Sand Surfing

It was a great time  in Dubai! First, we hit up the shopping after arriving early in the morning.  We went to the Mall of Dubai that has the world tallest building, the Burj Khalif. Didn't go up to the top since it was so hazy and you wouldn't see much plus it was sold out. Saw the very tall indoor ski resort in the Emirates Mall.  Getting there was an adventure. We rode on the metro. There are separate men and women/children sections.  We of course didn't realize this  for a little while till we wondered why there were so many men. It worked out well though once  we figured this out as there was more room in our section! 

Later our first night, we attempted to venture out for dinner but that was a bust. We wanted to go down to the market to eat near the water. Well, we couldn't find any place. When  we attempted to get out of the area but about 15 taxis went by and refused to pick us up. Finally, one was kind enough to and we went back and ate some awesome Italian food in our hotel over looking the water. 
 
The second day we met up with Kiron's cousin Radha. She was so sweet to give us the insiders tour of the city.  We went out to the famous Palm island. It is manmade islands in the shape of palm trees. People have houses on the fronds. We got to see them. Wow, that is quite the life!

That night we took the much anticipated Desert Safari. It was awesome. By far the best part of the trip. We were in a convoy of about 20 Toyota Land Cruisers. Each one held about 6 passengers. After a long drive out to the middle of nowhere, we finally got to the dunes. It was a wild ride. It was like surfing in car! I have no idea how our driver did it. We were sitting in the back which gets flung around the most.  I did start to feel a little sick towards the end. I took some video that I will post at some point. If this was the US there would have been a massive waiver to sign. We then went to ride camels before the traditional Arabic dinner where we sat on pillows and watched dancers. I got henna on my arm. I think it looks really nice. Does surprise me every now and then when I look down and forget I did it.  Then afterwards we hit up the Madinat Jumeriah for some dancing. We hads a great time and thankfully no problem waking felt our flight.

The flight to Dar Es Salaam in Emirate airlines was nice but not as nice as the one coming from the US. We arrived and got ourVisas without too much  hassle. But boy I now understand the term "Africa hot" as there was no air flow and sweat dripping off of me. I know this is just the beginning.  We are now sitting waiting for our hopper flight to Zanzibar.