Thursday 24th July 2015 - Dubai (our last day)

Up early again this morning to pack our bags, have breakfast, check out of the hotel and store our gear in the cloakroom before getting a taxi to the Jumeirah Mosque for the 'Open Doors, Open Minds' tour - Jumeirah Mosque is the only Mosque in Dubai that can be visited by non-Muslims. The morning was most informative although it was a little hard to hear and understand our speaker so I'm sure we missed a lot.  Was interesting to get a look at the world from an Islamic point of view.  As we had arrived early we went to the cafe at the Mosque and had a coffee made on camel milk.  It's supposed to be very good for you but we won't be rushing out to repeat the exercise.

We had to go through various rituals before being allowed into the Mosque, take off your shoes and dress modestly (covered head and arms for women).

Jemeirah Mosque  

After the Mosque visit, we were up for a real coffee and fortunately, there was a Starbucks across the street.  Coffee Frappes are becoming very popular in this very hot climate.
For the rest of the day, Wendy and Jennie went off exploring old Dubai (the museum and souks) while Richard, Jill and I headed for the air-conditioned comfort of WAFI Mall.  We were surprised at how few people were there and put it down to the fact that it is a public holiday for the Eid Al Adha festival.

There was a Souk in the basements under the mall which was interesting and Jill purchased a new carry bag.  Upstairs I also purchased a smaller backpack so that I have something to carry the camera around in without being too obvious.

WAFI Mall

We all got back to the Skyline (although our taxi driver didn't have a clue and in the end we had to direct him to the hotel - talk about the blind leading the blind.  We can't work out the address system here.  The hotel's address is Al Rigga Road which is the closest big road but several blocks from where the hotel's actually found on the corner of 37 Street and 40c Street.  These latter directions mean nothing to taxis drivers.  All a bit of a mystery.

We caught taxis out to the airport.  Jill and I had a very chatty Pakistani gentleman who has a family with 7 kids home in Pakistan.  He tells us that 85% of Taxi drivers come from Pakistan.

As usual, we had quite a wait around for our 11:30 flight.  Following a very ordinary dinner (why do airports aways have 'crap' food?) we made our way through emigration (Jennie getting the once over by security - the luck of the draw perhaps).  Dubai is a big airport as you have to catch a train to your exit gate from Emigration.  We also had to go through 2 exit gates which was a bit funny.  Through one, wait again in a second exit lounge before boarding through the second gate.

Another 8-hour flight to Johannesburg.  After our frantic pace in Dubai, we were all exhausted so did manage to get some sleep.