I think it’s time I started updating this a bit quicker. So this post will cover two of our days in Dubai, the first of which we spent in the desert and the second shopping and visiting the Palm Islands. On our 4th day in Dubai it was time to venture out of the urban jungle and into the desert. We booked a 4×4 desert safari for the day and were picked up from our hotel mid-afternoon and after about a 45 minute drive we arrived out in the middle of the baking hot desert. We stopped for a photo opportunity and a chance for our driver to deflate the types to help with grip across the desert sand.
We were then taken off road across the sand dunes for some dune bashing, which basically translates to driving quite fast across the sand and up and over the sand dunes. It was quite a bumpy ride but was very exciting. Our driver did his best to mount each sand dune at increasing speed which did nothing to help the stability of my camera as I tried to film the event.
We had a few stops along the way but no more than 10mins each time as the heat was quite unbearable. The final stop was at the desert camp, where there was buffet foot, a bar, and entertainment. This included sand boarding, which I was generally pretty bad at, camel riding, which we passed on as we had done that already when in Lanzarote a few years back.
Cecilia had a henna tattoo done, which is basically painted onto the skin in a nice pattern and when it dries it falls off and leaves ink stain on your arm in a nice pattern for a week or so until it washes off. Once the sun had set it got a lot cooler and we were able to sit outside in the starlight and enjoy the evening’s entertainment in the form of a belly dancing performance. Then it was back into the 4x4s and back to our Hotel.
Friday 3rd June 2011 – Mall of Emirates and Palm Islands
The next day we decided to check out the second of the massive super malls in Dubai, the Mall of Emirates. This was just as massive as the Dubai Mall we had been to the other day, and included just as many of the world’s big brand stores. The only difference really was the addition of Ski Dubai, the world’s largest indoor artificial ski slope. Although it would have been nice to give this a try we decided to pass on grounds of cost and being too much of a chicken to give it a try as neither of us had ever been skiing before. So having looked around and done some shopping we decided it would be nice to go have a look around the Palm Island, the manmade island built in the shape of a palm tree.
We got a taxi straight up the main road which runs the length of the palm island, basically the whole length of the palm tree, and went to have a look at the Atlantis Hotel. A very impressive building, it looks like something that would be very much at home in La Vegas. The hotel is guests only so we couldn’t go for a look around but the hotel does have an Aquarium that is open to the public so we went for a look around there. We decided after seeing the aquarium and the water park earlier in the week thought that it wasn’t worth paying for entry here. So we had a little look around and then decided to head home. We were planning to get a taxi back to the nearest metro stop but we found that there was actually a monorail that ran the length of the palm Island from the Atlantis hotel back to the main land so we got that and did some sightseeing from the monorail. However it was getting dark by that time so we had no luck with getting good views of all the expensive villas apartments on the island.
When we got back to the mainland monorail station we found that it had not yet finished being built so we had to find our way out of what was basically a building site and try to find a way back to the nearest metro station. That was not easy as the only way out we could find took us out to the main freeway through Dubai, with no apparent way to get across we had to instead do our best to flag down a taxi which we managed to do about 15 mins later. Apparently they plan to eventually connect the monorail to the main metro line, which would have been handy, but like a few things in Dubai it’s currently only planned, just like Trump Tower Dubai, which had its own monorail station on the palm island but all that was there was a big brown patch of empty land.
Wednesday 1st June 2011 – Burj Al Khalifa Viewing Deck and Wild Wadi Water Park
We would be retracing ours steps from yesterday and heading back to the Dubai Mall again to find the entrance to At the Top, the tourist viewing desk at the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Pre booking tickets for this is essential as they are limited and very popular, and cheaper if booked in advance. We had managed to pre-book some tickets from our hotel concierge the day before. Because we had booked our tickets for early in the morning, the first trip up of the day, we decided not to get the metro and save some time by getting a taxi, it would be cheap anyway and we would not have to rush to get ready. The entrance to the At the Top attraction is located in the ground floor of the Dubai Mall, by the ground floor food court. By the entrance in the gift shop is a nice scale model of the tower and then again inside the tourist lobby there is another and an interactive table top display with facts and figures and comparisons to other tall buildings around the world. Additionally there is a small display advertising the film Mission Impossible 4 with a director’s chair that has the Sheikh’s name on and some signed photos of a Tom Cruise lookalike climbing the outside of the building.
