May 17th: Skiing & Desert Safari

We woke up and enjoyed the beach at 8am. I've never been to a beach at 8am before, and especially not a crowded one! It was already 42C (107 farenheit!) so we jumped into the ocean. Even though the water was warm it was still refreshing. It was crystal clear blue so it was beautiful. I was hoping some sharks or dolphins would come to play. The only creatures around were camels and they were staying away from the water haha.
We enjoyed breakfast and took a cab to Mall of the Emirates. Everything in Dubai is huge... that is what they are known for. Tallest skyscraper, man-made islands shaped like a palm tree and the world, and the largest mall. I've been to some large shopping malls but this was enormous. Screw shopping, we wanted to ski! We found Ski Dubai, bought our 2 hour ticket, collected our boots, skis, poles, outfit, and headed to the slopes. I've never skiied inside a mall in the desert before. What a blast. 2 hours was perfect considering I had a tank top and shorts on underneath the ski suit. Eventually I became pretty cold and my legs were becoming sore. Sad but true.
We checked out and headed to our next hotel, the Hilton Dubai Creek. This was closer to downtown & Gordon Ramsay's first restaurant outside of the UK Verre was inside! I called 3 weeks earlier to make reservations and the only time available was 9pm! Better late than never. I was disappointed our room was on the 1st floor (really the 4th floor from the street) but the room was entirely windows so the view was fantastic! We had access to the executive lounge and there was a pool on the roof.














The Arabian Adventures van picked us up at 430pm for our Sundowner Dune Dinner Safari. Our van had 4 people from Australia inside. 2 were older and 2 were our age and actually live in Surfer's Paradise (my brother lived there for a year) so we had a lot to talk about.
Hate to cut this short but I will have to continue tomorrow. England has amazing Indian food... it is dinner time!