January 30, Dubai

Today was our free day in Dubai. I slept in until 8:30 then headed for the Souk (market). I poked around the souk on this side of the river, did some shopping, and then took a boat to the other side to the older Souk. The boat ride cost 1 dirham, which is about thirty cents. It only takes 2 or 3 minutes.

I had a mission in the souk. I've had to abandon my very large suitcase as it weighs in at 38 kilos - too much shopping! The doormen are having a great time handling it! I need to lighten up for the internal flights within Oman. It is falling apart anyway. There are these great things here called rice bags. They are made from the same material as rice is shipped in so are strong. They have a zipper and handles and are feather-light. Aili said I could split my one suitcase into two smaller ones to meet the weight requirements. So...the previous day I was in the old souk and visited a shop and bought some stuff. The guys were a lot fun and had a Canadian flag on the shop window (no other, just Canada!). So I decided to return for their help to find these rice bags that are supposed to be everwhere. They remembered me and I received a warm greeting - I bought some more stuff to make them happy and asked about the bags. They sent a kid for the neighbouring shop to find the bags and he was back within 3 minutes with an array of bags.

The opening bid on the bags 150 dirham - $50 which was completely ridiculous, they cost just cents. I gave shop-keeper Zayn a knowing look and he knew I knew the true value. I gave him 20 dirham which is still a great profit for them - they need the money more than I do so no need to get greedy. I then did the hotel rooftop pool for a couple of hours.

At 3:30 a bunch of us set out for afternoon tea at the world famous Burj Al Arab hotel http://www.burj-al-arab.com/

We chose tea as dinner would be about $300 each. Tea was about $100, but well worth it. They present you with all sorts of wee sandwiches (even the proverbial cucumber sandwiches), scones, sweets etc. I could not be this close to probably the world's most famous hotel and not take it in. You can only enter the property with a room or meal reservation.

Needless to say, the place was spectacular. I then took a taxi to the Mall of the Emirates for some shopping. The taxi ride to the hotel took forever. The traffic here is very bad - like LA and the population is supposed to double or triple in the coming years. Yikes!