1 August: Est day
Today we had a booking for the City and Merchants Tour. We managed to capture a taxi at 7.30 am and were ready and waiting at the prestigious Jumeirah Beach Hotel for an 8 am departure. And thus began our journey to another planet - the Est planet. The highest,  the biggest, the fastest, the expensivest,  the goldest, the newest, the mostest.
The tour itself was 4 hours on the comfiest,  coolest coach (and we come with experience now), and the smartest Russian tour guide with 25 years experience in Dubai. The coach was full with 47 passengers.
After driving past a long strip of Sheiks' palaces (which we were banned from photographing) our first stop was at the Burj Al Arab, the sail Hotel ( see Fb).The biggest suite is 780 Sq metres and costs
$US 30,000 per night. Cocktails are
$ US7, 500 each. Instead of stopping for one, we drove on along the Arabian Gulf where they are building the Dubai waterway, extending The Creek to turn the whole city into an island. It is said that the national emblem of Dubai is the crane. It has the largest collection of the biggest cranes working 24/7 in the world.
Our next stop was at the Jumeirah Mosque which is the largest in the Union of Arab Emirates. There are 1500 mosques in Dubai. The government has built them all so that Muslim worshippers do not have far to walk to any one in the heat, which reaches 52 C in August (it was only 42 C today). On we sped past the tallest building in the world. Our guide was very proud of the vast green areas in the city. The government spends $ US 55m per year on its water system. 80% of all water is recycled. The best system in the world (need I tell you?)
To get to the Spice Market and the Gold & Diamond market we had to cross The Creek (the waterway that is being extended right around the city). There are 4 bridges across The Creek but still the best means of crossing is by water taxi. (See FB photos) Much of the water transportation of exports is still by the original dhow.
We were allowed 1/2 hour stops at the Museum, the Spice Market and the Gold & Diamond Markets. That was quite long enough in that heat. They just went on endlessly and were a bit overwhelming for these two Kiwi pensioners.
Eventually we were taken back to our favourite Mall of Emirates and sank thankfully into our favourite bar that makes the best iced coffee.

Friends had told us to allow a whole day for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour, so we found our way to buying a 2 day pass for that. Peter thought he was returning home at that stage to rest, but found himself on the green line bus to do the Palm Island Drive. Well,  blow me, that's when we knew for certain we were on a different planet. You'll know the circuit from the totally incredible YouTube clips that have been doing the rounds. It includes the whole city of Atlantis.  It has all been built on reclaimed land and is the only man-made feature that can be seen from the space rockets. I didn't get any photos at all. We had to sit inside the bus because of the heat and it was all just too vast to photograph. Quite apart from the fact that we were too busy rotating our heads to try to see it all. I kept turning my camera on but by the time I could get a shot without buses or palm trees in the way, it had given up and turned itself off. We'll have to get up early again tomorrow and tackle it all in the morning when the atmosphere is clearer.