(13^th January 2025)

It was Monday, and for some reason, we both woke early at 7 am. The day was overcast, and for the first time, I put on a fleece over my T-shirt while enjoying my coffee on the balcony. Last night, I discovered I could pick up the restaurant’s Wi-Fi from the balcony, so I watched the first episode of a Netflix series.

When we first arrived at Dubai Airport, we were given a SIM card at passport control. The package claimed to provide 24 hours of free data (10GB). This morning, I inserted the SIM into my spare mobile phone and followed the instructions. Disappointingly, it failed to detect a Du network, yet another example of technology creators overlooking the obvious!

Rather than face the morning traffic, we opted for a gentle walk along the western beach of the Palm. Strolling at a leisurely pace among joggers and dog walkers, we wandered down the promenade, lined with beach bars and a mile-long stretch of hotels. It was 10 am and we passed people having breakfast on the patios of their hotels; a few had ventured across the promenade to the beach, risking the unwelcome addition of sand to their meals.

Each hotel and beach had its own security personnel lethargically guarding their patch of Palm frontage. Most seemed more engrossed in their mobile phones than in watching for interlopers.

When we eventually reached the end of the walkway, a guard stopped us from continuing onto a more exclusive stretch of beach. This area, where the hotel chains gave way to private properties, was off-limits. Unlike his counterparts, this guard didn’t seem to have a mobile phone to distract him.

We returned to our apartment via the pedestrian precinct known as ‘The Golden Mile’. Along the way, we made a brief stop at the Palm Mall, only to find it held nothing of interest for us. Passing the supermarket where I had bought coffee on our first day, I picked up some salad for my lunch back at the apartment. Jamie had decided to drive to the souk in search of a watch and planned to have something to eat while he was there.

After enjoying my salad, accompanied by a glass of coconut water on the balcony, I watched the Dubai glitterati sail past in their large powerboats, heading into town. Eventually, an afternoon nap crept up on me, drawing the curtains on my wakefulness. Jamie made an appearance mid-afternoon, notably without any new timepieces in his possession.

Throughout the day, there is a constant flow of sea traffic passing by, a mixture of local and tourist boats. At times, I have observed as many as ten vessels within my view. From a distance, it is difficult to distinguish between privately owned boats and those carrying tourists, as they are all quite large.

During daylight hours, the tourist boats glide by relatively quietly on their circumnavigation of the Palm, offering views of the luxury properties. However, as dusk falls, these same boats take on a different character, transforming into party vessels identifiable by their loud music and neon lights illuminating their hulls. The transition from sightseeing to revelry seems to begin around 5 pm, coinciding with the moon rising over the Burj Khalifa and vast flocks of seabirds appearing.

The birds swarm in from the direction of Dubai Marina, heading towards the tip of the Palm. Some break away from the main flock, swooping down over the apartment pool, briefly landing for a drink before re-joining their companions.

This evening, I watched as a returning tourist boat made its way towards the city, its silhouette blurred by a swirling mass of birds wheeling and diving tightly around a group of passengers standing on deck with their arms outstretched. I guessed they were feeding the birds’ leftover party scraps. I wonder how many of them received an unexpected, sloppy “thank you” for their generosity!

It was around 7 pm when we drove to Blue Island for our evening meal. The Ferris wheel was displaying its repertoire of flowing coloured patterns, and the surrounding skyscrapers chipped in with their ribbons of lights. Brightly lit restaurant boats floated by, their reflected illuminations adding to the wonder of the place. We walked over the bridge connecting the island with the Marina, hoping to see the scheduled 8 pm light show of drones from the beach, but the breeze was too strong for the fragile machines to fly. We moved on between the towering blocks of hotels and apartments to the Marina, where a whole new vista of light and sound opened up. Here were the boats that passed by our balcony each day, some berthed for the night and others loaded with partygoers eager to be off. We chose to eat in a small Arabic restaurant, which the plastic menu assured us was authentic. We both chose lamb with flavoured rice, salad and yoghurt. It was delicious. Our view across the Marina was of a brightly lit mosque, which seemed awkwardly tiny in comparison to the huge monoliths of construction spiking into the heavens all around. Appetite satisfied, we began our walk back to the island, stopping only to purchase a drink from a small supermarket. The streets were just as busy as a couple of hours previous, and if anything, it seemed that even more people and cars were flooding into the city. Dubai is ‘full-on’ in every sense of the word.

Our return journey to The Palm was late, but as busy as ever, and it was with some relief that we pulled into the Azure Apartments carpark and stopped briefly at the small supermarket beneath the accommodation to purchase drinks for the following day.