Full day in Dubai

The alarm went off too early, but it was time to get up and take advantage of the nice, sunny day! We had a great breakfast buffet and taxied over to the Burj Khalifa. I highly recommend the prepaid tour times if you're going for a visit. We picked up our will call tickets and set off for the elevators. There are pics of the building's construction and fun facts about the height and scale of the building. We took the elevator to the 124^th floor and took in the view. Mary was a little intimidated by the height at first, but adjusted quickly. All the buildings looked like ants below. And we weren't even close to the top. The building is an astonishing 160 stories. http://skyscraperpage.com/ is a great site to see how this building sizes up the other structures around the world. I can now say I've been in the top 3 tallest in the world!

We walked back through the attached mall…it's nice that the entire area is connected by indoor walkways to avoid the heat. We knocked out some shopping. I got my Christmas ornament, a camel, and children's books in Arabic for my mom's class…my 2 must have souvenirs. I also picked up a pretty, hand painted plate and a cookbook to try my hand at making Middle Eastern cuisine! We then took a taxi to the Mall of the Emirates to check out Ski Dubai, a huge indoor ski slope. We decided to get a pass to the 'snow park' that included the luge and tubing. We all giggled and played like kids having snowball fights and racing down the hills. We, of course, took lots of photos and were taking a group shot when this guy photo bombed us!!! We were all laughing and he totally left his wife on a sled to watch. Tan held the guy in the gondola with us so he would stay in the pic!!

Lunch was next on the plan. We represented lots of nations with our lunches, America, the Middle East and Chinese. Tan, Nita and I scored with a great meal from a place called Pasha that was fast food, but delicious!

We went back to the hotel to relax for about 15 minutes then we met our Knight Safari guide, Mohammad, in the lobby. He had us laughing from the time we got in the car. He heckled girls on the side of the road near the sheik's home and talked on the phone, passing it to Seth to talk to his friend. About 15 minutes into the drive, we seemed to be heading back to the city. We all whispered to each other and he finally confirmed we were going to back to the hotel to pick up the photographer. So, we set out for our safari site again! We even had our picture taken by another car that was checking out our group of tourists on the way.

Once we arrived in the desert, we zoomed along a fence and raced the other Land Rovers. It was our turn to heckle and we teased our driver and told him he'd get a better tip if our truck won the race! We then stopped at the beginning of the desert adventure and took some photos and check out the pretty views of unending sand. There was also a hiss that was the guides letting air out of the tires. Then it was go time…and we had the best soundtrack for the ride!! Ch-ch-check it out! Our guide and I were both dancing and we told him to put his hands back on the wheel!!! I was sitting shotgun and it was CRAZY!! We zoomed and darted thru the dunes. We would head straight uphill, the windows pointed to the sky then all of sudden we'd be skidding across the top of the sand and sliding back downhill. A few times we missed the crest and would take a sharp angle downhill then catch up to the rest of the land cruisers. We stopped for pics over one of the top points in the desert with really nice views. We were all a little tipsy when we finally made it to camp. First order of business was to ride a camel. They snorted and "growled" as we got on and took a short walk. Then we settled into camp. We got to try all kinds of snacks, were painted with henna, held a hawk, met a local dog and drank wine coolers…umm, which of these things don't go with the others? Later in the evening we watched a slide show, where we were the first pic and were entertained by a belly dancer that shook and shimmied like nothing I've ever seen!

It had already been a long day, but we couldn't resist meeting Tan and Ali, that had gone to dinner with one of his friends living there. We met at the Fountain Café and the boys were smoking shisha. I tried the mint from Tan's pipe. Not sure if I did it right, but it was pretty smooth and good. We still wanted to get the full nightlife experience, so we headed over to Kasbar on the beach. This place was PIMP! Nita and I bounced to the music and Tan and Ali joined us shortly after. Seth held down the fort at the bar. After lots of fun, we took a night tour of the Jumeriah area. We drove to the gate of the Burj Al Arab (the big sailboat hotel) then drove onto the palm and took some other fun pics of the Atlantis Hotel.