Frankies Travels - Last day in Dubai

my Christmas was somewhat unauspicious... I (we) think it probably is because the usual build up to Christmas was some what overshadowed by the build up to travelling overseas. Ill have to enjoy the January blues with everyone else waiting for the glorious first payday of the year. oh wait First Pay Day EVER EVER!!! nice... :D

So today we pretty much spent the day washing clothes and packing. We did at least start the day with opening presents. I recieved a peace bracelet and a stunning gold necklace from my parents. I really wanted a necklace like that and I now have one... Yaay! it is super thin and is really subtle and pretty but sadly fragile and hence the demise of the previous gold necklace.

I also finally made dinner for Brian. Minute steaks, potato and salad Yummy! and now I wanna sleep instead of finish packing. I have a kinda problem where I dunno how I am gonna get all my curios home and still remain within the luggage weight limit... oh oh...

I have that weird sadness feeling of leaving Dubai but trhen my holiday is only halfway thru so I am excited too so I am flipping between melancholy and super excitement. Im flippen excited just for the next flight. Whoosh! I love flying! except for the 5 hours of cramped legs between taking off and landing. That bit is pretty horrible. ha ha at least I have a window seat again!

anyway back to the packing gotta be up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport on time. I hear early mornings are the standard on a Contiki tour :S gonna suffer that one... All that is left to say is....

Arrivederci Dubai! Buongiorno Rome-a!

Frankies Travels - Second last day in Dubai

woke up early to see the building surrounded in mist

slept late

ate breakfast in my pj's

went to the other side of town for lunch

ate all you can eat seafood with brians friends

tried a lot of new fish for the first time

red snapper is tasty

went shopping

more wandering around mall of emirates

some people are hard to shop for

you know who you are

got stuck in a traffic jam

saw three car accidents in traffic jam

went to christmas eve service

sang christmas songs

pondered the real meaning of christmas

got stuck in traffic jam again

ate late supper

picked olives out of pizza supper and salad supper

talked to brians friends

wished everyone happy christmas after midnight

went home

no traffic jam

shower

crash - sleep

HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TOMORROW!! Ill be eating waffles for breakfast! I hope Brian likes his presents.... I will be missing my family while they all having christmas lunch together. :( But then I am overseas instead for the first time in my life :D

Frankies Travels - Global Village

so to continue on tomorrow Global village is a new open air venue that has a flea market style venue for a lot of countries. a lot of the countries correlate with the nationalities of the ex-Pats living in UAE so India, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Qatar, saudi Arabia, Egypt, Philippines, China. Two quirks i noticed was that there were a lot of Middle Eastern countries Even ones i have hardly heard of and then Europe is one tiny stall as well as Southern Africa also in a single stall. I guess if it was in SA we would have tons of Southern African countries (starting with 11 different stalls just for south africa Yaay for diversity!) and then one stall for the middle east. my only complaint was that all the stalls had a very strong overpowering smell of perfume and inscense. I was getting a monsterous headache. it smells kinda like peach and meat and burning. grim and sweet.

Then part of the Global village is a huge fun fair. Imagine the fun fair you see in the movies with the candy floss and the ferris wheel and the throwing balls at skittles for soft toy prizes. Like 1950's style. THAT kind of fun fair. You can see the ferris wheel from far off along the highway so oviously we went on the first. It was a bit of a waste since we only got to go around twice. then we wandered around some more and considered a elastic slipshot style ride where you are in a cage that is attached to two elastic lines which are attached to two long poles in the ground. they pull the cage to the ground and then when you are securely strapped in... they let go! It was way expensive and it is over very fast so we turned our attention to a ride called HI SPEED . imagine a marching band leaders stick with a knobbie on each end. and the marching band leader twirls it around the middle. (forget the funky cirles around the head bit for a moment here.) so the HI SPEED ride is four seats on each end (two seats back to back each) attached at the middle of the 10m (aboutish)long "stick" to the piece tying us very nicely to the ground. (Gravity... it's the law... Centrifugal force... break the law... until it catches up with you) the seats also swing in their attachments. so the ride starts with a slow turn so you go around like a chicken rotisserie seeing the surrounding pretty lights with your feet below you and your hair sitting nicely on your head. Then it speeds up. and by the second turn you are upside down for at least half a revolution. the bit that made me scream is as you come around over the top of the spin the carriage is at a possition where you are facing the ground. So.. lets get theis straight.. you are going fast enough to make a heavy carriage turn upside down and for several seconds, at that speed, you open your eyes to see what looks like that you are moving straight towards nice hard concrete. WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!! they do slow down and reverse the ride. so again you are swnging at high speed and for quite a lot of the time I was out of my seat pressing against the harness. Way Way Way way awesome hair-streaming-in-the-wind feet-touching-the-stars cool! Did I mention I am not afraid of heights yet?

