Travel Hounds: Dubai-licious

Before leaving Cambodia we stumbled across the Cambodian body building championships. There was lots of entertainment including a Justice Crew style dance performance.

Getting to Dubai from Siam Reap was quite the experience. A long day, with a seven hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur. We had a hair raising 20 minute bus trip from the Air Asia terminal to the International terminal. At one point we were speeding down the highway and I said to Frank, ‘how can the front of the bus be in one lane and the back of it in another lane (where we were) when we’re heading in a straight line?’ Still haven’t figured that one out… We have now been in Dubai for five days and have had an amazing time. Quite a few people did not have good things to say about Dubai – hot, expensive etc. It just goes to show that you need to make up your own mind about a destination. The weather has been glorious; it is the perfect time of year to be in Dubai. We hear the weather is great for seven months of the year and in the forties and fifties for the rest of the time, peaking in June and July.

Is it expensive, absolutely, if you choose to do and see all the amazing things on offer – skiing, ice skating, zero gravity, kidzania…shopping, great restaurants, safari…there is so much to do here. The most expensive and elusive activity is drinking alcohol. This is a bit of a shame because a lot of things go very well with a nice glass of SBS or bubbles. Trying to track down a glass has led us to quite a few amazing places; the Dubai Film Festival, colourful souks, jaw dropping hotels… yadda, yadda. My forced sobriety has not been boring. I haven’t written the blog much in Dubai because we have had limited internet access at our hotel and when we do have access, like at the Dubai Mall, there is so much to do… One of the highlights so far has been Burj Khalifa; the world’s tallest building is a piece of modern art.

Dubai Marina and the beach are also gorgeous.

For the kids, Kidzania was a highlight. It is in the Dubai Mall and kids enter via an airport terminal. They have to clear immigration and customs and they then go to the bank where they get Kidzania dollars. They can use this money on rides and at the barber shop or beauty salon etc. If they need more money they can get a job as a policeman, fire fighter, ambo, in a shop, as a dentist etc. Mini incidents requiring emergency response are staged so that the kids can put their new skills to the test. For the creative there are jobs as an actor, dancer, singer or painter. If they want to earn more money they can go to uni and get a 'certificate'.

We visited the pork section of Carrefour; it felt naughty like going into Adult Shop or something. There is a massive canned section - I had no idea pork was in so many things.