Dubai for a Visa!!

After exploring Istanbul and its many, many hills. It was time to start preparing for the next part of the adventure and that had me flying to Dubai for 3 days and one of those days was waiting around to see if my passport was going to come back to me after it was handed to a courier to help me with my visa for my adventure after Dubai. My first time arriving into Dubai and it felt like three different worlds - (1) Sand & Barren land (2) Old town part (3) High Rise & Fancy Motors

Day 1 in Dubai was a shock to the system as temps hit 40c and even bigger shock was the 40 mins wait for what turned out to be a 0.0 beer, anyone thats being to Dubai will know that nobody will walk anywhere so Uber is going to be your friend for getting around. I stayed on the Palm and while everything seems walkable, the lack of paths and sun melting you will quickly make you order an Uber. The "malls" in Dubai are like mini cities and the first one we went into was Ibn Battuta Mall. This place was inspired by the travels of the famous Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta & the highlight for me is that it is divided into six themed sections representing different regions that Ibn Battuta explored: China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia, and Andalusia. Dubai doesn't have many alcohol bars but one we found was Bla Bla Bar which was well worth the wait for the view it provided.

Day 2 was a lazy day followed by meeting up with some of the group for the next adventure and finally getting to see the Dubai Mall, Dubai Fountain & the famous  Khalifa & that was better in person than that on the google. If you ever come to Dubai then the best spot to see the fountain show is in the Apple Store on their balcony

The final day of Dubai was a 7 hour tour in the desert which I still think I feel car sick from - https://www.getyourguide.com/dubai-l173/from-dubai-private-6-hour-desert-safari-dubai-w-bbq-t67792/

The highlight of the tour was definitely going to Al Khayma Desert Camp which included free camel rides, star gazing & a buffet meal with fresh food. All this was followed then by 3 seperate shows ending in a fire show before it was time to travel back to the hotel, get changed and head the airport.

With passport in hand and a new visa which I dont think I was ever expecting & neither was my family, it was time to get on a flight to....

Afghanistan