The UAE

11th February

After a hasty coffee we headed to a newly discovered ‘Miracle Gardens’. Even this was pretty impressive as every shape, Disney and cartoon character, building, an Emirates plane, animals were all made up of flower arrangements. My favorite was micky mouse and his crew. It was a great place to test out our new camera.

There were even hammocks if you wanted a snooze.

Afterwards we headed out onto the metro to see the famous, one of the tallest (321m) and most luxurious of hotels in the world (apparently) – the Burj Al Arab.

We couldn’t get into the grounds or around it to see its sea front side so I was feeling a little disappointed. Even more so when we found Dubais most famous beach (Jumeriah beach). It looked so small and empty… being curious as that couldn’t have been all it was we walked left around a headland and bingo. I mean it still wasn’t the best beach I’ve been to but, it did look more used.

White, very fine sand (almost like dust) stretched all the way round the headland and even though it was cloudy and windy I still paddled in the sea. A bunch of school children in gym outfits were crouding round a hut. It was food. I hadn’t realised I was starving and ate our baguettes watching with people wind surfing, some of them were doing pretty impressive tricks.

Our next stop of the day was the Frame where we took an elevator to the viewing platform.

You could literally walk on glass looking down at the frames base way bellow you. It made my tummy turn and I pulled Josh off the glass at one point. The glass was of a special kind that went see through when stepped on. Freeked a few people out.

On the was down was a musium talking you through how it was built and the desicion of its location. The Palm Jumeriah was a close competitor but, this park was chosen as you could see old Dubai on one side (no sky scrapers, more houses) and new Dubai on the other (the sky scrappers and impressive structures).

I can’t remember how long it took to lift the platform but it was more than a few days and once in place the building stood at 150 meters tall.

We were going to go into the glow Gardens but, too expensive and therefore, we explored the park we had paid to get into, ending up at the Burj Khalifa for dinner and the evening fountain shows.