We arrived in Dubai in the wee hours of the morning. Passport control took ages but we didn't mind because we didn't want to arrive at our host's too early. We couldn't believe how slack the passport control process was. They didn't ask any questions and didnt even make us scan our eyes. And luckily, all was good with my visa.

We hung around the airport because we didn't want to wake our host up. Luckily there was free wifi so it allowed some Skype time with my family in Canada. When it was time to make our way to our host's apartment, we got on the metro.

The metro is in the "top 10 attractions in Dubai" list as voted by travelers on tripadviser. We understood why. You can see a lot of Dubai's famous buildings from it (like the Burj Al Arab and the Burj Khalifa). It runs along a very long strip called Sheikh Zayed Road which many of the sights are located near. Because it is primarily above ground, it provides a lot to look at. It is also spectacularly clean. It was quite hazy out when we first got on it but cleared up after the morning.

We met a nice lady from Ottawa on the metro. And when we got of the metro at Internet City, this man started showing us the way to the exit and to the cabs. He was from India and has lived with his family in Dubai for the last 13 years. He flagged a cab for us but the driver said he didn't know where the address was and then he flagged another one and that driver said it was too close for him to drive. So we said we would walk it as we were not having luck with the cabs and (thought we) wanted the exercise . The nice man that led us to the cabs said that he works right across where we were headed so he led us in the right direction. It was so nice of him. So far it seems that everyone is super friendly- except the cab drivers!

One thing we noticed immediately about the newer part of Dubai is that everything is just MASSIVE! Dubai itself is massive and it takes a while to get from one point to another but everything within it is also massive. The roads sometimes have 6 lanes, the sidewalks are so wide and they seem even wider because no uses them so you feel like an ant when you have a huge space of sidewalk and surrounded by large buildings. It is definitely not a pedestrian friendly city but the metro is VERY efficient (and air conditioned). All the maps we have looked at are also very misleading because everything looks really close but it takes ages to walk to a place that looks like it is across the street on a map. We are sure getting our exercise and blisters on our feet to prove it!

Another thing we felt about the more modern part of Dubai is that this is quite a strange city. It is so modern and seems really artificial at times. You really can't tell if you are in Dubai or London or America. It seems like a combination of Las Vegas, Florida and London...but that is judging by the buildings and Dubai Mall as Dubai Mall has every UK and American chain imaginable (we've come across Boots, Waitrose, WHSmith, New Look, Debenhams, Forever21, Top Shop, you name it, it's there!). Also, they are just building and building and building. There is so much land being built up. I would love to come back in 20 years and see what it looks like then. We have passed through a ton of construction zones today.

We ended up at the mall as we wanted to visit Burj Khalifa- the world's tallest building- and this is located at Dubai Mall. Now, the world's tallest building is UNREAL! It hurts your eyes to look up at it (although that probably has something to do with looking right at the sun) and when you compare it to nearby buildings, it really makes you wonder how in the world they built something that tall. It does not look real. We booked a tour to go up to the observation deck on Wednesday so we are quite excited for that. I might need some vertigo pills though! In front of this building and The Dubai Mall are musical fountains designed by the same people that are responsible for the fountains at the Bellagio in Vegas. We watched one show to some Arabian music and it was so awesome. The water goes so high that we ended up getting some heavy mist from the fountains splash us. We will definitely go back for more shows though as it looks spectacular, especially with an amazing building like the Burj Khalifa in the background.

So Dubai Mall is quite a dangerous place when it comes to food!! There is a Tim Hortons, a Hummingbird Bakery, a Cold Stone Creamery amongst other guilty pleasure foods (although we haven't come across a Cheesecake Factory) but our favorite is a very swanky chocolate shop called Patchi. My friend Diana brought us some chocolates from this chain when she visited the UAE and we were hooked-especially because they make this amazing cheesecake chocolate variety!!! So we stepped foot in one and bought some cheesecake chocolates an also a pistachio cream one. Mmmmmmm so good!! There were also tons of chain restaurants that you can find in the UK and America like TGIFridays and Macaroni Grill and Rainforest Cafe...like I said, you would never guess you are in Dubai by being at this mall...oh EXCEPT that every single shop sign has its Arabic equivalent written next to it...even places like Subway and WH Smith have a logo written in Arabic. I would love to know if they are literal translations.

