Hellooooo from Sydney :) Since my last blog, I had a busy last few days in Dubai. On Sunday Alex and I got up super early to find Jumeirah Mosque, the only mosque in Dubai that allows non-muslims inside. For this you have to be dressed appropriately - arms, legs and chest covered and your hair must be covered too. So Alex and I got up nice and early, making sure we had plenty of time to find the mosque. Bit of a disaster though! We knew which road the mosque was on, followed the satnav, however there were LOADS of mosques. Literally a mosque every 100yards. We drove around for about an hour up and down Jumeirah road trying to find this mosque. We pulled over and asked people and that was no good! In the end, we gave up and drove past the Burj Al Arab (that building shaped like a sail) and went to one of the shopping malls where we went to a French cafe called Paul's and then off to Ski Dubai. It was so bizarre, the temperature in Dubai reached up to 48 degrees at one point, but in Ski Dubai it was minus 4!! We had so much fun, we went tobogganing, sat inside an igloo and just generally had a laugh taking photos and stuff.
In the evening, Alex, Josh and I all went to the cinema. It was amazing!! We paid a bit extra to be in the platinum lounge, which meant we each had our own leather reclining arm chair, a blanket and a pillow. We were given a menu too, so I chose to have caramel popcorn and a pineapple slushy. We had a waiter who brought our food order to us in the cinema. It was so nice being waited on hand and foot! I watched the film 'Arthur' (sorry Edo! I know I promised not to watch it without you, but I promise we'll watch it when im back!) The film was really good, really funny!
Anyway the next few days in Dubai were fairly chilled out. Alex and Josh were back at work, so I spent the morning keeping Layla company (Alex and Josh's dog - the cutest dog ever!) before getting a taxi to the Wanderers, an ex-pat club. This gave me the opportunity to go swimming and sunbathe, wearing what I wanted without worrying about offending anyone or breaking the rules! I did get a bit sunburnt though...
On Monday night we went out to dinner at TGI Fridays, where we sat on the balcony and watched the World's biggest water display. It was so cool! In TGI Friday's they had a big choice of cocktails, all of which were non-alcoholic, obviously because its illegal to consume alcohol. It was just really odd seeing them advertise a mojito..without alcohol lol.
On my last day in Dubai, I spent the morning packing :( and then I got a taxi to the Wafi Mall where I met Alex for a cake and a smoothie at Paul's cafe. The taxi driver I had was so sweet, he was telling me about how he was from Pakistan, and when I asked if he missed home he said no and that he was glad to leave. It made me really sad, just makes you really appreciate how lucky you are. After the Wafi, Alex and I went to Jumeirah and went to the beach, taking photos of the Burj Al Arab before heading to the Palm. The Palm is a bit of land built to look like a palm tree when viewed from the sky. It was pretty cool! Google it!
Even though Dubai has some really strict laws, the one thing I noticed was how dangerous the roads were. A lot of the taxi's dont have seat belts, and barely anyone wears their seat belts because they believe that if they die its 'God's will'. I saw LOADS of accidents, most of them were on Emirates Road - the 7th most dangerous road in the world. One in particular was awful, a lorry had jack-knifed and landed on one of the mini busses that is used by all the poor workers. The mini bus was flattened by the lorry, I just really hope that the bus was empty because there is no way anyone would've survived that. There was also another accident, which didnt look that bad but there was a helicopter parked in the middle off the motorway!
Anyway, after a 16 hour flight, I finally arrived in Sydney - with a 1 hour stop in Bangkok, which came as a surprise! So I have officially been for a wee in Bangkok!
Luckily I slept quite a lot on the plane so I havent had any problems with jet lag. I went out in Sydney last night with a lovely girl called Jo (who I met in the toilets at my hostel) and a girl called Lauren who is doing the OzIntro package that starts on 2nd May. We went to China Town and had a chinese before going to the bar next to my hostel.We had so much fun last night. We then went to expolre the bars in King's Cross and met up with my cousin Alex and his girlfriend Anna. It was a really good night, we didnt get in til about 5am this morning!!
Today Lauren, Leanne (a girl in the bed next to me at the hostel) and I went to explore the shops. We then met up with all the other girls that are going to be on the OzIntro package on Monday, we had dinner in and Irish Pub. Everyone is so nice and easy to get on with!
Lauren, Leanne, Jo and I are planning to have a chilled night tonight at my hostel, watching tv and eating popcorn. Im having the best time ever!!