Then we ate soem candy floss and went home for a very very late dinner. and proceeded to sleep like the dead.

Today was shopping day. firstly we went to buy Brian clothes for cold winter italy and then christmas shopping. I picked up some pretty nice stuff but i am struggling to get things for a few people. wish I could ask them but I still wanna surprise them. Then we went to a place called Mudinat which is like a modernised Souk It was very fancy but I did pick up a few more pressents there. They have an entire shop dedicated to camel tourist curios! Soft toy camels, camel bags camel tshirts camel fridge magnets camel notepads. At least in SA we have the big five to work from That is like 4 extra animals at least Ha Ha Ha I made a mean joke!

Then we were flippen starving so we decided to indulge in a bit of homesickness and we got take away spaghetti bolognaise. which we gobbled down like a teenage boy with a peanut butter sandwich at lunch time. The unanimous agreement was that the spaghetti bolognaise was pretty good but our mommy's one was better ... of course!

Gotta try for an earlier night tonight... gotta finish Christmas shopping tomorrow and start packing for Italy!! Yaay! \o/ \o/ \o/ \o\ /o/ \o\ /o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ Yaay!

Frankies Travels - Busy Little Tourist

So the story continues while I can still get away with hogging the keyboard!

last night I went for dinner with some of Brian's friends. (Hi Kristine and Jeremy! \o /o \o /o \o ) We went to a Chinese resturant. and at 1:30am the following day I can remember what I ate :( Oh yes! Broccholi and beef with jasmine rice Deliciousness!. It was pretty funny to hear about Brian from their prespective altho i think His Royal Highness was a bit embarressed hee hee hee. and then we went and at ice cream Yummy Raspberry and Chocolate ice cream mixed together with sprinkles. which is pretty and colourful and tasty until you go home and you have that waxy sprinkles flavour on the roof of your mouth uuuggghhh! ... or maybe that's just me... But all in all it was really nice to meet some new people. I like new people :)

Then today we decided to go on a road trip. so we drove all the way to Fujairah. Get out your map boys a nd girls It is on the opposite side of UAE to Dubai. So we drove for two (and a bit) hours - we took a bit of a scenic route - all the way through the desert and through some really tiny rural towns. The scenery was incredible. again i am amazed at seeing a real desert as well as camels Only a few caamels tho :C I think they are hiding (or hibernating from the cold ha ha ha) the sea was really beautiful too - it was dark blue... weird? there was red tide so I dont know what the normal colour is.... anyway we had lunch and then walked along the beach - no swimming : we dont wanna get red-tide-sick - and picked up lots of seashells and looked at the ffunny accented tourists enjoying their exclusive beach resort holiday. The sand was again super soft excellent for the walking upon!

We stayed so long that we drove most of the way home in the dark. I was pretty tired and I think brian too but we drove past this new venue called Global village. and found a second wind of energy to go explore.... but that my friends is a story for tomorrow because I am moerse tired ... I give you a sneak peek for tomorroww.... I went on a ride that swung me around in the air like a yoyo fancy trick - can you shout "wicked awesome cool my ride makes the view look like I am about to plummet into the ground!" Way way way Fun!!

Frankie's Travels - Wild wadi - the end

ok so back to wild wadi....

we also tried the surfing style ride it is a steep slope and you get a board to try not fall off of while a really really strong jet of water sprays up the slope. If you fall you really do fly back wards into the end of the ride or off to the side. I was terrible at it so we will say no more. (Needless to say, Brian in his usual style was really good at it and made it look totally easy peasy Boys psshht!)

