Written by Charles December 7, 2013
After landing in Dubai, we drove through Dubai and to the
desert resort that we were staying at for 2 nights. When I think of Dubai, I think lots of
high-rises spanning out for miles. I was in for a shock. There are only high rises in the city center
or Central Business District. The rest
of Dubai is Bedouin style houses that are 2 to 3 stories tall. We drove through the main residential area of
Dubai, and the pollution kept us from seeing the world’s tallest tower. After 45 minutes we left Dubai and entered
the desert. It was as you might expect:
lots of sand dunes sprinkled with some bushes and the rare tree. We got to the resort, and all the buildings were the same
color of the sand. There were also lots
of sand dunes. I was wondering if we
could go camel riding, and that was one of the activities that you could
do! That afternoon we swam in the
pool. I noticed that I saw only saw
birds and no other wildlife there. When
it was dinnertime, we got on the bikes they gave us, which were rickety ones,
and they were impossible to steer. Also
add to the fact that William’s brakes didn’t work, so at breakfast the next day
William and I had to trade bikes. So I
had the bike with no steering and no brakes.
I didn’t mind though. After
breakfast we signed up for archery and camel riding in the afternoon. We also signed up for falconry the next
morning. What William and I did not sign
up for is school in the morning.
After school it was archery.
My mom, dad, and I got the same type of bows. William got a smaller bow. I did pretty well and got 4-5 near the center,
and the rest of my arrows were strung about the board. My mom was about the same as me. My dad was the best, with half his arrows on
or next to the bullseye on the farthest target.
William, on the other hand, got most of his arrows on the sand and some
on the target. I think it was the
different bow because in New Zealand he was as good as me. After archery we went camel riding. Ms. Jenn joined up with us while we were
going to the camels. 
When we got on the two person camels, I found out that the
saddle was very squishy. There were four
camels, and we took up three of them. Two
people from Scotland were using the last one.
When the camel stood up, it was a ride on its own. It went up back legs first, then onto its
front knees, and then after that it stood fully up. My dad and I were up on the first camel. We were up about 10 feet off the ground, and
it was terrifying. For William, who is
afraid of large animals, luck would have it that his camel stood up with Mom
and not him on it. He was about to get
on when it stood up. The two guides just
lifted him up onto it, while he was petrified.
We rode around in the desert for 45 min, and within the
first minute I found out why the saddle is so cushioned. It was very bumpy, even though we were only
walking. The camel behind us was tied to
ours by a very short rope. The camel
behind had to rest his head on our camel, who I called Freddy, and the breath
from the back camel, who I called Jimmy, steam pressed my dad’s pants. It was very fun though, and we even saw
antelope! When we reached the end of the
ride, we had some water on top of a sand dune.
William and I got bored of drinking water, so we jumped around on the
sand dune. We even slid down it on our
stomachs! We got very sandy that way,
and we brought back the sand dune to our room.
In the morning that we did falconry, we had to wake up at
6:30 to go to the 7:30 show. First we
saw the owls during the falconry show. I
was confused at that, but I thought that the owls were cool. They had really big yellow eyes. We all got to hold one. They were silent as they flew, and they were
surprisingly heavy. When the owl landed
on my hand (I had a glove on), its wing hit my head, and it actually hurt. After the owls, we went up to the falconry
area. It is some couches with a grassy
area in front of them. We first flew
around a hawk. One of us would stand in
the grassy area with our hand in a glove.
Our arm would be out, and the hawk would fly somewhere nearby, then the
trainer would put a piece of raw meat on our hand. The hawk would turn around and fly to our
hand, eat the meat, and then fly off again.
I liked the hawk and wanted to keep him, but I knew I couldn’t. 
After the hawk, it was time for the falcon. The trainer said to stand far back, and so we
did. She grabbed a rope and the falcon
and made the falcon fly off. I saw that
there was a big chunk of meat tied to the end of the rope. She swung the rope in giant loops, and the
falcon would dive after the meat. When
she saw that the falcon was getting tired, she let the falcon have the meat
because she would pull the meat away at the last second. It was awesome, and then we got to hold the falcon
after she put the hood on the falcon.
After falconry, we had breakfast.
After breakfast we did more archery.
I did a little better than the day before, but not by much. William did loads better, and my dad was
still the same. My mom stayed behind and
packed.
After archery we went on the hour drive to the next
hotel. About 45 minutes into the drive,
we saw the world’s tallest tower. It was
massive compared to all the other high-rise buildings around it. It was massive, just plain massive. We arrived at the hotel 15 minutes after
sighting the tower. We got to the hotel,
which was the hotel that looks like a wave.
