what i learnt about Dubai!!

I was a bit scared about going to Dubai, wasnt sure what to expect really, but it is a lovely place with amazing architecture, friendly people and a promising future.  30 years ago Dubai was just desert and it is now growing into a popular tourist destination.  i would love to go back in a few years time and see how it has changed, apparently the building work is expected to be finished by 2010 which will make it even more amazing! so these are some things i observed from our little time there!!

- It is very very cheap, although they think it is expensive!! we were getting 20 minute taxi rides for about a pound and buying bottles of water for 10p!! and the petrol...................about a fifth of the price of ours!!! but everywhere is cheaper than us!! 

- It is a lot cleaner than i expected! I imagined it to be a dirty place, it is very dusty obviously because it is so dry, but it is not dirty! People dust their cars instead of wash them!!

- We hardly saw any Arabs!! 80% of the poeple that live there are foreign, mainly Indian.  I expected to see loads of arabs in their white gowns but didnt really see many!

- Hardly see any women out and about and dont think we saw one child!! the women are expected to stay at home and look after the kids so the only ones we saw really were tourists!! think thats one of the reasons we got looked at so much!!

- But we did see a woman in her full black gown and face covered............ in the sea right up to her neck! must have been uncomfortable when she got out! bit soggy!!

- The women wear normal western clothes under their gowns! like jeans and stuff! and they have marks and spencer, next, bhs, topshop......all those kind of shops!

- Most people work from 9 till 1 then 3 till 7 because it is so hot in the day!  there were loads of men just lay in the shade on the grass and on benches all the time! looks like they dont work much!!

-  They are called to prey 5 times a day!! first one is about 5 in the morning and last one about 8 at night! a loud speaker plays a man singing from the mosques, used to be a real person but they wanted every place to play the same thing at the same time so they use the radio now!

- The people are so helpful and treat you like royalty!! they all called dad sir and me and mum mam! and they do everything for you!

- The sun is very low in the sky so you need to wear sunglasses all the time! and the cars have sun strips that go half way down the windscreen!!

- They have very blacked out windows and some cars have the front windows blacked out too! only the nationals are allowed to do this though because the police thought it was dangerous for the women to drive with their faces covered and just their eyes showing, so they allow them to black their windows out so they dont get stared at by strange men! but no one else is allowed to do it! 

- Everyone is up really really early and go to bed late! because they sleep in the day on the grass!!!

- The driving is mental!! they are constantly blowing their horns at eachother and weaving in and out of lanes in front of cars! apparently its the only way to get around!!!

- You are not allowed to drink alcohol anywhere apart from hotels!

- they eat beef bacon!! because they dont eat pigs! quite nice actually!

- Although the people are very helpful, they dont have good manners! they dont let women go first or hold doors open for you and stuff like that! but then they dont appreciate women!

- They get about 2 days of rain a year! and the temperature can get up to 57 degrees!! (bout 145!!!) and it is very humid, people just dont go outside! but in the winter at night it can get down to about 12! They only have winter and summer, no other seasons!

-  They use de salinated sea water because its the only water they can get! Australia should think about doing that considering they keep going on about their bad drought! they have enough water around them!!

- They have peacocks in the street!!