Dubai it is

So I've arrived in Dubai and survived my first day! I think that the population here is made up of Indians, Arabics and Russians. I haven't met any tourists here, probably because all of the ones staying at my hotel are Russian or Asian and we can't understand each other..



I'm staying in Deira, which I think is like the down-town part of Dubai. At first I was a bit apprehensive because I was expecting the sky-scrapers and mosques that I've always seen in photos, but this morning I'm loving it! All of the men (not many women here!!!) are so nice, even if they are trying to make me look at their Louis Vuitton handbags. Yesterday I walked to the Gold Souq, which is basically just a lot of jewellery shops. There were a few more tourists there, but not too many. I didn't do a whole lot more yesterday because I was just really feeling lonely and probably tired. I ate KFC for lunch and then had a 4 hour nap in the hotel! After my long nap, which made me miss the free shuttle from the hotel to Jumeirah for shopping, I walked across to the Hyatt hotel to see their ice-skating rink. It was pretty cool, and by that I mean cold! I ate dinner at my hotel's restaurant, which is a Russian restaurant that also makes Indian and Arabic food. My food of choice was Lulya Kebab (lamb kebab), which was served like in the picture with a big clump of shredded red onion in the middle. I thought kebabs were on skewers? It was the tastiest kebab ever though! And I got to eat New Zealand butter on my roll, and even peach iced tea out of a wine glass! So good..




Mm so I've broken the TV in my room already.. They gave me a hairdryer with a European style plug, but all the sockets in my room are British style. The TV has a Euro style plug also, so I pulled it out of it's socket. Turns out though that someone had shoved it into a British style socket! Now it won't go back in! No more CNN for me...

My breakfast today was the buffet at the hotel. Pretty good - weird sausages and potatoes, good pancakes and always good tea. Is there a way of having bad tea? I walked across to the fish market. That was awesome! There were so many stalls.. I didn't walk into the actual fish part, but I could sure smell it! All the men were trying to make me take photos of them, which was hilarious. I took a photo of this one guy and showed him the photo and told him it was beautiful. All the guys around him were like 'no! he's not beautiful!'. They went on about it for ages :)



At the moment I'm sitting in a little net cafe with about 9 men around me. This is what it's like everywhere - just me and hundreds of Indian and Arabic men.

1. Me with the whole luxurious row to myself! Ahhhh...
2. Tasty kebab
3. Deira. This is the usual scene - that thing the guy is dragging around is used to transport stuff, and they're usually seen around the place with guys just sitting on them talking. A lot of talking happens here!
4. A guy at the fish market, proud as punch
5. Just around the corner from my hotel. Note the street sign - Community 117, Street 23
6. Delivery, anyone?