Day 2: It's 12 o'clock. Do you know where your houseboy is?

Today, we went on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Dubai. We picked up the bus at the Mall of the Emirates at 10 a.m., and we didn't get back until after 6 p.m. We drove all around the city and saw all the development. It is really insane. The tour guide told us that 20% of the world's construction cranes are in Dubai. It's totally mind-boggling to drive through all the construction. The tour guide gave us lots of juicy tidbits of information, like the fact that the Burj Dubai is going to be at least 810 metres tall when it is finished. We can see it from the villa, even though it is way across town.

We walked through a couple of souks today when we "hopped off", but it was in the middle of the afternoon when everyone was sleeping. It's really funny, because there are men sleeping everywhere during siesta. Good luck finding a bench or place to sit, because there are brown men sleeping on them. It is a sight to behold. So we didn't really get to practise our bartering skills or find any souk treasures. We are going to go back another day.

We did a dhow cruise of the Creek as part of our tour. A dhow is a traditional boat used for cargo trade in the UAE. We sat on cushions on the top of the boat and tried to not get sunburns. I was successful, but I ended up having to wrap a scarf around my head to protect me from the sun. Linda did the same, and we both looked very stylish if I do say so myself.

I went swimming in the frond today. I was hesitant to do so before today, because there was this big pipe in the middle. At first, I thought that it was an oil line, but that didn't really make sense. Why would they build the Palm on oil reserves? We figured out that they were probably dredging out the sand. Anyway, they removed the line this afternoon, and the frond is back to looking the way it should. So Dave and I went swimming, even though he has a strange paranoia about sharks. Go figure. There is coral starting to grow in the water. Dave and I found a piece yesterday, and it was full of fish eggs the size of marbles. It was cool/gross.

On the way home from our tour today, we got a ride in a pink taxi, which was exciting. Pink taxis are driven by women, and they are a different colour because unaccompanied females can drive only with a female driver. The taxi driver was kind of shy but still very cool. I think that the pink taxi was the highlight of my day.

We are headed to Wild Wadi waterpark tomorrow. It will probably be impossible to prevent sunburn during eight hours in the Middle Eastern sun, but we are all going to try our damnedest. Update will follow.

P.S. Jason the houseboy stayed out all night and didn't get in until 8 a.m. today. Shy little Jason obviously knows how to par-tay.