Apr 8 - Big Bus Tour

It was Patty's first day back at school, so she was out the door just after 7:00 a.m. The rest of us rose to greet the day shortly after 9:00 a.m. We all slept like logs last night.

Bob graciously drove us to the Mall of the Emirates and stayed with us while we navigated getting tickets for the Big Bus hop-on-hop-off Bus Tour of Dubai. Patty gave us her phone with a 2-for-1 special coupon on it. Sweet.

We headed out on the Blue Route. There was English commentary for us to listen to on individual earphones. The route took us past the marina and the Jumeirah Beach where we were yesterday. We passed Sky Dive Dubai with its own airport right in the middle of the city. Then we saw the city block of Dubai that has the highest group of buildings. The architecture in Dubai is simply amazing. It's staggering to believe that Dubai's first skyscraper was opened in 1979 to great fanfare - that's less than 40 years ago. It looks minuscule now that it is flanked by much taller buildings. Then we drove by Media City, one of thirty free-trade zones in Dubai. These are special economic zones set up with the objective of offering tax concessions and customs duty benefits to expatriate investors. The best part is that investors pay no taxes.

From there, we travelled down to the Palm where we were yesterday with Pat and Bob. We got right up to the front door the complex known as Atlantis the Palm which overlooks the Arabian Gulf. Five stars just doesn't seem to be enough stars for this place. The grounds were impeccably manicured - not a weed or a brown patch in sight. Lots of fine dining, water sports and chi-chi shopping available here. There is another one of these manmade islands being built about 20 kms. away. It will be twice as big as this one.

Last stop on this route was the Mall of the Emirates. Nicest and cleanest mall washrooms I've ever seen. We were slightly disappointed - there is no Tim Hortons in this behemoth. We settled for Subway. We scouted out the indoor ski hill. It even has a human luge track. Unbelievable.

Back to the Big Bus. We hopped on the Green Route for one stop and then transferred to the Red Route. This route took us past the WAFI Mall which is designed like a pyramid and has lovely grounds. At the Dubai Museum, we hopped off and went in. My favourite bit of trivia for the day is that a camel can smell water up to 2 km away. We also learned about the pearl industry that played such a big role in Dubai's history during the first half of the 20th century. The development of cultured pearls crushed that business.

We jumped back on the bus after coaching the young Big Bus attendant about the best time to visit Canada. He's getting married next year and wants to spend his honeymoon in Canada. This part of the tour took us past the souqs that we visited earlier in the week - the Old Souq, the Gold Souq and the Spice Souq.

From there, it was back to the Dubai Mall. To our delight, we found that the Dubai Mall has two Time Hortons. Mind you, they don't seem to know how to make a proper grilled cheese sandwich. But the cookies tasted good. Jumped into a cab and headed back to Patty and Bob's place. Dinner of pizza and salad in front of the TV watching the third round of the Masters Golf Tournament. I'm cheering for Rory McIlroy from Northern Ireland but Patrick Reed from the US is making it hard for my favourite leprechaun..

Tomorrow is going to be gym and laundry day and there might be time for a sit by the pool. I've already checked us in for our flight on Tuesday afternoon.Read more