Day 35 - Thursday 16th June

Today we planned to go back to the city to see various tourist spots we'd skipped over yesterday on our hop-on-hop-off bus tour. Although we'd bought two-day passes for the bus yesterday, we decided that we didn't have enough time to sit on the bus as it went around the loop and so, after another buffet breakfast in the hotel, we caught a taxi to fish market.

The trip on the motorway to the city went smoothly but in the city we were held up in a traffic jam in the narrow city streets. In the fish markets and produce markets we were just about the only Westerners.

Next, we crossed the main road to visit a shopping centre that specialised in jewellery and then moved onto the Gold Souk which is a traditional street mall selling gold jewellery. From there we walked to the spice market where Suzy bought a small container of saffron.

We caught a dhow along the river to the other side of the river. This is a small timber vessel that accommodates about a dozen people seated on deck under a canvas awning. The fare per person was only 1 Dirham which is about 30 cents.

On the other side, we went looking for the Dubai Museum. Along the way, we stumbled through various shopping areas including some silk markets where Suzy stopped to buy some scarves.

Eventually we found the Dubai Museum which is housed in an ancient stone fortress. The top level consists of a courtyard with canons and other displays. The main displays are in an impressive underground gallery.

We caught another taxi back to the hotel and had lunch. It was important to get back in time for our 4pm booking for the desert safari.

Our safari driver picked us up in the hotel foyer and then drove to another hotel to pick up a family of four from another hotel. The vehicle was a 4WD that accommodated the driver plus four passengers.

The other family were from the USA but had moved to Kuwait about 20 years ago. The two daughters were in their late teens and the parents had jobs as a school teacher and a university lecturer.

We went south west on the motorway for about 45 minutes before turning off into the desert.

Just off the motorway, we stopped at a parking area for a photo opportunity with three camels. There were about forty other 4WD vehicles there already from the same adventure company.

The next part was the sand dune drive. The convoy took us up and down through the dunes for more than 30 minutes. It was great fun accelerating up one side of each sand dune and then plunging down the other side.

Next we stopped for a refreshment stop before heading off for more sand dunes. Then we stopped at another sandy location to watch the sunset over the dunes. Along the way we spotted some wild animals.

The last destination was a camp area for our evening banquet. The first entertainment was a camel ride - Suzy and I shared a camel. Next we had dinner and wine under the stars and a full moon followed by a performance from a belly dancer.

Considering that alcohol is illegal in the UAE, it was surprising that they were able to serve it out there. They allow hotels to sell alcohol and so I suppose the adventure tours company has permission too. I thought there would be a limit on the number of drinks because it's included in the price of the tour but every time I went to the bar for a refill, the barman said "please come back for more".

Our driver took us back to our hotel along the motorway rather than through the sand dunes.