Right here in Dubai, where the temperature sometimes tops 50+ degrees (yes, thats FIFTY C!) there's actually a thing called Ski Dubai with everything you'd expect to find in the Alps, ski lifts lots and lots of snow, toboggan runs and all. We drove past it yesterday and a massive structure it is too, quite apart from what's inside it!!
Last night we went over to the Al Qasr Hotel (um, translated Al Qasr apparently means literally Palace! - so you can imagine what it was like!) for some dinner at the very nice PaiThai restaurant which sits amidst dozens of very expensive villa type residences on the banks of a long canal/river. (I'm told that Tiger Woods owns one!)
But nothing is quite what it seems here because the canal or river is actually man made and doesn't connect with the ocean like most rivers do - water is pumped into it and around it in vast quantities and its apparently a very long canal! We hailed a water taxi after the meal to take us back to the hotel! Remember, this is a desert!!
And we was chatting to a guy in the pool bar earlier looking up at the 'Burg' next door and he told us that the height from the heliport deck to the top of the 'spire' is apparently taller than our Jumeirah Beach Hotel itself - plus built only 12 years ago, they are thinking of demolishing it and building an even bigger and more expensive place!
So WOW; this is Dubai - and we haven't even scratched the surface of the place!
We're dining at one of the 23 restaurants here in the Jumeirah Beach - the Lebanese one - this evening which should be fun and another new experience.
We leave here tomorrow morning at 7am to catch the 10am Emirates flight to Sydney so it's been a quick 'hello and goodbye' to this amazing place; but I'm sure we'll be back!!
