Wednesday the 1st of October

Atlantis Hotel
My days plan all flew out the window with a text at 7.00am. Do you want to come to Dubai? Very simple little statement and such a loaded context.

Down to the bus depot to catch a bus. Big bus I thought. Wrong! We grabbed a mini bus for 25 DHS ($10) each and were on our way. I had a seat in the front which I'm not sure was such a good idea as the speedo on the mini van was broken and it kept bouncing up and down the dial.

On arrival in Dubai it was another seething mass of bodies all looking to get somewhere at the Dubai end of the bus depot. We grabbed another taxi off to the Big Bus Company that runs two tours around Dubai on double decker type buses. (The Red line and the Blue line) It was hot up top but the breeze blew through when we were moving and it was by far the best way to see the city. As a plan I can totally recommend it. They stop at all of the major points for you to get off and give you a running commentary as you go around. Things like the gold Souk has a 1,000 tonne of gold and no security guards. The Atlantis (Palm Island) location is visible from outer space and there will be three of these man made structures by the end of 2020. Each with a developing theme of amusement parks and activities along with residential and commercial building. We got off the bus at this point and stretched our legs. We walked through the entry way to the Atlantis theme park and through the obligatory shops. (Must be rich clientele they're expecting, more Louis Vetonne, Gucci etc) They have an assortment of rides but only 5-7 as far as we could make out so we weren't tempted to go inside, dolphin pools where you can swim with the dolphins and 'play' pools. I don't think I'll rush to spend the 250DHS for entry with the limited number of rides. The wild Wadi a couple of stops back had lots more rides by the look of it and targeted at head case nutters wants thrills.

I took over 50 photos and I will make a selection of those and load them up onto Photo Bucket for viewing.

We decided to try our luck on the way back with a Taxi driver and negotiated a deal for him to drive us back to Abu Dhabi. Much more comfortable and he even bought us water for the trip when he filled up for gas. (I think our negotiation skills may need refining but we thought we had a good deal as we were willing to pay another 50 DHS)

Got back to the Motel around 9.15pm and I was surprised how tired I was. Sitting on my butt in 40 degrees is hard work. There's a great deal of energy spent in drinking 5 bottles of water (But I did save some energy as I didn't pee all day)