It is right next to the Berj (The fancy hotel that looks like a sail). Then we saw the really exciting part about
the hotel. There’s a water park right
next to it! After making dinner
reservations at the Berj, we went to the water park. We first went on a slide that had 2 toilet
bowls in it. I liked spinning in the toilet
bowls. Then we went on one that has 3
cones/funnels in it, and I sat in the tube going backwards! After that, we found an awesome slide where
you sit in a tube and there are jets of water that make you fly up the
slide. It goes up and up and up with
some corners, then it sends you down a dark tunnel with lots of curves. Then it spits you out into the lazy
river. We all did that one, then we did
the big one. The big one is a slide that goes straight down for 10 feet, then
flattens out, then drops at a forty-five degree angle for 100 feet. We went up all the steps and got to the top, and
there was a drop box. A drop box is an
extension of the slide for another five feet.
You stand on a certain spot, and they close a glass cage around
you. Then the scary part comes. A big voice coming out of a speaker saying 3,
2, 1, then the floor that you were standing on slides away really fast, and you
fall down the slide. Everyone did it,
including Ms. Jenn; I thought that it was awesome, and I did it a second
time. After the second time where only
William, Dad, and I went, we did the toilet bowl. After the water park, we went to the Burj to
have dinner at a fancy restaurant. I
think the view would have been awesome from up there if it had been
daytime. 
In the morning we had breakfast, and my mom’s phone went for
a swim. I accidently knocked it off the
table, and it went into a nearby pond. Luckily
a ninja waiter was next to the railing, and he caught it before my clumsiness
did any real damage. It was broken for
about 5 minutes before we got all the water out of it. After breakfast we went to the water park
again, and William and I did all the slides that we did the day before. For lunch we went to the world’s tallest
building. It was awesome. The elevator ride took 1 min to go up 123
floors. The view was awesome from up
there, and you could see the entire city stretching out in all directions. The most amazing thing is that the designers
of the building made it so if there was competition, they could expand the
building and make it taller. That night was a long night; our flight was at
3:00 am, and we had to wake up at midnight to catch our flight. I slept and did this blog on the 9-hour
flight to Capetown. Dubai, as guessed,
was one of my favorite places on the trip so far.
Written by William December 7, 2013
We arrived in Dubai and drove to our hotel in the Arabian
Desert. When we arrived at our hotel, we went swimming in our villa’s pool. We
were doing cannonballs and belly flops; Charles did one so big it flooded over
onto the floors and into our room. That night we just had dinner and hung out.
The next day, we did archery, where I was the worst shot ever. I only got 3
arrows on the board out of 27! It was fun anyways, but I was still frustrated
that I didn’t do better. That night we did a crazy insano camel ride. Miss
Jenn’s camel was sniffing on my mom the whole time, and the camel in front of
us was pooping a lot. There were landmines everywhere! At the end, it was an
adventure to get down. The camel did a really fast accordion move, so we could
get off. Charles and I were rolling and belly flopping down the sand dunes.
When Charles was climbing up the hill, he told me it was really fun to jump
down, so I did two big jumps down the hill. We penguined down the dunes some
more, and then we went back to our villa.
The next morning we did falconry. We
got to hold owls, a hawk, and my favorite bird, the peregrine falcon (which is
the fastest animal in the world). Back in the olden days in Dubai, the Bedouins
used falcons to catch food in the winter when it was migrating season. I found
it quite interesting how they caught falcons; sadly, a pigeon had to be
sacrificed. They would hide in a bush, and when they saw a falcon flying
overhead, they would throw the pigeon into the air. Then the falcon would kill
the pigeon, and the Bedouin would pull the pigeon back in and catch the falcon.
Nowadays they do falconry as a sport. After we did some more archery, which I
lost every competition on again, and then we drove to our hotel in Dubai.
My first impression of Dubai was whoa to the wow, look how
many high-rises! When we got to the hotel, I observed that it was shaped like a
wave. We could see the Burj from our hotel room, and it’s shaped like a sail.
We could also see Atlantis and the hotel’s huge waterpark. We spent the
afternoon at the waterpark; we went on the toilet bowl slide and the cone
slide, and there were slides with jets that push you uphill. We also went down
a big drop slide; you get locked in a tube, then the speaker counts down 3, 2,
1…then the floor goes away, and you free fall 3 meters and then down to the end
of the slide. That night we went to dinner on the 27th floor of the
Burj, and it was really fancy.
The next day, Charles and I attempted to go to
the waterpark again, but they wouldn’t allow kids under 13 to go in by
themselves. Finally, my mom came in with us and stayed 5 minutes then left. We
played there for like an hour and then we left. We had lunch at the tallest
building in the world. When we got there, they said we couldn’t come in with shorts
and a t-shirt, so we had to go buy a nice shirt, pants, and shoes. I thought
that was really stubborn of them because some of the adults in the room had
flip-flops and jeans on. The view was good, and we could see the man-made palm
tree island and the world islands. I ate 14 carat gold leaves in dessert. After
dinner that night, we took a nap from 10pm until 1am because we had a flight at
4am, and my dad likes to get to the airport 3 hours early. My parents said Dubai is in its golden age
right now. I liked it, like most of the other countries we’ve been to, but I
wouldn’t guarantee that I’d go back. 
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