Then we went back to the tubes to try all the possible routes. They wouldn't let us try some of them as the route is exclusive to the single tubes. so we tried the single tubes. (gotta try all the rides!!!)

WHAT A BIG DIFFERENCE!!! in a single tube my ride went from chugging along up hill and down hill to round and round in every directing some time backwards almost right over and I went really really fast! so fast that i smacked my back and my knee before I could move them out the way. so I tried the ride again with my knees in - Even Faster and Spinnier!!! wooooo Hoooo \o/ \o/ \o/ Totally awesome!!

I also tried soem sun bathing but in the upper 25 degree chilly winter sunny weather I think I didnt acheive much.

Sorry the end of my exciting story is so short but I am FINISHED from a very busy day!!! And wild wadi was yesterday! I am running a day behind! Help!!!

Frankies Travels - Tourist Traps

Dubai Dubai Dubai... what haven't we done yet.... oh ya!!! Wild Wadi!!!

Indeed, I went to Wild Wadi today. It was actually a bit chilly today. the daytime temp only in the low to mid twenties (yes that is the mid-winter freeze over for Dubai) but we decided to go anyway. it landed up being a good day to choose as it was not crowded as I think most people were at work.

Ill be honest I wasn't exactly hopping from foot to foot to get into the cold water (I am a wooes) so we started in the warm wave pool. then we went straight to the tube rides. First unique experience: the tube rides go up. There are jets of water that push your tube(and straight down the back of your shorts) right up the slopes. yes that is no typo - UP. Up of course being thrillingly followed by down and round and down and round and round and round () and then some more ups and so the ride continues. Ill skip to the punch line quick and say that this was my favourite ride and the thing that made it worth coming around the world for and not just waiting for the next trip to sun city. the ride was really really long and on corporated several possible tube rides that you bob along between like the lazy river rides. (including some nice looking lifeguards to help your little tube along :D ) So Brian and I started in a double tube (secretly so he could paddle and steer and I could tan ha ha ha) Then after two rounds we went to try other rides to see if we could find anything faster and more extreme (note: remember that I said this. i was really thinking faster and more extreme at teh time... Famous last words?)

So we went looking for the super tall tower slide and on the way tried out the family ride - like riding in a tubboat (little )And eventually found the end of the tall tower slide ride. so we followed it to the source and came upon a stairwell to the top. Think of the stairwell at a school square tower style. THAT is way way intimidating for a water park ride. There was a stunning view of teh Burj Al Arab along the way up through the clouds. To cut the story short I found the first (yes only the first of several) extreme and faster rides. It was one of the shorter of the rides being straight down. Actaully I lie. a bit straight down then a bit flat then a longer straight down then a bit flat and then a huge straight down and a lengthly flat full of nice deep friction purposed water. So after I removed my shorts from my armpits to my waist again I watched brian come down witha similar demise ha ha ha!! Again the three slopes is better than sun city as when you launch you dont free fall for a few seconds before hitting the steep slope. *ouchies*

Anyway lights out soon... gotta go sleepies I promise ill continue tomorrow all about my wild water park experience... and the extremely fast (surprisingly) awesome ride!! stay tuned folks!

PS It is really great to hear from ya'll reading this. You miss me after all :')

