Day 2...
We didn't wake up till around 11am the next morning (Dubai is 3 hours ahead of us so it was really 8am UK time). We unpacked a bit and went to the top floor of my brothers appartment to have a look. He lives on the 17th floor and the top floor (floor 30) is taken up by a full size gymnasium and squash courts etc. You then walk up some steps and reach his rooftop terrace with swimming pool
We sat here for a while just enjoying the sunshine then my brother suggested we head out for a drive to show DH the sites of Dubai (I had already seen them on my last trip 3 years ago). Dh was well impressed and although he didn't say it I knew he was thinking "WOW". DH is not a man of many words i'm afraid but I can sometimes read his mind.
We went to the golf course where my brother plays golf at the weekends. It sits right on Dubai Creek and has stunning views. It's very expensive in Dubai and cost £12 for 2 cokes and an orange juice.
We heading back to my Brother's around 5pm and got showered and dressed to go out for the evening. Tonight I was going to meet my brother's new partner Jude who's from West Bromwich in the Midlands but also lives in Dubai. It would be a slightly early night though as Jude was flying out the Texas, America early the next morning on a business trip (it's a 17 hour flight from Dubai to America).
We picked Jude up at her appartment around 7ish and headed to the Harbour Hotel where we went up to the 52nd floor (apparently the highest bar in the world) for some drinks. The views over Jumeirah Palm were stunning, my pictures don't do it much justice i'm afraid.
My brother Jim and Jude
Me & DH... my brother is terrible at taking pictures lol
Some pictures of the view from 52 stories high
After here we left and had to get a taxis to the hotel we were going to for our meal. It was the Habtoor hotel at the Dubai marina. We could see the hotel from were we were and it looked about a 5 minute walk but unfortunatly in Dubai you can't really walk anywhere... it is still basically a building site with no pavements so we had to get a taxis.
We went to a restaurant called Lucinao's. It was Italian and the food was delicious once again. I haven't taken any food pics here as it wouldn't have been very discrete. The meal came to about £100 for the four of us.
We dropped Jude off at here appartment and promised to catch up with her when she returned from Texas at the end of the week before we came home.
Headed back to my brother's, the men again had a few beers and I had a cup of tea (made just the way I like it lol).
DAY 3...
Today we were having a bit of a lazy day. Got up around 11ish again and sunbathed for a while at my brother's pool. It was only the 3 of us, not a lot of the residents use the pool area. We relaxed at his pool area till around 2pm just reading magazines.
I took these pictures whilst lying down looking up at the buildings next to my brother's... everything is huge over there and these building are quite small compared to some of the others. Remember we are already 30 stories high...I think the neighbouring building are around 60 stories!
This is my brother's appartment block in the middle
Next we went to the Mall of the Emirates. This shopping mall is massive and has what they call Ski Dubai in it. It's an artificial ski slope but is meant to be a world class pratise course. There is ski lift to take you up to the top. It has artificial snow which falls during the night. There is also tobbogan and slides for the kids. It was funny watching the local Arab's in their full traditional outfits having snowball fits with their kids etc. Most have probably never seen real snow in their lives.
Most of the shops in the Malls are all designer shops but I like the way they are arranged in the Malls over there. On the ground floor the shops are shops like Next, River Island, French Connection etc. On the second floor they are a bit more upmarket with the likes of Monsoon, Karen Millen, Ted Baker etc and on the top floor your have your Gucci, Tiffany's, Mont Blanc, Jimmy Choo's etc. This shopping mall I think has approx 600 shops in it.
After we left here we heading over to a pub called The Locker Room. It's a sports bar inside the Tulip hotel and has plasma screens all around it. On each screen they show a different football match. My brother, me and DH support Glasgow Rangers and they were playing Hearts so we sat infront of the screen that was showing live coverage of the rangers game. This is the pub that my brother meets up with all the ex-pat fellow rangers supporters. There was a big crowd of them in and the atmosphere was really good... good result too... we won 2-0 whoooo hooo.
I didn't take notes when I was over there and I can't rememer where we went for food this night. I am relying heavily on my memory for this trip (please don't hold out much hope lol).