Intercontinental Dubai-Festival City

I got up a bit late today but I actually needed it. The heat is even worse than yesterday and I know for a fact that I am going to struggle today.

I wanted to get to the Palm and Atlantis before going to Dubai Ski. Looking at the bus map it didn't as straight forward as I thought it would be. My first stop had to be Gold Souk Station, the traffic was quite bad and it took a while to get there. We drove a very cool area though with loads of little ...

I was up by about 10 am and the weather was absolutely beautiful - once again too hot though. I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and found a little shopping centre.

I then wanted to get to Wild Wadi - the water park. I could not get on a bus as I had no card and I couldn't buy one anywhere as no bus stop in the area had a ticket machine. It was just too hot to walk around so I grabbed a cab. He wasn’t sure where I wanted to go but I managed to explain ...

... like that ) Blondy was knee-dipping in the water,but even that was almost hot. Wait till winter time.! But all nice and as the evening came closer we took the bus back into old town Dubaai.

From the bus station we had a short walk to the riverside of old town. From there we took a little boat.( a tuk-tuk on water ) and skipped into the old town. Okay...they are all friendly but they all want to sell something!! We stepped in the jewelry ...

... hotel. After a bit of chilling on the beach I hopped in another taxi and headed to that very hotel to have a closer look. This again took rather a long time! Seeing the building up close is really cool though and the other hotel behind it shaped like a wave is impressive too.

After all my walking and taxi adventures I was now rather peckish. Unfortunately there wasn't many options on the beachfront. In fact there was nothing. So I wandered down the main ...

... the slums and I thought of all the families from school asleep there. At first, I thought the dark area on the ground was woods or something but as we descended, I could make out little candles and campfires and little tin roofs and realised people were living there. I actually got quite worried because it seemed at one point we were actually going to land ON the houses but thankfully they stopped just short of the runway. I ...

... no end in sight, and bad traffic. Dubai strikes me as a soulless place, with a deep materialism and consumerism evidenced by all of the shopping centers, malls, and sportscar dealerships. It seems like it would be difficult for a visitor to even interact with someone who was born here. I checked in to the Dubai youth hostel and got a dorm bed for $30, pretty expensive for a basic hostel, but in Dubai it's about the cheapest place to stay.

... good as a Motel 6 in Compton and then we were sent to the lap of luxury at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel which is the sister hotel to Burj Al Arab. Jumeirah was really comfortable. They have so many amenities there's really no reason to leave. We had access to the Wild Wadi Waterpark and spent most of the day there. The waterpark was a ton of fun. Rachel and I got into the simulated wave attraction. They have 2. There are only 3 places that have this attraction ...

... to see more, but the little taste that we got was enough to tempt us to come again next time we travel to Europe and spend more time there. This will be my last entry as now we head home to New Zealand and back to our family and friends (and our dog). Christmas is coming and there is much to do before then. Thanks for travelling with me, I hope you enjoyed it. We had a blast!

... It contains photos, coins, marine life and documents of the way of life in old Dubai. There is also great views of Dubai creek from the second story.. There was only 1 other person there so it wasnt crowded at all! I bought my Dubai magnet and did a bit of shopping, perfume & some new ...

Day 22 Wed 12th Oct 2005 Last day in Dubai, what a big flop! Just to put you in my frame of mind, I have been up since 7am, it's now 3am and I'm in the airport waiting for my fight to Delhi, it leaves at 4.25. I got up early to start sorting my stuff out ready for the move. I got out the flat around 9am, went to Burjuman and then caught the bus to Bur Dubai. I wanted to have a look around the old Souq and try to get pictures of a mosque I saw for a spit second on the Big Bus tour ...