Frankie's Travels - The Desert continued

So where were we... aaaah the wild desert drive! so we drove up and down and left and right and over and around and almost under and in loops! the wheels were kicking up a ton of soft sand and the ride was pretty bumpy. the only thing to mar the scenery was the random piles of trash under some of the trees. finally we stopped to take pictures of the sunset. which was very very beautiful. when the yellow sun set behind the dark sand dunes we set off again to a bedouin camp site for the evening festivities. First we shotgunned a table making sure to be far from the belly dancer's stage Rumour had it that she likes to include the audience. then we went for a camel ride. the camel ride was sadly short but still another new thing experienced. They have super fluffy little ears So I patted my camel's ears and he stood up!! Camels standing up and sitting down process is so complicated it would be the subject of another post all together! then we had tarditional food for dinner (traditional food - finally! Tick!) and then the aformentioned belly dance(nuff said - you didn't miss much...) I also had a pattern painted on my hand in henna (photos on request) it looks pretty cool now (yes another tourist thungy) but when the lady put it on it looked like cocoa paste or umm... erm poop... erm... anyway I had to be careful not to smudge it until it dried out and was crusty enough to take off. and I am very pleased with the result! All in all the dune ride and the camel ride was the best part of the evening :) and totally worth being a tourist for!! I am only sad I didnt have anything to steal some of the really pretty red sand in to take home. like my own tiny piece of dubai. bet all the tourist feel like taht and 30 years down the line half the desert will be missing. horrible scheming tourists.

Frankie's Travels - The Desert

I really enjoyed my visit to the desert. And, like the rest of the group of people I went with, I have a new-found respect for the toyota 4x4 land cruiser.

Since I not really been to the desert before (does oordshoorn count?) and we went driving over the sanddunes and it was around sunset, It was triple awesome! :D

The desert was pretty different to how I always imagine the desert No giant sized sand dunes in great towering pyramyd shapes. Rather more like smaller dunes like a walk to the beach just less roaring waves and sea shells and more sand dunes in every direction. The other misconception is that it is only towers of sand... or flat with cacti - mexican style. I saw trees and wiry grass and bushes - lots of em dried out but still, no cacti (or succulents - before my grandmother mentions the broader term)

The 4x4 ride was pretty wild Like a really long roller coaster ride. Nothing like the car facing forwards and moving sidewards. We went in every direction and some times two at one like (down and left - that doesn't quite capture the moment... Maybe it is like one of those "You had to be there" moments - make sure to ask me to see the video)

The sand was in fact not blinding white (misconception 3) but a cool brown-red. and close up the heavier dark sand highlights the ripples in the sand Say "pree-eety".

and then... TO BE CONTINUED (mid story soap opera style ha ha ha)what can I say All the dune riding excitement is tiring I must sleep.... promise promise I will continue.

Frankies Travels Day Four and five

yesterday... what did I do yesterday... oh yes We were going to maybe try Wild Wadi but I was feeling a bit on the green and sick side so instead we went shoppping (supposedly for Christmas) Brian bought me a really really pretty jacket which is going to be awesome in Italy. Then we had a traditional Brian and Frances date evening. Chinese takeaways and watching movie on Brian's laptop! It is funny thinking I am in a foreign country and I havent tried the local food yet. hmmm... dates and camel... intersting combination. Bizzarrely I think the place we got our food from originated in the Philippines. so, we were in Dubai eating Chinese take away from Philippines... anyway so chinese food. pan fried beef and egg fried rice and all and all and all. The dessert was the best. It is called a Halo-Halo special. It is a magical mix of all the desserts so strawberry ce cream and mango ice cream and some nice chocolate coconut stuff and a brown wedge of some thing that is deliciously like caramel treat. then also blocks of jelly and some tasty milky flavoured ice stuff(less like ice cream more like a slushie). anyway it twas a glorious mix of puddings "Yummy"!

Today we are booked on a desert safari. yaaay! Camels and sand and camels and sand and sand and camels! That isn't sarcasm I really am looking forward to seeing the wild cmels roaming the desert plains and seeing a real makhulu desert. whoop whoop whoop! Ill report back later!

Frankie Travels - Skyscrapers

So we went for a walk along the Dubai Marina to admire all the boats - Some really big beautiful ones were parked there. Then we stopped off for supper on the way back. We landed up kinda sorta umm not making it to drinks with Brians friends - we sorta fell aslepp and slept until 2 hours after the event What can I say it's tiring looking at the properties of the rich and famous!! But to make something of the evening we decided to go on a kind of mini road trip. first we went to a building Brian used to stay in and took the lift to the 44th floor and then climbed the stairs to the 46th floor and took a door out to the window washers balcony rail-thingy. I got to admire Dubai from high up. Which is a stunning view especially since the area is so flat. So you can see the lights of the streets and buildings going out into the distance. A lot of the skyscrapers have lighting that changes so the building is pink then ed then yellow then blue then green Very Psycadelic :D you can also see the cars lined up at the robots and then a mexicana wave of the brake lights switching off - it sounds lame but from 46 floors up it's kinda amusing. Amusing like watching ants is amusing.

