A Family Welcome

In February 2005 the kinfolk landed on my doorstep; mum, dad, our Jaki and her 2 kids Megan and Macaulay. Our meeting at the airport (after my wait there for an hour!) was tearful, you’d have thought we’d not seen each other for years, though it was just 2 months. We piled into the 12 seater van I’d hired for the duration of their stay and with me pointing out the landmarks, drove back to my place. The 10 days of their stay was action packed. The kids’ favourite place was the local pool; we literally had to drag them out as the sun was setting. We visited the Sharjah Natural History Museum, where we saw some of the UAEs national wildlife.

Jumeira Beach Park was a hit with everyone; though Jaki and I were a bit cold on the beach! The weather during their holiday was a bit unpredictable.









Diner at Hard Rock café, my folks at Dubai Creek....










In order to give the folks a feel for ‘old Dubai’ we visited Dubai Museum, and took a trip up the Creek on an Abra.

A wonderful evening was spent at the Global Village with my friend Jo and her family. The village is an enormous park south east of the creek, part of the annual shopping festival it contains pavilions from different countries. Each pavilion showcases that country’s heritage and merchandise, though you’ll probably find most of it manufactured in China or India! It’s a big draw for families as they also have a funfair. After an hour or so of searching, we finally found Jo, Dave and their kids, Tom and Helen, and headed to the funfair. Much fun was had by the 4 kids, not just on the rides but also watching traditional Arabic bread being cooked on a hotplate. Meg, Macca and Tom on the slide under the watchful eyes of my dad. Pink lady, Helen on the merry-go-round

Probably the highlight of the trip was the desert safari. At 4 pm we were collected from home in a 4X4 and taken into the desert. There our expert driver took us on a rollercoaster ride of the desert dunes. This is not for the fainthearted, driving on sand is an art and barreling up one side of a 100 ft dune and sliding sideways down the other should not be tried at home. On the back seat the kids squealed with delight or fright, and shouted “jaldi jaldi” (Indian for faster faster) and “yallah yallah” (Arabic for let’s go) to the driver. He of course found this hilarious and did as instructed by his young passengers, much to mum’s distaste! We stopped to watch the sun set with our buddy car; only the exceptionally foolish drive in the desert alone, you never know when you may need someone to tow you out. A Brucie bonus was the driver of our buddy car had a falcon. Falconry is a traditional sport in these parts and these amazing birds are always a delight to see.

After sunset we were driven to the Bedouin camp; okay this is a bit touristy, but it’s included in the price and there’s food n booze! There, along with the passengers of around 20 other 4X4s we enjoyed remarkably good food, very reasonable priced beer and the mandatory belly dancer. The funniest thing by far was Megan and Macaulay dressed in the traditional UAE garb, see for your self….