Hi all for the very last time on the trip! :(
Today we had a quick look in the hotel shop before getting a taxi to 'Wild Wadi', the water park of the Burj al Arab hotel. It has featured on 'The Amazing Race' a couple of times which is how I heard about it.
We had a really fun four hours here! This morning I woke up feeling pretty crappy but I improved throughout the day. It was so hot once again that the concrete in the park burned your feet, we had to wear our shoes and leave them at the top of each slide. We were glad we had worn clothes to cover up a bit. 1) because less sunscreen 2) because they stayed wet longer than just bathers and kept us cool, and 3) because slides hurt!!! We saw lots of people with cuts and grazes and our clothes protected us.
We went on lots of fun slides. The first one was the famous Jumeirah Sceirah (pronounced ju-mair-a scarer) which is a speed slide where the floor drops out from under you. Then we went on the Burj Surj and Tantrum Falls which involved huge funnel slides that you go down like a plug hole! We also went on a slide that circled the perimeter of the park and had lots of little slides and tunnels that linked up via small pools. You could pick which way you went and some of them even used magnetic mechanisms to slide you upwards! The wave pool was good too but the waves weren't as big as MSAC at home!!
Afterwards we walked to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel to check out the beach there. We had wondered if non guests could visit but decided to take a chance. So in we walked, dripping wet telling ourselves to just look like we knew where we were going. We got to a door to the private pool and beach and the man said "what's your room number?". Without missing a beat, I replied "604" (our room number at our actual hotel!) and off we went to explore the beach haha!! We felt like fugitives. Saw the Burj al Arab building up close and the packed out pool of the hotel. But we only walked for five minutes, and with a towel over our heads, but we still got so hot sweat was pouring off our faces. How do people live here?!?!?!? We were even in wet clothes!
Had a rest at the hotel and ate some more muesli bars and berries (that's been our Dubai diet due to Ramadan!). Then we had a swim in the hotel pool and a lie down.
Tonight we went back to the Dubai mall and went up the Burj Khalifa. It's the tallest building, tallest structure and tallest freestanding structure in the world standing at 830m high. But don't worry Ian, the viewing platform is "only" 452m and 124 levels up haha. When empty the building weighs 500,000 tonnes, it has 57 elevators, 28,601 glass panels on its outside and 200+ levels. 12,000 workers of 80 different nationalities worked on it between 2004-2009, it can be seen from 95km away on a clear day and has winds of up to 198 km an hour at the top!
Took in the view at the top - very hazy! Lots of desert, ocean and lots of buildings. We've realised in the last two days that we keep comparing Dubai to Las Vegas. Everything is very fake and sometimes tacky. The islands are all man made, the lakes are all man made. The dinosaur bones on display in the mall were flown in from America, and it just feels like everything here is a big flashy display geared at tourists. Bit of a shame the traditional culture has been lost.
While we were up the top of the building the fast period ended with Iftar/sunset. They handed out Ramadan packs to break the fast including water, chocolate and dates. We got one too! Had a go at another queue jumper in the process (be proud again pa and Ian). People here do not get queues. Think I got pushed in front of about six times today alone, and by number six I'd had enough. So after this girl pushed in front of us and then two men as well, I tapped her on the shoulder and said "excuse me, there's a queue here, we were here first". She looked at me and said something about no one else coming in and that it was ok. So I replied "well where I come from, it's not ok, you don't do that and it's rude". As if I hadn't been stared at enough at the top of the building by wearing a singlet and a skirt (all my longer pants are filthy or sweaty or wet or a combination and I was NOT going to wear jeans), I now got stared at even more. Seriously though. Do I have a sign on my forehead saying "push in front of me?". Rant over - sorry about that!
We came back down, watched the fountain show on the lake (man made of course!) and then had dinner at a place called 'Times of Arabia' which had a middle eastern buffet. We ate lots of delicious food including rice dishes, meat, falafel, dips and bread etc etc. Yummy! The mall was crazy busy with people breaking their fast. A stark contrast to yesterday morning!! Good to see it so full of life.
Got a taxi back. The driver spoke hardly any English but we had a funny conversation. D = driver, C = me.
D- you're English?
C- no, Australian
D- Sydney, Melbourne...?
C- Melbourne!
D- ohhhhhh! MCG!
C- yes MCG! We are going there on Sunday!
D- wow!
Hahaha. When he dropped us off I assured him I would say hi to the MCG for him. Unsure if he understood!!!
Now we are in for the night. Tmro morning our plane leaves at 10.10am (4.10pm Melbourne time) and we arrive about 5.30am Sunday. Going to be full on the moment I arrive, with Sophie's birthday lunch at 11.30 and the footy at 4.40. Straight back to uni Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and work Thursday, Friday and Saturday. But I'm Claire, and we all know I only have one mode - busy!!! So as usual I will make it work haha.
What an incredible nine week adventure this has been. Thank you so much for reading my blog. Whether you read it once, a handful of times or every day, I really appreciate you taking the time to follow our adventures. I'm sad it's over but really grateful for all the incredible experiences I had and all the fantastic new friends I made along the way. There are already talks of a Greek islands reunion in Sydney in November when our American guide comes to visit so that is exciting!!
As for me personally, I feel like this holiday has been really good for me. I've never been a big fan of my own company and I feel like travelling by myself (on tours and completely alone) allowed me to realise I'm capable of doing anything I want to by myself, and allowed me to begin enjoying being by myself!! As I mentioned previously as well, at home I'm so busy that often times I forget to let myself have fun. Well I went from being that person to being the type of person who isn't scared to jump up on the bar the first night in Mykonos and dance like no one is watching. I jumped off a bridge into arctic circle waters, I had some big nights that I paid for the next day, and so much more!! As you know from my blog I had a million more amazing experiences, but most importantly I had fun.
My next adventure begins on January 4 2015 and will see me travelling first to South America (Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil) and then living in the UK from March to December with my friends I met in January in Asia. I'll be taking some mini adventures whilst in the UK including Iceland, the UK and a tour of the western front that will see me at Villers-Bretonneux (don't know how to spell it!!) for the dawn service for the 100th anniversary of the Anzac landing. I'm hoping also to do a Croatia sail as I enjoyed the Greek one so much. Long story short, I'm iving up to my motto "never stop travelling" and there will be lots more adventures to tune in for.
Thanks so much once again for reading,
See you all in Melbourne SOON!
Lots of love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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