Where in the world am I?

Ripples of sand in the sunset
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Dubai is a crazy crazy place.

I was lucky enough to stay with Stevens brother and sister-in-law in their lovely house in the middle of the desert.  Sally drove me around showing me the sites, where I was just speechless at the amount of construction that is going on.  Some one told me that Dubai has 92% of the worlds construction cranes, and I would believe it.  There are hundreds of skyscrapers going up, which is just the tip of the iceberg of what is planned.  They are building the worlds tallest building, which is likely to be 200m taller than the current tallest structure - almost twice the size of the Empire State building.  They are also going to build a huge theme park area, that will be bigger than the city of Orlando, let alone Disneyland.  Crazy!

Said sunset
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They also have the worlds only 7 star hotel (well, I think that they have just labeled it that themselves), the beautiful sail shaped building you see in the adds.  You have to have an appointment in a restaurant or business to get inside the hotel, so I decided to get my hair cut there, because I am so fancy.  Inside is quite spectacular, with gold columns (real gold ofcourse) many fountains, rich red and colourful walls up the centre of the sail shape.  Not the most tasteful hotel in the world I'm sure but great photo opportunities!

Dune bashing
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Because it was so hot I saw mainly the inside attractions.  The Dubai museum is inside an old fort, and was entertaining with mannequins and displays of Emirati life pre 1950's.  From the museum I took a taxi to the Jameriah Mosque, the only mosque that allows non-muslims inside for tours twice a week.  The tour was more of a talk on Muslim principles, where a volunteer explained some of the prayers and muslim rituals which was interesting.

From there I decided to walk the 1.5ks to the nearby Mercato shopping mall - big mistake in the midday heat as I was dripping with sweat by the time I got there.  In Dubai the shopping malls are tourist attractions in themselves.  This one is Italian themed, with the centre like a street with the shop fronts looking like houses with flowery balconies either side.  Other malls I went to were the Ibn Battuta - a huge mall with 7 different country themes including China, India and Persia, Mall of the Emirates where the ski slope is and the Egyptian themed Wafi Mall.

The Burg Al Arab (7* hotel) from a lagoon type place with lovely restaurants, hotels and tourist shops
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On the Friday night I went on a desert safari, which involved dune bashing in a convoy of land cruisers, dinner in a "traditional Bedouin camp", camel rides, henna painting and a belly dancer.  The dune bashing was fun, though none of the cars rolled which by the bangs in the sides of some of the cars it appears they do at times.  In my car were 3 South African girls, who screamed at the slightest bump making the trip even funnier.

Unfortunately because I was such a wimp in the heat I didn't go see the traditional souk areas or the heritage creek area, but this is just all the more excuse to go back in the more pleasant winter time where the beach is also supposed to be beautiful.  And I want to see just how more crazy it gets.