We also stumbled across the Dubai Mall Aquarium. We didn't find it necessary to go in as there are huge observation areas scattered throughout the shops. We were there at a perfect time as we saw a bunch of scuba divers in there and what were they doing?? Window cleaning!!! Now that is an exciting job to have, scuba diving amongst sharks and exotic fish in order to clean the inside windows of tanks.

We also visited the older part of Dubai and this looked quite different from the newer part. It's the area where the gold souk and spice souk are. The buildings are quite old and crowded (much unlike the modern part) and there is evidently a large community of Indian residents. Tons of shops that cater to Indian goods and also tons of curry restaurants. This area got us excited for India!! The souks were pretty cool but its basically shop owners stopping you and asking you if you want a "pashmina, Ali baba shoes (which I actually really want but am waiting for India to purchase), purses, watches, perfume etc". Perry noticed that they always target the women even if he is standing right beside me. Some shop owners did try to get him in a traditional headdress though! No luck!! The gold souk had some beautiful jewelry. I especially loved the bangles but of course this place was not of much use to us at the moment as we are on a backpackers budget.

One thing that has surprised us about Dubai is that it is not as expensive as we thought it would be. Sure the hotels can be quite luxurious and some of the attractions like the water park at Atlantis and the aquarium are really overpriced but the food and transportation is ridiculously cheap! A day pass for the buses and metro is under £3/$5 and the water taxis that got us around the old part of Dubai were about 20 cents each way!! Crazy!! So now we think we completely overestimated how much to bring here which means we will probably have enough left over to spend an afternoon at the Atlantis waterpark (which has a slide that runs through the shark tanks!!!) or to go for a nice meal...or maybe to just convert to another currency for the rest of the trip.

Although it is quite a different city, we are still enjoying it and seeing the world's tallest building is worth it alone. Oh yeah and the heat is awesome too. Tomorrow we plan on visiting the waterfront area, but maybe we will splash about in our host's pool for a while. Our feet wouldn't mind some R&R!

Perry and I are currently planning our 2 month and 3 week (so nearly 3 month) delayed honeymoon. We got married in July 2012 and never went on a honeymoon as we decided we wanted to visit with family and friends instead that had come all the way to Greece for our wedding, some of which we hadn't seen in three years. We were originally planning on going to South America but that proved to be quite expensive. We were looking at flights on Skyscanner (FYI: THE BEST search engine for flights) and found that flights to Asia were very reasonable. We discussed that this is an area we should travel to now as we will not be able to get there as easily when we have children (mainly because it is not the best of places to take young ones and by the time we are able to go could be another 10-15 years). Quite spontaneously, we ended up booking them and next thing you know we were planning to see 10 countries in 2 months and 3 weeks. We start in Istanbul, then Dubai, both of which were not in our plans but it was cheaper to fly through these places so we decided to allow a few days in each...why not?! We then go to Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and finally, Singapore. We booked 5 flights which in the end cost us £550 each (FOR FIVE FLIGHTS!). There was no way we could pass that up!!

So we basically booked these flights at the end of November with a departure set for February 6th, leaving us just over two months to prepare for this trip. No problem right?

This is my first trip to somewhere exotic. Sure, I've traveled tons through North America and Europe but I needed something new and exciting as I was getting bored of Europe. I can only go to so many cathedrals and museums before I don't have any care to see another piece of jewelry or a toenail or tooth that belonged to some person in 2000 BC. Sure that all fascinated me when I first started going to museums but now it doesn't (except for the mummies at the British museum..they always fascinate me).

Now I want something NEW. I want a culture shock. I want new architecture. New food (maybe without so much Delhi Belly...but I've already packed 4 packs of diarrhea tablets and an additional prescribed antibiotic in case it gets really bad so bring it on India!). New music and entertainment. New cultures. New modes of transportation (woohoo camels!). Just things that will make me go WOW (in both good and bad ways).

