Oh we have got so lazy with writing our blog.  You know how the second half of a holiday always races away with you … that’s what happened in Dubai, a mixture of packing our days with Dubai trips and then in the lazy times, being lazy!!   So just to catch up, a quick round up …..

We managed to fit in a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe – try to go to one wherever we are (sort of collecting the memories!) – this was a fab one – huge – with live music.  At £40 for the cheapest house wine we stuck to Kilkenny’s beer … and fine it was too!

To make sure we covered the vast area of this new city, we resorted to a Big Bus tour … and it did the job well.  Spent the whole day hopping on and off of buses and covered the stretch of Jumeirah, up to the Atlantis resort on Palm Island, round the Marina area, through the high rise districts admiring all the beautifully designed skyscrapers and down into old Dubai with its wind tower buildings, gold and spice souks and the creek.  Our trip included a dhow trip along the creek which enabled great photo opportunities.  

Some more chilled days spent at the beach or poolside at the villa.  One evening, Anne, Steve and I enjoyed a dhow dine and cruise – buffet and entertainment – very magical.

One of the highlights/adventures was our trip down to Dibba to take a day’s Dhow trip along this tip of the Oman coastline – to include snorkelling, speed boat trips, banana rides etc.  So this involves a border post – say no more!!!  An interesting drive down as driving through Fujairah is mountainous – so different to Dubai.  However, it proved a long drive and on top an hour’s queue to get through the border.  And guess whose car got searched … and 3 cans of beer found amongst our picnic!!!  Now they obviously love that bit of power and so not only confiscated our booty but held our passports and made us pull up and wait till the remaining queue was cleared … another hour!!!   As the time rolled on and the heat increased we were trying to remain calm but not knowing what the outcome would be we got a bit jittery at times.  To add to the ‘sweat’ we realised that we had a bottle of vodka in a bag on the back seat – we had been at Paula’s the night before and she had given it to Ali, together with an apple crumble, and lo and behold here it was still in the car!!  Finally we were summoned to the gate post, papers were filled out, details taken – not sure if the tears and profuse apologies helped but we were allowed on our way and firmly told never to do this again.  We were able to laugh once safely back in the car … and had a fabulous day out on the dhow.  Had to dump the vodka however as we were not going to risk another search on the way back into Dubai.

And so Dubai came to an end … for now.  Had a fabulous last day at Sunset beach and a bbq at the villa with Anne and Nathan – with bubbles to toast our amazing hosts and our onward journey.   A huge thanks to Anne for all you have done to make our stay so incredible ❤️