And lastly, Dubai

The first thing we noted was the sky, dust:

The second thing development everywhere:

We landed but the way out wasn't as bad as we expected, we were met by a representative who took us to Le Meridien. Unfortunately the wrong one:

The good part was that it was 20 mins away from where ours was and we got a great city tour for nothing. The views were relentless, 20 mins of hotels:

and more:

Even a Las Vegassey one:

Even the highest building (office block) in the world (when its finished) 750m?:

finally we got to our Meridien, (one of 7, I think) Meridien Dubai

and finally our room:

Two pools there was a lap pool which we started off in but found the water was too warm for laps, so we went to the other one with the bar in it. pen is seated with her Stella at the bar:

later on we had dinner at the hotel and our best ice cream ever:

the following day we trolled off to the city centre mall, I'm sure it was within easy walking distance but bcause everything goes by car it took ages through the serpentine highways. needless to say it had attractions, here;'s Ella's dream:

actually we not only did the shoppy thing but also went to the supermarket for a takeaway dinner for later

that evening after our regulation swims we were off to where? Unwisely I chose the gold Souk thinking it would be a great shopping complex. Well it was:

Trouble was that every single shop was selling gold in some form or another:

there were some places where the guys hung out:

but that was at the seedy edges of an area about the size of old Papatoetoe.

The trouble was that although we were close to the places of rather more variety we couldn't tell exactly where to go. We decided to take a taxi back. that was an adventure, battling all sorts of nationalities and the parking cops to get hold of the infrequent taxis who would be attacked by the cops or their fares before reaching the kerb.

we made it back though.

I reckon we had a great goodnight swim, the same lifeguard was tending us the towels as had been on duty that morning and finally turned in.

Next morning after the usual fabulous buffet breakfast we were off to the airport for home. there must have been a real problem for Gulf Circle tours who did the transfers because this time we had nobody turned up. we had the Meridien transport instead, but if we'd known we could have eaten less hastily.

then it was all go into the Crappy Emirates Airbus again for home. and here we are!! in that wet and wild place, NZ.

So that as they say, for our simply wonderful holiday that we thank you all for making us so welcome all across the globe: