We are in Dubai for a few days, kindly hosted by the OH’s lovely son and partner, whilst we plan and prepare for the road trip we have spent a few weeks organizing.

First off we have to buy a car suitable for long distance travel. In the past we have borrowed Dubai son’s car but can’t continue to do that, as traveling to the south of Oman and back racks up the mileage and adds to the wear and tear, so we decided that he needed another one which is ours to use for travel.

Day 1 was spent in Dubai traffic, which once you are sitting in it in rush hour or school closing time is godawful, and you remember how bad it was on the way to and from work and thank your age (one of the few times you are grateful to be of a certain age)

A visit the to the Car Souk to check out one we had seen online ( looked good, I would have bought there and then but the OH wanted to review the others) and then a visit to a private seller, with more scheduled.

Then a little visit to Dragonmart which is essentially a massive mall full of stalls selling anything you would ever need.Mainly Chinese goods but it’s anything from heavy duty machinery, furniture, clothing, electronics, such random things as swimming pool equipment, fake flowers, beads, vitamins, food, the list goes on and on…it’s quite an experience, packed with buyers and traders and I can’t count the amount of times I was offered Rolex and designer handbags! We went for a few travel necessities and of course ended up with several unplanned purchases. Temptation is rife to flash the card deep in Dragonmart…

I was looking at lighting for my terrace patio, I desire a mosaicked, brass hanging type of light, slightly exotic….well…what can I say, I found them but I think they are larger than my patio, great to photograph though!

Then we headed off to view the other options. It’s probably enough to say that the one in Sharjah car souk wasn’t going to do us any favors on a long road trip and we never actually found the others in the depth of Sharjah industrial estate, (certainly not a place for designer wear, real or a Dragonmart copy) and after an hour of searching down muddy roads, we decided the first car was as good as we were going to get in our price range so we headed back…a paragraph or so above I complained about Dubai traffic, hah! In comparison to Sharjah it is amazing, Sharjah was basically grid locked, every road at a standstill and no way out of it, but to sit and be patient…

It was a gruelling return to Dubai car souk where we negotiated our deal and tomorrow will return to pay and collect. Exhausted by our day of sitting in traffic, we agreed it was just time to go home!

The Dragon at Dragonmart