Then we finally left the roof to go on a little drive around. we got caught in very slow traffic past a shopping complex. I wasn't a problem because I got to stare out the window at the buildings and people (as well as the token 3 old men sitting on a bench having a chin wag) and so many sports cars I can't even list them all - Even Brian was impressed something like 3 Porches, an Aston Martin Vantage, two different Lambo's and many many Merc's and Beemers - What a difficult sight to behold ha ha ha!

We then drove out to some pretty apartment complex suburbs where the bulidings have big gardens. It must be a great place to stay. However in comparison. on the way home the day before we went thru an area where there are HUGE gates with security guards aand all you see is the driveway curving up away into the distance. (canyou say S-h-e-i-k-h-'-s P-a-l-a-c-e?) and THAT must be a very very very nice place to stay!!

Frankies Travels - The Beach

After sleeping obscenely late (fter effect of staying up all night on the flight) we ate some breakfast before the morning turned into an afternoon. We decided to go check out the beach. We went to the Jumeira Beach which is a paid entry. On the way there I remembered to take the camera. I decided to snap some pictures of traffic signs to prove I really was in a foreign country and nearly got caught snapping photos of the locals - See a big 4 x 4 style car with tinted windows - probably a local. Then I saw a man putting on his head dress and because it's like well interesting I sat secretly watching the complex twists and turns out of the corner of my eye.. fascinating I tell you! The one thing that really shows that I am not in SA anymore is the really beautiful middle eastern arabic architecture. Curved curly doorways and gates and pretty curls and turns in the wrought iron gates. as well as the square shape buildings with the occasional domes. there is also a mosque every couple of blocks - which is also really pretty - again you gotta be careful when taking pictures to not snap a local.

But on to the beach! First we went to the beach near to the Burj Al Arab which was swarming with tourists (how dare they! I want to take photos!!) then we went ot the Jumeira Beach wich has a nice grassed picnic area before you cross a wooden bridge to the beach. the sand is super fine and soft - like cintsa style soft. and the crashing of the waves is more like a humm... the waves wildly crash against your toes and ankles as you walk into the sea which looks more like a dam than the big blue ocean!! the benefit is that there are tons of beautiful seashells to pick up (which, of course, I did)

Now we making ready I think I am going out for a drink with some of Brian's friends tonight... Yaay!

oh ya! and for Jo again - we were in a Masarati sandwich in the traffic :P

Frankies Travels Part 3

Dubai is really beautiful. in a half complete and sparkly kind of way. I am staying in a part of the city that is a mass of high rise apartment blocks. It's kinda vaguely like Central Jozi but only very slightly. The buildings are much newer and cleaner. Out the window I can see the train line (building in progress) the place where all the yatchs are parked and a corner of the new Atlantis.

We visited malls today. Including The Mall of Emirates for dinner. The malls are all fancier than Sandton City with masses of designer shops. we went past the VIP car park and... (Jo is gonna be jealous) We saw no less tahn 2 lamborginis, a McLaren SLR, a dodge viper and umm.. one other I can''t remember the name... I almosted wished to be a boy for a momnet to fully appreciete the automotive artwork infront of me. Both Shopping Centres we visited had these really high domed roofs and a lot of the inside decoration is all mosaic tiling which is really attractive as well as kind of comfortingly middle east traditional. like how the story books show it!

We also went to the beach and stared at the Burj Al Arab in all its lit up glory and then we drove out on to The Palm to look at the super fancy (still Arabian nights block building style with a token palm outside) and along on the tunnel under the sea to Atlantis. Which is a work of art too! The building has this huge curved archway in the centre. We went inside to have a look and we walked through all the way to the giant fish tank in the centre. the fish tank has these big "wrecks" in an Atlantis city scene. like space ship looking submarines and water fountains (or is it a bubble fountain if it is under water?) and the token broken steps and pillars (like the Lost City but in a water theme)It is very glossy and new - like most of the rest of the city.

