Dubai Christmas 2006

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Nath and I decided to visit Dubai to get away from London's freezing tempatures over Christmas.. and we had an awsome time!

It was so great to be back in t-shirts and shorts. We spent a few of the mornings lazing about the hotel pool, soaking up the sun and water! We visited Jumeriah beach a couple of times but unfortunately the times we went down there it was overcast and a little on the windy side.

Dubai was certainly very westernised - as we had expected. I have captured some typical snapshots of Dubai - two arab men sitting out Starbucks, and three arab ladies in their black arabian dresses walking down Jumeriah beach.. which was a little unusual to see.

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We spent alot of time shopping - so many shops in Dubai! I thought the prices were really good compared to London, although I didn't end up buying very much.. and thank god I didn't as landing back in London Heathrow new year's eve, Gulf Air managed to loose my suitcase for 5 days!

We also did the 4WD desert safari - we left the hotel about 3pm with Arabian Desert Tours to start the 45 minute drive out. There was about 45mins of dune bashing and it finished with a barbeque in the desert. It was a good adventure, but it is very chilly in the desert at night! We tried out the quad bikes too and I had a brilliant time on those!

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Nath decided to do Ski Dubai (the indoor, man-made ski slope) while I decided to continue to do my shopping, with a quick chat on the phone to my lovely sis while chilling in a cafe. Nath reported that Ski Dubai was good fun, and for a reduced price you can go for just 2 hours. They provide all your equipment - clothing etc except for gloves and a beanie.

The hotel turned out to be great, I was slightly worried about it being a business hotel, but the pool area was lovely and in general, the Novotel World Trade Centre was suprisingly really good, 4 star, nice amenties, including a gym that we took advantage of - no rest for us! We were a little way away from things, but we just got the free hotel shuttle bus, which worked out fine. Where we needed to take a cab, it really wasn't that expensive, 5 quid at most.

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We also checked out the Souks - the gold souk and the spices souk. That was lots of fun although I walked away with only spices, no gold this time!

Overall, it was a brilliant Christmas!