

Boats in the harbour, exporting all sorts of stuff and things. 

Obligatory me shot. 

Mum I wish you were here, I wanted to buy you ALL of this fabric. 

Blingin at the gold souk. 

Some of this jewellery was absolutely stunning. 

Spice souk, the smells were incredible, I had my nose in every bucket. Pretty sure customs would stop me if I tried to bring anything anywhere so i didn't purchase anything :(

We eventually found the bus, re-embarked, and by this time had such sore feet that we decided that it was time to go back to our respective hotels. I couldn’t quite do that without getting lost in the mall, accidently going shopping, buying two skirts, some make up, some underwear and some sunglasses (AT LAST), and getting lost again.

I had a glass of wine, and some kind of fish with vegetable ratatouille (yeah, the restaurant in my hotel is French), and have now retired to my little room in the hopes of figuring out how to work my TV. Tommorrow I have to be at the airport at 11.30am. I am only about 5 minutes away by metro, and working in the time it takes to get lost and then found, maybe about an hour. I am hping to get up early and maybe go and see the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) and The Palm islands – as two of the most famous Dubai attractions, I managed to miss them both today.

Goodnight my friends.

xxx