22nd of December 2009
I was woken up that morning by mum poking me in the face, how kind of her. About 2 seconds after, the doorbell rang and Uncle Matt had come to fetch us so I quickly got changed, grabbed my things and went out to his car.
Mum and dad took the Ford Explorer that belonged to Cath and Scott (don’t worry, they let us borrow it) and me and Ryan went with Uncle Matt. Mum and dad got lost on the way to Uncle’s villa and went in a completely different direction to us. They were supposed to be following us but Dad followed the wrong car. We all made it to the villa in the end though but Dad got there with a headache because of getting stressed out.
We had some breakfast and then changed into our swim wear to go to the pool across the road from Uncle’s villa. It was a community pool but there weren’t many people there, one or two, so it was nice. The water was freezing at first but after a while you get used to it and the temperature was just right. The weather was gorgeous, not too hot but a nice warm temperature, and of course when you looked up to the sky it was a lovely blue and not a cloud in sight.
After our swim and sun bathe, we went back to Uncle’s villa, discussed our plans for the next 8 days and had some lunch. We finished eating and got into the cars to go to Dubai mall. The traffic was awful but at least we got to see Dubai instead of a blurry image as the car rushed past the scenery.
Dubai is just one huge building site. There were and still are so many buildings and villas being built just in the middle of the desert. It all looked a mess but all the buildings were magnificent. None of them were the same and the sky scrapers really did scrape the sky, they were huge! Some were amazing; some were unusual but still incredible and interesting to look at.
We saw the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai now known as the Burj Khalifa, it was so tall! It’s 828 metres high (2,717 ft) with 163 habitable floors plus 43 maintenance floors and 2 parking levels. The cost of it is would you believe, 1.5 BILLION dollars, wow... just, wow. It was just so tall, futuristic and thin! It really was something.
We reached the mall, parked and made our way to the shops. There were so many designer shops like Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Rolex, all the big names. I guess they don’t call Dubai one of the most expensive cities for nothing. Before we split up and went shopping, Uncle took us to the aquarium and the water falls. Yes, there was a MASSIVE indoor aquarium in the middle of the mall. People could go scuba diving in it, it was that big. You’ll have to Google it. It was amazing; there must have been hundreds of variety of fish in it. We saw Sharks, Sting Rays, Flounder fish, all sorts. It was fantastic.
I got loads of pictures of the water falls because I just loved them. They had silver men diving down them and the falls were very tall and took up about three floors. After seeing these, we split up and went shopping. Me, mum and dad found a Nero’s and had a drink in there first and then wandered around.
We went into Hamley’s, (I insisted. What? It’s a huge toy shop! How could I not!) It was great; it was just packed with toys! I felt like I was a little girl again and yes, I even got excited. I was mesmerised by everything I saw. Cuddlies, cars, dolls, fire engines, trucks, planes, helicopters... everything!
When we all met up again, my feet were killing me! I had a blister on both of my little toes because of my shoes and I was in a lot of pain! I was also getting a lot of looks from passersby, they even whispered about me! I was wearing a short skirt, bare feet and a strappy top though so that might have been it because they have a rule against women showing a lot of skin don’t they... oops! It made me feel really uncomfortable though for a while but then I thought to myself, I shouldn’t let it bother me because I don’t know them, they can think what they like.
Anyway, after meeting up with everyone we all went for some food. I had a mozzarella pizza from yep, Pizza hut. It was hot but it was nice. We finished eating and then went to see the fountain display outside the mall, stopping on our way for some ice cream. As soon as I got outside the heat really hit me. Again, it wasn’t too hot that I was sweating; it was warm, just right.
Outside the mall we were surrounded by sky scrapers which were all lit up now just like Christmas trees. They towered over us and as I looked around, there, stood right in front of me, less than a mile away, just across the lake was the Burj Khalifa in all it’s lit up glory. It looked so high that it was surely touching the heavens. Put this on your list of things to do before you die; see Dubai at night. It’s breathtaking, it really is.
The fountain display was amazing. So full of life, the water literally jumped around the lake, it was great to witness.
After having watched that incredible performance, we headed back to the cars and drove back to our villas for an early night.
I watched Marley and me when I got in, with Ryan. After watching that film, I made a promise to myself that I would never buy it because it made me sob for about half an hour, give or take a few minutes. Seriously, no film has ever made me cry like that, not even Titanic, I don’t cry at films. About 2 years later I broke that promise and bought it but we’re not going to speak of that!
While we were watching it, Kelly came in to pack her things ready to go to England to spend Christmas with her family. She came back down and dumped a pile of her clothes on the chair opposite me and said they were for me if I wanted them. I was so happy! Kelly is really girly and stylish so I knew already that she’d given me some awesome clothes and she had. I ended up wearing most of them while I was there. I tried them on before going to bed and then went to sleep. So that was day 2 of my grand Dubai adventure!
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