I cross the road to the Mall of Emirates where I grab some breakfast. Note to self: Mushroom soup means tinned not fresh mushroom soup. I mooch around the shops feeling quite perky despite the long plane ride. This Mall (sorry to use that word) houses Ski Dubai a 400m ski slope chairlift and all and is quite amazing to see.

The shopping centre (that’s better) is super sized but nothing special in terms of the fact that it houses all of the traders you can imagine but importantly all of which are available in Australia. Prices are comparable to home so nothing grabs my attention. After buying blackberries from Spain, Red currents from Netherlands and strawberries from France at Carrefour for breakfast tomorrow I head back to the hotel.

After a rest I head back to the Mall at 15:00 for brunch at the Kempinsky Hotel. This lunch which cost $A50 consisted of five stations serving freshly cooked Indian, Japanese, Mediterranean, Desert and Beverages and certainly hit the spot for what would become my lunch and Dinner.

The next time somebody complains about the cost of espresso coffee in Sydney I may have words. The price in Sydney seems to be between $3 and on the expensive side $4. Here in Dubai and in fact most parts of the world it is north of $6 for coffee which in general (surprisingly not here in Dubai) is vastly inferior.
At around 18:00 I head back for the hotel where I stay in for the night going to bed at 19:00. Not surprisingly I wake at 01:00 so take a sleeping pill and sleep and wake at 06:30 feeling very refreshed indeed and watch a movie – Miss Potter, recommended if you haven’t seen it yet.

Berries for breakfast as I ready for a mooch around the city. I decide to go to Jumeirah Beach Resort for breakfast sitting by the beach of pure white sand enjoying my smoked salmon, freshly cooked pancake and accompaniments. I rationalised it as $30 food and $20 rental for the seat with a beautiful view.

I spoke to the two German tourists next to me who had a 14 day package for their third trip to Dubai. They say they love it and find the shopping incredibly cheap – don’t ask me where as I haven’t seen any of it but the Dubai Summer Sale starts next week for 2 months so maybe that was what they were referring to – although my guess is that these sales would simply bring it down to Aussie prices.

Danz and I have a rule not to eat in hotel based restaurants but I have discovered that in Dubai at least, all the fine dining is in the hotel restaurants with all Michelin Chefs based in same. I decided to try and make a booking at the Marina Restaurant – underwater and generally regarded as one of the finest in this part of the world. My wallet took a deep breath when they advised that the restaurant isn’t open on Saturday or Sunday evenings – go figure. Later in the day when I tried another restaurant at the Shangri-La - same problem.

So I move Al Fahidi street where there is the electronic souq (Souq/Souk=Arab word for market). Nothing here so I move to the gold, spice and perfume souqs which were all very interesting and entertaining – I bought nothing but always like looking.

It was interesting to see all the parking meter machines being solar powered – I guess that there is enough sun here to guarantee they will work. I wondered if a letter explaining that the machine didn’t get enough sun so couldn’t dispense my ticket would work in a letter to Paramatta. On that note the hall lights in the hotel turn on when you enter the hallways and then turn off.

I then head off to the Dubai Mall which is claimed to be the biggest mall in the world and is next to the tallest building in the world. Well it is large (think Westfield BJ times four) and I suspect that any company in the world that has a name felt it necessary to be there – you name it and they are there – Cartier, Patek Philipe, Rockport, Nike, Adidas, IWC Schaffhausen, Lacoste, CAT, Merrill, four department stores etc etc etc.

Dubai is a very interesting place. When you think that in 1950 there was no airport and fundamentally no roadways or infrastructure of any kind and that today is a bustling metropolis it is quite incredible. They are certainly suffering from the GFC with tourist numbers down, investment down and a general economic slowdown in a country that has no oil, natural resources or manufacturing industry – just a self-perpetuating economy. It will be interesting to see if and when things rebound and whether they can complete their vision.

With sore feet after being on them for six hours I head back to the hotel for a break.

