We docked in Dubai at 630am and were able to talk to Steve in Santa Barbara and Stephanie in New York. Steve has a new job he starts today with a small software firm in Santa Barbara and he’s the lead Network Administrator, so he’s happy. Steph sounds good and everyone is well. We didn’t get to talk to John he’s on his way to Las Vegas. We miss them everyone.
Our first tour was to the emirate Sarjah, which is the cultural center of the UAE. It was a disappointing tour in that the museums and cultural exhibits were mostly under construction plus we had to do a lot of walking and it was getting warm. Apparently the temperature in the next month or so will be above 100 and by June it will be near 120, but it’s a dry heat (ha ha). There is construction going on all over. Our tour guide told us that 70 to 80 % of the residents are foreign national who are doing the work and the rest are native arabs who are government employees or family of the Sheiks. Native arabs when they get married are given a fully furnished villa free of charge in addition they get free medical care. The villas are not shabby either, they look to be about 1500 to 2000 square feet each and are all newly constructed. We went on a tour of local markets, called Souks, and Chris bought a shawl and a couple of trinkets.
We got back to the ship around 1230 and after lunch we left for our tour of Dubai. Our first stop was at the beach near the 7 star hotel that look s like a sail. Supposedly the cheapest room is over $2000 a night and you get driven around in a Rolls Royce. We did get to stop for refreshments at the Kapinski Hotel adjoining the Emerate Mall which includes the indoor sky slope. There were windows from the hotel restaurant into the ski slope so we could watch the fun and take pictures. After that we toured downtown Dubai by bus, including the emirate tower that is under construction and is 60% complete at 100 floors and supposed ly to be around 200 floors. We finished our afternoon tour with an hour to walk around the Gold souk or market, where there were hundreds of stores with all kinds of jewelry including gold, diamonds, pearls and other items.
We got back to the ship last because our cunard tour escort got lost in the market and our local tour guide had to make us wait for 15 minutes until he was told to bring us back to the ship. It turns out the cunard escort took a cab back on his own.
We were so tired that we ended up having room service dinner and going to bed early, but we had a good day.
Our first tour was to the emirate Sarjah, which is the cultural center of the UAE. It was a disappointing tour in that the museums and cultural exhibits were mostly under construction plus we had to do a lot of walking and it was getting warm. Apparently the temperature in the next month or so will be above 100 and by June it will be near 120, but it’s a dry heat (ha ha). There is construction going on all over. Our tour guide told us that 70 to 80 % of the residents are foreign national who are doing the work and the rest are native arabs who are government employees or family of the Sheiks. Native arabs when they get married are given a fully furnished villa free of charge in addition they get free medical care. The villas are not shabby either, they look to be about 1500 to 2000 square feet each and are all newly constructed. We went on a tour of local markets, called Souks, and Chris bought a shawl and a couple of trinkets.
We got back to the ship around 1230 and after lunch we left for our tour of Dubai. Our first stop was at the beach near the 7 star hotel that look s like a sail. Supposedly the cheapest room is over $2000 a night and you get driven around in a Rolls Royce. We did get to stop for refreshments at the Kapinski Hotel adjoining the Emerate Mall which includes the indoor sky slope. There were windows from the hotel restaurant into the ski slope so we could watch the fun and take pictures. After that we toured downtown Dubai by bus, including the emirate tower that is under construction and is 60% complete at 100 floors and supposed ly to be around 200 floors. We finished our afternoon tour with an hour to walk around the Gold souk or market, where there were hundreds of stores with all kinds of jewelry including gold, diamonds, pearls and other items.
We got back to the ship last because our cunard tour escort got lost in the market and our local tour guide had to make us wait for 15 minutes until he was told to bring us back to the ship. It turns out the cunard escort took a cab back on his own.
We were so tired that we ended up having room service dinner and going to bed early, but we had a good day.
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