Dubai

Dubai, desert in the United Arab Emirates - city state on the Persian Gulf - and one of seven states making up the UAE. Now the passports are here, complete with Russian visas, the journey begins. First stop, Dubai. 5.30am and arrive ahead of schedule. Dubai International Airport is only 5 mins away from our hotel in Deira, the o;d sector of Dubai on the fringes of Dubai Creek. Most of Dubai is strung out along a strip of narrow irrigable land, nowadays supported through de-salinisation plants. Originally it was established as a trade centre based around  fishing and date harvesting from the oases of the region.
July is in the month of Ramadan and like locals, there is an expectation on tourists that they too show respect relating to fasting between the hours of sunrise and sundown. We turned up for dinner at a restaurant in the Deira City Centre immediately across the road from our hotel and were eventually enticed in by the young Filipino lady at the gate. Having ordered our meals we were asked to wait until prayer time before they were served. No problem! But then the countdown began. Staff watched their watches; guests watched their watches all the time listening for the prayer - and the cue to eat. And when it happened - so to did a flurry of eating around the restaurant.
Our second day was spent visiting old trading/mercantile areas of Dubai  - from the Burj Al Arab, luxury marine resort (water side views only!) to the Jumeirah Mosque, a drive by of the Zabeel Palace and on to the Dubai Museum. This was a really interesting experience as we were taken back into Dubai's heritage sharing a half hour or so with life size mannequins in role - the traders, the builders, the entertainers, the fishers - and the day to day lives of the people who lived here. From the Museum we crossed to a small enclosure of the sort of the early settlers in the Dubai Creek area - an enclosure built of local stone and fused with mortar made from coral. And finished to the style reminiscient of the Pashtin of northern Iraq who were among the original inhabitants of this area. We crossed Dubai Creek by Abra - water taxi - to the spice and gold souks of Deira, No purchases: spices  - well, we can't take those with us; and gold (we understand real and not fake!) - well we didn't have the funds... but it was worth looking at (in temperatures today in the low 40s) even if it did mean substantial amounts of sitting in order to cope with the temperatures. However, sitting made us targets for the touts - but they were all very pleasant and did not pester following the 'No' word.
A long half day made to seem stretched out by the need to sleep off the exhaustion from very high [for us] temperatures but short of the 50 figure that can be characteristic of this area of the UAE in summer.
And tomorrow...??? It's an early departure again as we head towards Frankfurt - and our doorway into Europe.