Dubai, November 21

Not one tiny bit of culture in my day today!  Bliss!  No mosques, museums, galleries to be seen!!!  Instead, we took the HoHo bus to Dubai Mall arriving there just after 9.30.  George continued on a couple of stops hoping to get a ticket to the new Museum of the Future, knew all along they’d sold out until mid December, but it was worth a try. 

The shops didn’t open until 10 but it was nice walking around getting my bearings and trying to do some FaceTiming - twice people said ‘hello Maureen’ - that doesn’t happen at Chadstone!  G had no luck with a ticket to the museum so we did meet up for 10 mins at the Mall then he went off to ride on a dhow, this was included in the bus ticket.  Told him where I’d be, I ordered a coffee opposite the very impressive aquarium at the Mall and then we each went our merry ways.  If I said that Dubai Mall was eight times bigger than Chadstone I’d probably be way out, could be bigger, and I think there are extensions since we were last here.  But there’s really nothing to buy unless you only buy designer stuff. I remember Bloomingdale’s in New York in the 70’s & 80’s - was like a Myer store but not so any more.  Wasn’t really looking to buy clothes but might have been tempted if I’d been game to walk into one of the designer shops haha!!  I did find a Daiso in the basement and a Waitrose supermarket, very nice!  I saw some Australian lamb cutlets - at just over $80 per kilo I thought that was pretty steep! But it seems money is no issue in the Arab world.  

Stopped for some gyozas for lunch, then by 1.30 I was getting footsore so decided to get the bus back to the ship.  Arrived back only a few mins before G.  Was nice to receive a glass of cold champagne back at the ship, a welcoming thing for new passengers and old ones of course. 

I think I said yesterday that many passengers disembarked today which means many new faces to get to know for the next sector.