There is a very clear class structure here. The Emirati citizens all have Indian, Pakistani, Filipino or Asian servants. All of the taxi drivers, and there have been plenty, have been from India or Pakistan. One told me that the local Arabs never use taxis they all have drivers – if they have four cars in the household they have four drivers. He told me that his family of four live in a subsidised one room apartment where the room is 4 metres by 6 metres plus a kitchen and bathroom. They pay $A700 per month rent and his earnings are between $A3,000 and $A4,000 per month in earnings – with no tax of course. Every shop, restaurant and hotel employee seems to be non-Arab.

I am still having trouble finding a good restaurant for the evening so tastebuds give way to sporting testosterone as I head to Rydges Hotel – another brand who didn’t want to miss out in the Dubai Bubble – to watch Australia draw 0-0 with Qatar which sounds like they have now made the 2010 World Cup. Fine dining had turned into inedible nachos and a not bad banana split.

Back to the hotel for an early night as I have to be at the airport for Nice by 07:30. Of course I wake at 04:00 and mess around until I leave the hotel at 06:30 getting to the airport and checked in 2:15 ahead of my flight – a new record for me I think.

They say you get to grow like those around you and I think I have inherited some of my sister-in-law’s traits – the one in Sydney that is. I bought a salad for breakfast and as I was getting some condiments they took the salad throwing it out, cleared the table and a young man had taken up residence at the table. Anyway we got to talking while they were making me a new salad and he was waiting for his Pizza and in just 10 minutes I discovered he:

• was 24 years old and his name was Hassan
• He likes drinking and partying
• graduated from Jordan University in Engineering
• his father was a diplomat with the Jordanian Government
• he was working in Abu Dabi for CCC the world’s third largest petrochemical engineering company founded 50 years ago and owned by two Arabs
• he was on his way to Athens for one month’s training
• he had never been outside of the Arab World
• he was not gay – OK I better explain – he asked what I knew about Mykonos as he was thinking of going there – I told him that I thought it was great if you were gay so he quickly refuted that and said he heard there were some non-gay parts of Mykonos – news to me.

Anyway moving right along – onto a ½ full flight which was quickly over after 6 episodes of Boston Legal. I arrive at Nice airport through customs, collect my baggage and welcome to France as a queue of which I was third and as I left had grown to eight were waiting to rent cars with one person working and each rental taking 20-25 minutes. I collect the car and GPS my way to Club Mougin. I got this apartment on a shortstay using my timeshare points and it is a pleasant enough place in a Provence rustic manner but will be just fine to use as a base for four nights.

As I check in I am left with a choice of internet or lovely view but not both. Leave it to you to guess which I took. After unpacking I feel like a walk and dinner so I ask at the front desk – G-d why can’t I listen to people’s advice. Svetlana advises against walking up to village as it is very steep and being a bit miffed that she must have thought I was an old man I brush this off and walk up the steepest 1.5 kms in my life only to get a asthma attach by the time I got there.

But being in Mougins was worth the effort. It is simply the most beautiful place, peaceful, tranquil with a lovely feel about it. I wonder around some of the galleries which are still open and decide on dinner at a seafood (finally) restaurant ordering an entrée assiette of seafood – 6 oysters, three prawns, some sea urchins (I think) and a bowl of the smallest prawns I have ever seen – maybe 6 could fit on a five cent piece. After this I had an entrée size lobster salad and I am done. Now don’t ask me how or why but Linda and I were always in the habit of counting our oysters – I don’t recall it ever having been a problem until NOW. Yes folks only five on this plate. I got the usual French passive resistance when I enquired about this anomaly as though perhaps I has stuck on in my pocket but the missing oyster did arrive.

The walk back was sensational. It was so peaceful as I walked past one beautiful villa after another. But these were not garish or gross but so beautifully designed to melt into the Provence surroundings. It is hard to do it justice in photos but I have grabbed a few off the internet. The only noises I heard for 15 minutes were a few birds and a dog barking.

If I thought walking back was going to be easier, my calves were so sore from the walk up they ached on the way down. Off to bed after checking bridge results from Aus and my emails.

XD