Monday 21st September 2015 - Dubai
Today was exhausting, in a nice way. We had a date with the Big Bus (Dubai's version of the hop on hop off bus), so after breakfast, downstairs at the Skyline, we headed for the wharf area hoping to locate one of the bus stops. We asked around but couldn't get a definitive answer with the half English half Arabic conversations that were going on. In the end, we decided to catch taxis to the Deira City Centre shopping centre where we figured we would have better luck. Both taxis were the same cost this time :-). After a coffee at Starbucks, we headed downstairs, exchanged our voucher for tickets and off we went on the red route (the City Tour).
The first stop was the WAFI, centre where we swapped buses, and then on to Dubai Mall. The architecture in Dubai is just amazing. So many tall building of all shapes and sizes. No doubt the most significant on this part of the trip was the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. There is so much to see at the Dubai Mall we will return. For now, it was just a change over spot onto the green route (the Beach Tour).
This part of the tour took us to the coast past the Jumeirah Mosque and the very distinctive Burjal al Arab, which seems to appear in anything about Dubai. It was then on to Palm Jumeirah, the man-made island in the form of a palm. Right at the end of 'the Palm' we got off the bus at Atlantis City and had some lunch before spending time at the aquarium (included in the price of the Big Bus). The aquarium was amazing, particularly the one huge tank which had a massive collection of fish, sharks and rays.
Back on the bus we headed first for the Hall of the Emirates (another shopping centre) and then back to Dubai Mall where we waited for some time to make our connection to the red route and then back to Deira City Centre. By this stage, it was getting close to 6 o'clock so the long drive back through peak hour traffic saw us go from day to night with all the changes in colour along the way.
At the Deira Centre, we again visited the food mall for tea before catching taxis back to the Skyline.
Time for bed ........
