Dubai - Friday 2nd August

I have finally joined Peter in Dubai!  It is very good to see him after 3 weeks apart - he met me at the airport but we were very careful not to show any affection in public as we didn't want to get in trouble with the police!

I had a night flight from London, arriving in Dubai at 7:30am, and hadn't had hardly any sleep so we went back to the hotel, had some breakfast and chatted for a while and then I zonked out and went to sleep for a couple of hours!

When I woke up we jumped in a taxi to Dubai Mall - the worlds largest shopping mall - which is a 5 minute taxi ride from the hotel (and it only cost £2!).

Just outside our hotel - with the Burj Khalifa tower in the background

Dubai Aquarium in the middle of the shopping mall

Made a new friend in the Mall!

Huge waterfall sculpture in the Mall

We browsed round the shops but, because of Ramadan, all the restaurants and cafes were shut and the mall was pretty quiet - after we had looked round, we went to Waitrose to get some shopping and something for our lunch to eat back at the hotel.  In the afternoon we just stayed at the hotel - Peter had to do some work, and I had another nap and checked some emails and then we went out to dinner.  We decided to go back to Dubai Mall as there are lots of restaurants there to chose from, and opted for Noodle House where I had Singapore Noodles and Peter had Nasi Goren. The mall was a lot busier and there was a really good buzzy atmosphere - after dinner we walked round again and had another look round the shops - the place is massive!

We then went outside to admire the Burj Khalifa tower which is right next door to the Dubai Mall - when you look at it you can't quite believe what you are looking at as it is so tall - 2722 ft to be exact, and is the tallest man made structure in the world.  We then watched the dancing fountains which were really lovely to watch - with everyone gathered around the lake - but very similar to the fountains at Bellagio in Las Vegas (I think they nicked the idea from there).  

View of the Burj Khalifa by day 

View of the Burj Khalifa at night

The dancing fountains

I have enjoyed my first day in Dubai - it has been hot but bearable today - although standing around for 10 mins to watch the fountains did make us feel quite hot and sweaty!