The trip to the top only takes a minute in a very stylish elevator which it pretty much pitch black apart from a few LCD screens and cool animated lighting effects along the walls. When you first see the view it is not that amazing, you mostly see lots of desert into the distance and after that mostly just haze. Once you start looking around through there are some very impressive views of Dubai’s new architecture, collections of skyscrapers and massive networks of roads. There is an outdoor observation deck that provides some better views with gaps in the glass screens where you can get some good pictures without glare from the windows. The only problem is it is so hot outside it is very difficult to deal with at that height, so we didn’t stay outside for very long. However it is outside that you realise that you are in fact not “At the Top”, you are in fact on the 124th which is 452m above ground. There are in fact 163 floors, the top one being 638m high, above that is just maintenance areas and the spire which stretches to the full height of 828m. So I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t actually get near to the real top, but it was higher than our previous adventures up tall buildings, namely the Rockefeller Centre in New York, which was 260m high.
We had a look around at the view, which is 360 degrees around so there is plenty to look at. On a clear day you would be able to see the Burj Al Arab hotel and the world and palm islands, however although the weather was perfect it was hazy so we couldn’t see far into the distance although we could just about make out the Burj Al Arab and see some of the world islands. The main sights were the many skyscrapers around Dubai, although they looked like small models from where we were. Looking directly down you could see the huge shadow cast from the building, and also we could see the Dubai Mall and the lake with the dancing fountain and the bridge where we stood yesterday to watch the fountain show, I think being up here would have been a much better view though.
The only other attractions at the top were a small shop and for some strange reason a gold vending machine, not just a vending machine that was painted gold, but a vending machine that sold gold bars. Sadly we couldn’t really afford to buy any to take with us and kicking it and checking the slot didn’t reap any rewards, so we decided it was time to head down to ground level again.
Once out we decided that we deserved some fun for the rest of the day so we took a taxi across to Jumeira, where you find the Burj Al Arab hotel and the Jumeira beach hotel along with the Palm Islands. But we weren’t interested in any of that today, we were here for the Wild Wadi Waterpark.
There are no pictures from our time here as I learned yesterday at the fountain show, my camera and water do not mix. So we decided to stick all our stuff in a locker and just have some fun. The park has a very cool system in place that means you don’t have to carry anything with you while in the park. At the entrance you buy a wrist band that also contains some sort of contactless technology which is used as your entrance ticket but it can also be loaded with as much money as you want to cover the cost of lockers, towel hire, food and drink while in the park, it’s very clever and saves a lot of hassle. Once we got changed we went to find the rides, this would have been easy except for one small issue, we were bare foot and the ground was hot, I mean very hot. So we were soon hopping around on tip toes from shade to shade, the annoying thing was that all the locals were strolling around no problem but I couldn’t touch the ground for more than a few seconds without my feet burning. Luckily there was plenty of shade and being a water park plenty of rides, and fountains and water falls splashing water all over the paths so in the majority of cases it was bearable.
We decided to enjoy some of the simpler rides first, such as a Flood River, a river that runs around the inside of the park, where you can ride rubber water rings along gentle waves. It was relaxing in the summer sun, but we thought it time to try something a bit more exciting. Next was the White Water Wadi, which was another river that went around the outside of the park however this one connected to something they called the Master Blasters. These were sections of water slides that contain fast moving water jets, so you went from riding a gentle river to being blasted along a water slide round corners and down hills at speed. Several sections split off into different paths of varying danger, and some routes even split in two so that two people could race down at the same time.
We had a great time and went round a few times before getting off and having another look around. One ride that had caught my eye was the Flow Rider, they have two of these in the park, they are basically massive wave machines that shoot out high pressure jets of water and it is then the riders responsibility to jump on a body board and try to ride this wave for as long as possible. The big one is situated right at the entrance and when we first arrived in the park we had spent several minutes watching people attempt to stay on this as long as they can.
