DUBAI 12/07/13 - 13/07/13

FRIDAY 12TH JULY
Sawat-dii ka

On my flight over, up since 7, Becks slept in with me last night, When I got backfrom scrabo from teh 11th night bonfires I spotted balloons, Becks and I graffittied them and chatted, Headed today after 8, bands had already started. The way into Belfast was DEAD until we got up to the city centre, Emma was already waiting at the bus, had coffee with everyone, wee Ryan hadn’t slept at al but he still came, actually saw some of the bands on the 12th, go me, im always too hung over haha.! Mum gurned…awesome. My parents are a disaster lol. I’m really excited for Dubai!! Got the bus with Emma, she seems ok stomach started acting up though, fucking gayyyy, checked in and ended up getting another game of thrones book and the next book on the plantagents by Phillipa Gregory <3 got on board before 2, Hannah had joined us at check in. the plan was cool, I was in a 4 seater but the TV was touch screen and had cameras! Watched some history programmes, had lunch and watched Oz. with get into Dubai 9pm GMT, such a large plane! Could have done with some dinner too but we didn’t get any? Got into Dubai at midnight, had to go through emigration, got some more stamps on my passport, the Arabic women were all covered, the visa woman said I looked like Barbie lol.  Found out it was Ramadan, which means I cant eat or drink in public fuckkkk. Will research wdc is. The heat outside at 1am was unreal! 35*. Got the fanciest taxi ever to the hotel. Had to pay for wifi but it was only like £5. Got speaking to becks etc  we each had a queen sized beds and got our stuff brought in on a golden trolley like in the movies!  Plus we kept getting all ours doors opened, felt very fancy, our room even had a mini bar, not bad for £12 each for a 4* hotel ;) the country club Dubai…nice. 3 countries in 1 day and 4 by Sunday. Fancy!

SATURDAY 13TH JULY
Khawp kun ka THANK YOU
My alarm went off at 8am but only got up after half 9, knackered, but as it was +3GMT it means I actually got up at 6.30am! Went to the rooftop pool soo hot, beaut! 37* at 10am! It was a smallish pool with small circular Jacuzzi sized ones beside it. But loved it! Flag was designed in a competition by a kid, white = peace, green = Muhammad, red = courage and Black for Oil the country’s gained their freedom and got there economy sorted from when the struck oil, what an interesting surreal day.  Took off about 11pm, MAI PEN RAI its nothing

Checked out and was luckily able to eat in a back room restaurant in the hotel, felt a bit iffy before but the food helped, had the best pasta ever, penne a fungi with cheese and some garlic bread, pure feast! Along with some water and a sprite it only cost £9, decent for a restaurant meal.. the restaurant was like being in a mafia den for food or a speakeasy, probs didn’t help that our dinner was all hush-hush as its stupid Ramadan, stomach was iffy again ffs! Chilled until 2 as we’d booked a Dubai tour, air con mini bus and English speaking guide, saw the river, Dubai fort/museum, saga shopping cent (Omg there’s was a fab camel hair scarf so soft for 180AED £32.40 and beaut and a decently priced 24c jewel encrusted camel was sooo tempted to buy! 240AED/£43.10 )  Jeremiah 1,2 &3 where the rich live and the Royal palace is situated. There’s no tax in Dubai, no custom tax, income tax, import/export tax! hence why everything is cheaper and everyone is richer, however you cannot buy land it is owned by the crown, everyone rents and builds, cars etc are dirt cheap, cheaper here than anywhere else, even in the cars own manufacturing country! Petrol is like 20p a litre too, water is more expensive as its harder to get. Some of the rich people in Jeremiah have really O.T.T cars, like a gold Ferrari, silver Porsche and the guy who owned Man U city has a diamond encrusted merc worth over like 70mill or 7bill WTF! Allowed to water, not even in a car and its 43* tad scary in case I got dehydrated and fainted and im already not too well, thank fuck for Air con! Went to the beach to take pics of the Madinal Jumeriah, were those 2 famous tennis players had a match on the rooftop tennis court and Tiger Woods played golf as one does… its shaped into a yacht, saw some amazing sights!  Pure dying of thirst, Ramadan is cruel! Not supposed to swear or even listen to loud music…da fuck. The downtown area of Dubai is based on Manhattan with the building style, going as fair as having 2 like the Chrysler building in NYC, so cool! Went to Dubai mall, the 7th biggest in the world, attached to the Burj Kafta, the tallest building gin the world, yet the lift gets you to the top in 60seconds!  In the mall there’s an aquarium, underwater zoo, with manta rays and huge sharks, you can do cage snorkelling its like 250AED  for around £50...tempting? There’s also a huge ice rink and wall waterfall!  Gona book the Burg Khafi on my return as its only 125 instead on 400 on the day! There’s like 100 shops in the mall, with an Ed HARDY SHOP AND AN apple BOTTOMS by Nelly., there was a huge Da Vinci exhibit at the entrance to, copies of his artworks and reproductions of some of his inventions, amazing! Got to see the St Anne and Madonna which I wrote about for my essay, this always happens to me, I always see relevant things I could have taken my own first images off after Ive done my work! Headed back to the hotel after to get food as Ramadan doesn’t end until sunset and that’s after 7. Just got the same again, those silly Asian women that served us this time may have put frigging ham in it so had to scrape loads off, defs wasn’t as enjoyable! Left for the airport around 7.20, its huge! We were in terminal 3 which was just Emirates flights! HUGE! The shops alone were like a shopping centre. Saw some plates, ornaments and teapots reasonably priced so least I know I can get stuff here next time!  Got a Starbucks and waited at the gate, got talking to some of the others that stayed at the airport the night before, and didn’t get a hotel so had FA sleep, they’d paid the 400 for the Burj Khafi Finally got on board, on the edge for once, hopefully I can get a bit of sleep! Feeling a bit better and may even have got a bit of colour even with the 50 on and not being in the sun too much, maybe im just hopeful lol. Wish Becks could have been with me, she would have loved it, glad il be able to do/see some more of Dubai in September and it wont be Ramadan! provided im not broke Ofc lol. But think that’ll be me done with Dubai, once is enough really. In the past 24 hours ive been in 3 countries, Dublin to Dubai alone was 3759miles and was all over Dubai too! Next step country number 4! Bangkok Thailand, another capital, 4 capitals in 2 days, impressive. Was told earlier that the Dubai Flag was designed in a competition by a kid, white = peace, green = Muhammad, red = courage and Black for Oil the country’s gained their freedom and got there economy sorted from when the struck oil, what an interesting surreal day.  Took off about 11pm, MAI PEN RAI its nothing