A Turbulent beginning.

Well, apart from anything else I have never experienced so much turbulence on a plane in my life. Though only awake for seven hours of the flight, most of that time I felt like I was being shaken like a ragdoll as the plane ptiched in the sky. Not pleasant – but a metaphor, perhaps, for other things. A turbulent beginning.

But I'm now in Dubai, and I couldn't ask for more. Except, perhaps, for a cafe to be open at nine o'clock in the morning! It's Monday morning, day two, and I don't quite know what's going on because I've passed three major coffee retailers and none of them is open yet. No coffee and no internet connection makes Kate a something-something! But apart from their reluctance to serve my favourite beverage – favourite anything really! - Dubai is just … awesome. Seriously, I could see myself moving here. Let me take you through yesterday's events, and you'll quickly see why:

Upon arriving at the hotel, when I asked what was the nearest attraction, I was alerted to the fact that one of the world's largest boutique shopping malls was right NEXT door. And though one should never spend their first few hours in new country shopping, I did. And it was ace! Though the barista at the coffee shop I went into basically spat at me when I asked for soy milk, I quickly found that when you are dealing with really good Arabian coffee, it doesn't really matter what sort of milk you're dealing with – although I do draw the line at trying it with camel's milk. No thanks!

An adventure on Dubai's touristy hop-on/hop-off bus system followed, and I quickly found on this guided tour that the mall next to my hotel was nothing – this place has more shopping malls than you can shake a stick at and they're all incredibly massive and … incredible! It's ok, as most of them are tourist attractions in themselves, so I have legitimate reasons to go there. For example, how could one NOT go to the world's very largest indoor shopping centre? Or one that has a skiing centre attached? But yes, it is getting very hard to avoid the temptation of spending my entire travel savings on these beautiful shops – a perfect blend of the best stores from the US and the UK. I am in heaven.

You can see why I want to move here?

Apart from that – which may have bored the socks of people – Dubai is just incredibly cool. It has a vibe of some ancient city that has literally had billions and trillions of dollars thrown at it, so that it's now both old and hip, too. And the markets! Not talking 'shopping' centres now – spice markets and fish markets and gold markets; bigger than entire suburbs, with every kind of fish you could imagine – it STANK! And the gold market was hundreds – HUNDREDS! - of jewellery stores, flogging 8 karat bloody diamonds in their windows. It was vulgar, it was absurd, it was delightful!

Today I'm off to check out the Palm Island Jurameiah (sic). You can't buy a property for less than 3 million dollars – and they're just the decrepit ones! Actually, nothing in Dubai appears to be decrepit at all. It will involve more shopping malls, but I also plan to check out some really cool architecture : Dubai has two imitation Chrysler buildings. Because it can!

Goal for today: no more tears, and to eat camel. Amen.