When we went out this morning we found this (first photo) greeting on the front door step. Very playful of someone. The first set of photos are to remind us of the tone of the resort.

Today we moved locations. From our hotel in Dubai we travelled 3.5 hours by car south past Abu Dhabi and inland to a desert resort called QSAR AL SARAB. Before departing Nina went for one of her early morning walks and from this contributed a single photo to todays collection. The drive itself certainly underscored the UAE's investment in infrastructure, the roads are first class and high speed (140km/h speed limit), massive long distance electrical wires, and a number of power stations and water desalinations plants to be seen.

Today was a slightly more relaxed day as we had nothing organized until the afternoon, when we were scheduled to get driven to a desert conservation area to experience some soft four wheel driving and dinner. Before that we relaxed and visited Dubai Mall again, this time for lunch.

Today we had an all-day tour of the modern city. At the start of the day we did not really understand what that would entail. But by the end of the day we would have been to the 125th floor of the worlds tallest building, discovered the best acquarium we have ever experienced, had lunch in a boat on the 54th floor, and been closeup and personal with Gentoo and King penguins.

We arrived in Dubai last night around 22:00 and boy was it an eye opening experience. The first hint of the size and audacity of this place was the 20 minute bus ride from the steps of our plane to the terminal, followed by the size of the airport terminal which could only be described as cavernous and palacial. During the drive to our hotel there was frankly too much to take in, high rise buildings everywhere and a diversity of shapes, and capping them all was the Burj Khalifa, the worlds tallest structure at 830 meters.