It appears to be quite a competition as people compete to try and stay on the longest or do the most flashy tricks. Across the park is a smaller one that I thought it best to try out first since this would be our first time on such a ride. The queue was huge so it took a long time, but part of the fun was watching the people come and go before me, watching and learning to try and pick up any tips possible on how best to stay on the board. Once I actually got a go it didn’t last long, I stood at the top, board in front of me, leaned forward and pushed off onto the board and straight down to the bottom of the wave pool. I picked myself up tried again, this time I managed to ride the wave straight off the opposite side. Well it had to be third time lucky so placing the board carefully back on the water I leapt on and with my arms flat against the board I pushed up with my elbow and balanced myself. I managed to stay balanced in the middle of the wave machine for a little while before attempting to lean side to side and glide back and forth. Now after watching many people come and go before me I had noticed that the lifeguards were helping people out and showing them the correct technique to ride the wave. People would fall off once or twice and after a few times your go was over. Now some people really were good at it, and just didn’t fall off, and it was at this point the lifeguards would then decide that someone’s time was up, but instead of just telling them to get off they would encourage them to perform more and more skilful and dangerous tricks. First they would tell you to lean back, hold the board out in front of you, if you could do that they would then instruct you to push the board away and you were then suppose to catch it as the wave shot it back at you. This was enough to get a lot of people to fall and go tumbling into the back of the pool. So as instructed by the lifeguard I gave this a try, leaning back, holding out the board and pushing it away, I then had to react quick as it came shooting back at my face, but managed to catch it and board it again, twice more I managed this and was feeling quite good. So it was onto the next trick, this involved kneeling on the board, getting your balance and then with your arms out to the side you had to slap the water on one side spinning you 360 degrees around. This was more challenging, first getting onto your knees from a lying down position. Hold the board, and when you are ready bring your knees up quickly underneath you onto the board, then lean back into an upright position. I managed this, but only after the second attempt, the first I lost my balance and got back down onto the board quick just in time to stay on it. Once kneeling up though I managed to again lean side to side adjusting my weight to balance on the wave and move back and forth. It was then I decided I would give it a go, so put my hand into the water to my side and gave it a slap! I quickly spun around, my board was swept from under me, I face planted the wave and tumbled backward over the back of the pool and into the wall. Never the less it was pretty much the most fun ever. Cecilia took her turn after me and just as I did she went off the first time but got back on the second and managed to stay on a lot longer than me and generally proceeded to show off by finding her balance a lot quicker than me and pulling tricks on the board with ease. She did eventually fall off backward and into the wall just as I did but we had both really enjoyed the ride.
It’s a shame we had no pictures of our time at the park, some of the river rides did have photo points like you get on a roller coaster, but in all of the pictures we saw I pretty much had my eyes closed as for a good part of the day a combination of sun cream and very bright sunshine had really irritated them and meant I rode a lot of the water slides blind. There is a link to a website below that has some good pictures and video from the park to give you an idea of what it’s like. If you ever go to Dubai then I recommend this water park, it’s a lot of fun, I only wish the weather was good enough back in England for us to have a water park just like this.
My first real holiday in about 7 years. New York for a week. The weather wasn’t great, but we didn’t go there to get a suntan. We spent the whole week sightseeing. The list of great things to do and see there is almost endless but a few of the things we did included going up to the top of Rockerfeller Centre for a breath taking view of Manhattan. We went to Central Park, National History Museum, saw the Empire State and Chrysler Building. Times Square during the day is amazing, but at night it’s blinding and brilliant. The best day of the week was the trip out to the statue of Liberty, the weather on that day was great, sunny and nice. The Statue of Liberty is by far the best attraction to see in New York, its an engineering masterpiece and very inspiring.
We took the digital camera and the Video Camera with us and took lots of shots and film. I have already uploaded the best pictures onto Flickr and will try to convert the video and upload it onto Facebook at some point.
If you ever get the chance to visit New York then do, but be prepared as you will be quite tired after a few days of sight seeing so plan some relaxing time and some things to do to chill out too while your there. Check out my map below that I put together as a basic guide to the best sights of New York.
The 2008 summer movies kick off very soon with the first of a batch of comic book big screen outings, with the others mostly sequals, this one is a first. Iron man makes it to the big screen and the trailers make it look very good, should be a blast.
