The flight from Shiraz to Dubai, was fast, superb, great meal for just an hour flight. Wonderful Iranian business man sitting next to me. Before I knew it I was landing in Dubai! I forgot to mention that there was an e mail, that morning,  from my hotel in Dubai, saying there was a problem with my booking! I tried ringing several time and it didn’t work! I booked via hotel.com got a fabulous deal! Planning to sit in a bath, scrub my feet and wash my clothes while watching an ENGLISH movies! So much for expectations!!

The water heater blew up the day before I got there! Over two thousand channels on the television and ONLY two in English! One is the BBC news, and to tell you the host truth, I am so over the CRICKET scandal! And one is horrible movie channel! You know, zombies, green men, lots of body parts, blood and gore! No, but no thank you! The room was basic, nothing spectacular. What made this hotel fabulous was the amazing staff! When I to,d the manager that I missed ” all the smiles, and welcome to Iran” , basically I missed IRAN! he lined up the staff, ordered them to smile, then on the count of three they all yelled WELCOME TO DUBAI! I laughed so much! Who cares that there is NO hot water? It is the staff that makes or breaks a hotel!

The first day, I must admit I did nothing but sleep! My body, although my knee is do much better, after the use of my daughter’s magical comfrey cream, the rest of my body is complaining severely! So sleep I did!  It was afternoon before I ventured outside. Lovely and warm at 35C found a supermarket, drank a sweet lassie and entered a travel agent ! I collected information, decided the things I wanted to see and do. Then also decided that those one day tours are absolutely over priced, and one of the delights would be to learn how to use the metro!

The second day I explored the old part of Dubai, the Dubai museum, the coffee museum and an amazing gallery. I just wandered, looked and enjoyed. Until the old legs gave away and miracle over miracle, I was able to find my hotel again! The third day I went to the old souqs, and the Dubai mall. I had started at nine in the morning only to ine out that the metros don’t go on a Friday until 10.00 am. So I caught a barge instead and became a time traveller.

The old souq has not changed for hundreds of years! The Indian sellers are much more pushy than I Iran! Something I had not noticed while travelling in Iran! I had a wonderful Indian breakfast, with a HUGE lassie, this kept me going for the rest of the day! And by golly, I needed this energy boost! The Dubai Mall is something else! I don’t like shopping centres, I don’t like shopping, and it interesting to note I left both my Visa card AND my money in the hotel safe!! My only goal was to visit the aquarium, but there was so much more!! I was in AWE!