Now Im pooped! It is tiring staring at everything all day long!! I am really understanding the term eyes on stalks!!

Frankies Travels Day One Part 2

after the most awesome take off I sat for like 5 hours straight that is 5 hours on the same two butt cheeks. As you can imagine my pain of sitting still was only matched by my fear of having to climb over the nice Muslim lad next to me and the big foreign lady next to him. Nothing like bashing in two sets of knees and then having to sit next to them for another 3 hours! at around 4am I lifted my window cover and beheld the most flippen amazing sight!!! Sunrise at 35000 feet. Imagine a dead straight flat sky line starting at crimson red and fading through orange and yellow to blue and a dark night sky. I was so amazed i diturbed my neighbour from his thrid gratuitously violent movie of the evening to look He in turn phoned all his buddies (on the nifty in flight sest to seat phones and proceeded to gradually wake up the rest of the people around us. The brilliant sunrise was followed with a very bright red sun which was beautiful until I realised the number of people who were being blinded by my window directing the sun into their eyes.... whoopsie....

Landing was almost as exciting as take off (except well like the rollor coaster reference in reverse) and Dubai was cloudy so we flew through tons of pretty cotton wool clouds before landing! Stunning!!

After leaving the huge crowd that was transfered to different flights, the airport was deserted. But first (being a girl and all) I had to pop off to the loo's (see earlier fear of climbing out my seat refernce). I walk in and I go "woooh foreign country!"" There is an asian lady cleaning the loo! weird... And then the two ladies also in the loo start speaking afrikaans to each other and I go "woooh! where am I? Am I still at home?" double weird.

Wandering around the airport is interesting because the place is pretty new and freshly built. mmmm Fresh Paint smell! And then the airport is populated with people all in white dresses and the white head dress with the black bands. All of them! So to get my electronic Visa I had to go to a particular little office. I get there and there are a ton of white dressed men all having their morning skinner. And they didnt have the decency to talk in Afrikaans or and african language so I could vaguely follow. Rapid Arab is not the same! anyway I got my visa (also in arab) and was finally allowed to exit. Yaay!!

Now I am off to a resturant for supper. Im hungry again! Must Feed!

Frankies Travels Day One

Finally my long expected travels began! I was so excited my stomach was going nuts! I wasn't sure if was more nervous of something going wrong or just silly-childish excited! so after standing in lengthy queues I finally climbed into my seat (a window seat of course!)

Take off... quite simply... WAY WAY AWESOME! like a really really expensive high security roller coaster! I watched the lights of Jozi fade away and then the lights of pretoria (perhaaps...?) fade past and thenn the lights of... well umm.. nothing... no more lights and since it was pertty close on midnight there wasn't any sunlight to show off the rural roads. So having stuck my nose to the window for an hour in first-timer I gave up on any mor awesome sights other than the moon reflecting off th clouds (from above:) ) I explored the extensive menu of entertainment from Emirates....

There is more to follow in my exciting first flight ver including a run in with a whole office full of men in white dresses. (no not a cross dressers bridal expo - those things are frowned on upon here) but in the end I made it safely and I had my long awaited reunion with my delicious boyfriend - who is better looking than before (don't say that every time hee hee hee :P) But we're both starving now so off to wander the Mall and hunt some FOOD!!

Frankies Travels - the countdown

Flying tomorrow at 10:30 at night thats like one more sleep!or 30 more hours! Whoop Whoop Whoop! Right now my room is just giant stacks of stuff I want to take with. ow Its just about shoving it all into the nifty suitcase I borrowed and I can be off! I wonder what I'm gonna do tomorrow if I am completely packed by tonight?

I am way way WAY excited! first time overseas and all! and double excited to see Brian for the first time since March this year. That's like almost 9 months ago! wonder if he would faint if I walked off the plane with a baby cot in my hand... hmmm... would be funny tho... and would totally give the wrong message.... Scratch that! Back to the Packing!!