Speed Racer (9th May)
This is based on some america comic book or cartoon, i’m not quite sure and too lazy to look it up, you could do that yourself if you can be bothered. Anyway the trailer for this one looks really good, its sort of looks like wacky races on steroids, but the styling is very cool.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (22nd May)
It way well have been a long time since Indiana Jones last picked up a whip and hat, and I’m not all to positive as to how this will compare to the original films, but I will be happy to watch and find out.
The Incredible Hulk (13th June)
The first big screen outing for the big green meenie wasn’t the best film ever, actually it sucked big time, I mean does anyone know what the hell happened, the ending was like what??? So lets hope this one is better, its not really a sequal, more a sort of.. second chance.
Wall-E (18th July)
The latest Pixar film. Everything they touch seems brilliant and this one looks no different. About a robot left on Earth to clean up after the human race abandons its a cute story of ones robots struggle against something, or other.
The Dark Knight (25th July)
The big one of 2008 for me anyway. The sequal to the new begining for the Dark Knight himself. The new Batman is darker and more serious and we all can’t wait to see the Batman take on one of his greatest ever foes again.
X-Files Movie 2 (1st August)
The long planned sequal that will continue and possibly wrap up once and for all the story of agents Mulder and Scully and the extraterestrial encounders.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (8th August)
Another ‘The Mummy’ movie, I was suprised to see this on the shedule but I have to say I quite enjoyed the previous ones, quite funny, good special effects and more nasty mummies to deal with.
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (22nd August)
A sequal to the first Hellboy film, not a massive success, but a decent film no the less, Big Red was a cool character and it can’t hurt to see who else needs a good thumping.
Bond 22 : Quantum of Solace (31st October)
The next bond film, which should be great if the first of the new serise is to go by. Casino Royal was a brave new step for the bond francise and it paid off, it was the most successful bond ever and I think it can only get better, I hope.
Cool well that is a quick round up of the movies of summer 2008, well the main ones i’m interested in anyway, I’m sure there are going to be more great films coming up too. This list will be a good reference to remind me of the films I need to remember to go see, any one got any good suggestions of other good films to look out for please feel free to let me know, I love a good recommendation.
So I haven’t posted for a while. Not much to talk about. Got a holiday in New York next monh I guess that should give me something to say.
Meanwhile I have decided to go next-gen, or current gen, i’m a little latee to the party you see.
I have a PS2 and have loved it for years, still lots of great games for it around, been playing Resdent Evil 4 recently, and it had to be one of the best games I have ever played, its great. I remember the original and that was great, This really carries the torch for the Resident Evil series.
But as you can see I am behind the times when it comes to games, which is odd because I’m a massive gaming fan, always have been, I even did games development course at university, only problem is I never been able to afford to keep up with the latest games tech.
I’m usually at least a year behind the current stuff, so now I think its time to get a new console. Trade in my PS2 and get either and X-box 360 or a PS3. The problem is the PS3 is still too expensive, £300 is a lot, and I know it does blue ray but I’m not really interested in that just yet, DVD is still working real good for me.
So with the X-box 360 now down to less that £200, cheaper than a Nintendo Wii, I think its my best option, also I notice that there is now a massive stash of pre-owned X-box 360 games available on the cheap now so its perfect.
Now I know your saying well what about a Nintendo Wii, its cheapa and has a fancy wavy about controller. well I like the concept of the Wii, and I have played a few games on it, but there just isn’t the wide selection of quality games I’m looking for, and the gimmick does wear off after a few games jumping around waving the arms here and there.
So X-box 360 it is. Good timing too as GTA IV is out this month, and Resident Evil 5 soon after. Plus they are porting Supreme Commander to the 360 and that is the game at the very top of my list of ‘want to plays’ for a year now. I know it has been out of the PC for ages, but if I tried to play it on my computer it would just laugh at me and then explode because of the minimum requirements.
So the only thing to do now is go finish the final chapter of Resident Evil 4 so I can trade it in and get me a 360. I hope its going to be worth it.
So I haven’t posted for a while. Not much to talk about. Got a holiday in New York next monh I guess that should give me something to say.
