Dubai, The creek, souks, Burj Kalifa.

The good ol' faithful HopOnHopOff bus took us past the Burj Kalifa which we would be going up later (at dusk)  

..and we got off at the museum where we had an insight into how Dubai grew from being an insignificant place in the desert to the luxury city it is today. In about 40 years?!!!! 

Talk about Hittng The Road Running....

We took an abra across the creek and liked it that much we took another one back again. 

For 1 dirham a ride. THAT'S 20p!

It wasn't just people travelling on the creek, we saw cartons and cartons of microwaves,  fridges and fridgefreezers and sacks of spices, all being delivered. 

We carried on walking.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

(usually seen at Ascot) He was a bit of a charrrrracter, we were lead to believe!

But very well liked and very respected.

So far so good. But then it was time to get hassled..

We were following a walking tour that Husb had researched earlier and it included the spice souk, the perfume souk and the gold souk and they sooo saw us coming. If I had one pashmina offered to me I a hundred and they all seemed to think Husb really, REALLY suited a red check tea towel type scarf for his head. I even tried wearing my elephant shawl "Look,I already have one" but they weren't deterred, they definitely got ten out of ten for persistence. 

The gold souk was well worth the pestering.

Everything sparkled and glistened.

We had a little look at some jewellery .

"What sort of price would something like that be?" I asked, pointing to a tiny necklace that just so happened to have a real diamond in it and was probably one of the most expensive items in the shop.Way,way, way too many noughts on the end of the number she quoted.

So we had a little look at some dresses.

I wanted to try this dress on but they didn't have my size :)

We had to go through DUBAI MALL for our Burj tickets.

So Cheshire Oaks thinks it is a shopping mall? Think again, McArthur Park haha.

WHO even thought of an aquarium in a Mall?

How BIG is that pane of glass?

How THICK is it? 

HOW much water is in that tank?

How did H&M get the shop next door??

But we weren't there to shop, we had a building to visit.

Well the Sheikh knew what he wanted didn't he?

Fountains to music and a building higher than anywhere else on the planet.

"Impossible? What do you mean "impossible"? Find a way"

And they did.

The Burj Kalifa

Dear Lordy it was HIGH.

Meydan Racecourse looked good!

A 456m high plank :)

It may have taken a while but look at the Husb! He inched his way backwards, eyes closed, shaking and sweating... TO THE WINDOW! I can't believe there wasn't a certificate for him. OH wait...we only (ONLY!!!?) went to the 125th floor. Certificates were probably given out on the 148th floor.

And just for the record, I had a weewee in the highest building in the world  #justsaying

What a day. We had walked MILES and ended up having tea at 11pm...and believe me, we deserved that carrot cake. Husb was still shaking eating his. 

Dubai Jan 2016

So...Dubai. 

Blimey! 

Well we had to celebrate Husb's big birthday in some way or other so we spurofthemoment booked it....I don't know what came over us, we had never even considered Dubai before....but the dates were good so off we went. 

To say we weren't totally awestruck by the A380 plane is an understatement. Double the people means double the cases and double the immigration time etc and I'm not even going to mention the legroom or how disappointingly uncomfortable the seats were but I DID enjoy Pitch Perfect 2 and it was soooo worth it when we arrived. Just Dubai Airport was crazy enough but then we got to our hotel. WOW.

Palm Atlantis

What a treat to be staying here. How does it even stand up on a "sand bank"?

Well,  a man made island.

Actually the largest man made island in the world.

Mind boggling.

 The hotel had beautiful decor...

...colourful glass sculptures like Nem could make ;)

...and a lot of friendly fish.

I've told the aqua ladies I found Nemo. WOOP!

And then we hit the beach.

With a plank.

And an arm to be proud of.

The Persian Gulf was a bit BRRRR but I did some lengths  

(IN THE PERSIAN GULF!!!!)

(I've swum in the PERSIAN GULF!)

(tick)

and then did a sort of tree

and having got that out of my system it was an afternoon in the hotels's waterpark.

Well. 

Husb was SO on form. 

I knew it was going to be an eventful holiday because he had knocked the bookcase over with his case as we left the house for the airport. Books everywhere. Then he booked the wrong time for the airport parking. 

Then in true Mr Impossible fashion he took hundreds of photos of the fish, seeming completely mesmerised by them even though he would  love to get rid of the fish tank at home.

And then came the Waterpark with its innocent looking "lazy river" ride on figure-of-eight-shaped floats. Lazy river? Yeah right. We were hurtled into darkness down a black hole at a rate of knots swishing this way and that and swept down into a tankful of sharks.  How exhilarating and hilarious. But I doubt I'd've got him on a rubber ring if he'd known that was coming.  Wotahoot.

Who says Life starts at 40? Just you wait folks.

Happy Hour wasn't cheap at the Palm. Or anywhere else in Dubai. Oh Lordy.

No wonder there were no hen parties or stag dos. But also no louts, no riffraff, no rebels. 

And a 0% crime rate.

So the alcohol policy (either none or extortionate!) does have its advantages.

The Palm looked nice all lit up at night. 

It had been a fabulous first day and we hadn't even left the hotel yet.

Tomorrow we would be visiting the creek, the souks, a mall, and the tallest building in the world.

Dubai. 

Still can't believe it.

And here are 15 things you may not know about Dubai.

JIMMY HILL

Jimmy. you were a legend. PUSB.