Arrived at 5.15am, swim in hotel pool at 7am while waiting for room, then out the door into the heat of Dubai by 8.30 – why rest when you can explore ( and also my body has no idea what time it is)

Unsure what to wear in Dubai and conscious about their conservative dress codes, we wore long pants and 3/4 tops/t-shirt. Emily had had enough of the heat by 10am when she’d seen most other tourist dressed in shorts and t-shirts and ditched the bottom half of her pants – who cares about the style when u can change into shorts in public!
We spent the day in Old Dubai, caught water taxi across The Creek (very dirty, lots of litter) to visit Dubai Fort, Dubai Museum ( along with tourist buses number 9, 12, 14, and 19). The former home of the grandfather of the current ruler was cool, (literally – great air conditioning) with lots of photos portraying the way of life over past 80 years including in the desert. Camels are pretty amazing animals!
We wondered through the different souqs, spice souq was awesome with great smells and colours and no one else there! Beautiful dates, and bought saffron pistachios. Locals very welcoming to ‘kiwi’.
Ate lunch at waterside restaurant, no idea what nationality the food was representing but YUM! Classic waiter said yes to every question, hence we didn’t know what type of meat the ‘Grilled Meat’ was but enjoyed it. Watched the chef fish from between the tables into the algae covered creek, thankful we didn’t order seafood!!
Caught in rush hour traffic trying to get back to hotel, what a mission
Went to one of the many malls in Dubai in the evening and felt like we were back in a Western country and missing my ‘normal clothes’, make up, and jewellery.

Today we’ll be viewing the world from the tallest building in the world, Khalifa at 821m!!!