Wild Wadi

With few forecasted sunny days left, we figured we should squeeze in a day at Wild Wadi before Bob & Gayle depart Dubai.

This 5-hectare water park has some of the craziest water rides, I have ever seen. While we brought our books and reserved beach loungers, we found ourselves going from ride to ride and really only stopping for a quick snack.


Welcome to Wild Wadi!

Bob checking out the rides.

Light showers, as predicted.

Jeff & Gayle in the lazy river.

What a life!

Jumeirah Sceirah - The tallest and fastest free fall, speed slide outside North America, a breathtaking 33 metre drop!

Great views of the Burj Al Arab from the Juneirah Sceirah tower.

Other side - We were pretty high.

Here I come!

Wow!

Jeff - your turn.

Jeff & Bob in line to boogie board on the artificial surf.

Watch me...

Get sucked in by the wave...

and spat out. Thanks for the lesson, Jeff!

Bob getting some last words of advice.

Looking good!

Ooops.

Pro ;)

Another great day!

Back to the Souk

Today, Bob, Gayle & I hitched a ride with Jeff to the DIFC, so we could shorten our taxi ride to our ultimate destination - the textile and spice souk (markets).

The textile souk is in Bur Dubai, while the spice souk is across the creek in Deira, so we opted for the 1 dirham (about 30 cents CDN) ride on a traditional abra. Unfortunately, when we got across to the spice souk, most stalls were closed for their midday break.

All in all, it was a successful day with Gayle & I managing to pick up 10 shawls between the two of us and Bob came home with bag full of Dubai treasures.


Emirates Towers

Gayle checking out all the construction around Jeff's work.

Back at the textile souk.

Bargaining hard.


Refuelling with samosas.

Traditional abra - similar to the False Creek Ferries.

Leaving Bur Dubai.

Enjoying the ride.

Looking down the Dubai Creek.

Spice Souk

I am sure something here could help my cooking.

Just Another Day in Dubai

Bob & Gayle got us a wireless router for Christmas, so Bob has set himself up at our kitchen table and is able to continue to keep in touch with everyone, even while I am updating our blog.

Gayle is still working on her tan.

Shakespeare Cafe & Global Village

Today, we enjoyed a leisurely coffee at Starbucks, followed by breakfast at Shakespeare Cafe.

In the evening, we decided to check out Global Village. It was similar to the PNE with rides, games and entertainment, however the shopping aspect was ten-fold. We strolled through the International Pavilions, browsing through arts & crafts from over 20 countries. This time, I exercised restraint by only purchasing a small, wooden giraffe from Africa, while Gayle scored the bargains, getting a new shawl and Indian cotton top.


Breakfast at Shakespeare Cafe.

Yum - chocolate.

Global Village.

China pavilion. Realized there was dust on my camera lens, so stopped taking photos.

Drive to the Desert

No visit to Dubai is complete without a visit to the real desert. With another weekend upon us, we hopped in the car and drove to the Masafi mountains.

Along the way we saw camels, lots of sand, the Masafi mountain range, lots of people 4X4ing and stopped at the Friday Markets. While Gayle managed to restrain herself, Jeff and I bought an Iranian carpet for our living room and a new pot for our garden - Great Deals!


Friday Markets.

A little breakfast.

Too bad it wasn't closer to Dubai.

You can see the Masafi mountains in the background.

The real desert.

Bye, bye Bob.

Jeff and Bob.

Our first trip to the real desert.

That is alot of desert.

Gayle guarding the car.

Heading back.

Dad - Can I borrow your 4runner?

Back to the Beach

Gayle has a small list of things she would like to do before leaving Dubai and getting a tan is near the top. So we headed back to Umm Sequeium Beach for the day.


Hoping for some reflection of the water.

Pretty good setup.

Not sure who's seat is better.

A little stroll along the beach.

Then a quick nap.

Ski Dubai

Bob, Lee and Jeff received Ski Dubai passes as Christmas gifts and seeing as it was Lee's last day, we hit the slopes of Dubai.

I opted to go with the boys, as I didn't think I would be able to convince Jeff to go back. However, we were pleasantly surprised. We all managed to find our ski legs and got about 15 runs in on our 2 hour pass. Fun was had by all.


Hours before going to Ski Dubai...mentally preparing.

All his gear in tote, entering the Mall of the Emirates.

Getting our lift passes.

Suiting up.

All set.

We are in.

The hill.

Could be anywhere. Quad chair to the top.

Jeff

Lee

Bob

In the background is the Kempinski slope side accommodation. Funny.

We Skied Dubai!

Happy New Year!!!

In order to have a relaxing New Year's evening, we chose to order in dinner. We enjoyed a great Indian feast from the Rupee Room.

Heather & Brad joined us to ring in the New Year and we were able to watch, from afar, several fireworks displays going off along the shoreline of Dubai.

Happy New Years!!!


New Years dinner.

Forgot to open Christmas crackers at our Christmas dinner, so they became New Year's crackers.