That being said, we are foolishly traveling to 10 countries in 2 months and 3 weeks. One of my friends traveled Southeast Asia in 6 months...our Southeast Asia portion is 6 weeks...and covering the same countries he did in 6 months! So it will not necessarily be a relaxing trip but we will be too excited to care that we are not getting much sleep!

I have had a lot of friends ask me why I am planning so meticulously and being so organized in regards to this trip. Besides the obvious of wanting to be sure we pack the right things and get the right vaccinations, the necessary visas, and so on, there are quite a few other reasons. We spent two years meticulously planning our big fat Greenglish wedding, so I think I am suffering from some sort of planning withdrawal and I don't know any better :-)

Here are some of my other reasons: Because we have such a limited time and want to see so much, I feel that it is very important to plan it. I don't want us to spend half a day in a city with our noses in a guide book or tourist information office planning what to do and where to go when we only have 2 days there. I want to research the sights before we go and note down the ones we want to see and cross off the ones we don't care to see.

Some sights we want to see fill up in advance or cost more if we don't book them in advance. For example, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the world's tallest building) costs 100 AED (about £17) to take an elevator ride up to the observation deck. Now that is only if we book it in advance. If we turn up on the day of and want to go up...BAM! 400 AED (about £68)..so if I didn't research this, there would be no way that we would be paying £68 to get to the observation deck of the world's tallest building.

Another reason I like to plan: those damn trains in India sure do fill up fast! I wouldn't have known this had I not researched. You'd think it would be like Europe. Get to the station, pick a train, get on? Not quite. We went onto India's train booking system yesterday to look at the trains and some of the trains we wanted (at the end of February and early March - nearly 2 months away) are already full and have waitlists of 12-15 people! So we had to re-arrange our itinerary slightly in order to be certain we had confirmed tickets otherwise we could be waiting days for a seat or two to open up while we are there. I read a comment on a couchsurfing group that a girl was stuck in Gorakhpur for 3 days because she couldn't get a train to Delhi....from our research, Gorakhpur doesn't sound like a place we would like to spend more than 2 hours in so we'd rather be sure we can be in the places we want to be in and not waste time in places like Gorakhpur. We also can't afford to be waiting around for days for trains as we only have just over 2 weeks in India and want to take in as much as we can and visit some specific sights and cities so planning this was crucial. BUT...if something happens (knock on wood it doesn't) and it means we miss our camel safari in Jaisalmer or our zip-line in Jodhpur, or our stroll along the ghats of Varanasi, so be it..that is all part of the travel experience and as much as I have planned, I have come to accept that things may happen and plans may change. As long as we make our flight to Thailand from Kolkata then I will be a happy camper.

Another thing I have learned from all the planning is that when we get to Southeast Asia, there is more room for flexibility and it will (should) be more relaxing as there is so much competition and we do not need to book things in advance as we will have people flying at us to try and get us to book things (which will also happen in India but we will be prepared!). So this leg of the trip, we will leave quite open. We have planned a specific itinerary (where we are on which days, which train we take and at what time to get to the next city/town, what activities we would like to do etc) but if we stay a day extra in one city and a day less in another, that is alright...just as long as we make our flight back to London from Singapore on April 27th, then all is good (although if our flight is delayed by many days, that is also fine with us as well :) )

If you have been to any of the countries we are visiting and want to share any of your experiences, please contact us. We would love any recommendations on sights to see, sights to avoid, places to stay, places to not stay, foods to try, foods to avoid, places to capture a good heel click etc. Here is a list of places we are going to (although the Southeast Asia bit, we can add or remove cities but the first four countries are pretty set):

-Turkey (Istanbul)
-United Arab Emirates (Dubai and maybe Abu Dhabi if time allows)
-Nepal (Kathmandu, Pokhara and surroundings, Lumbini)
-India (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Allahabad, Varanasi, Kolkata/Calcutta)
-Thailand (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Ko Samui, Ko Phi Phi)
- Laos (Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng)
- Vietnam (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Vinh, Hue, Danang/Hoi An, Nha Trang, Saigon/Hoi Chi Minh City)
- Cambodia (Siem Ream, maybe Phnom Penh)
- Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, maybe Penang, maybe somewhere else..suggestions??)
- Singapore

28 more sleeps :-)