Biggest of everything in Dubai - 9 August

Very, very hot today - 45C in the shade. After 4 full days, the heat becomes quite draining and you certainly need to manage your outside activity. Fortunately that is manageable because everything indoors is air conditioned.

Off on the train after breakfast and there is almost a fight over who is giving their seat to Pat. 70 year old, white europeans are a rarity - and even more so on the trains.

Today we are at Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Mall and the Dubai Fountain. The Mall is about 800m walk via overhead walkway from the Metro station, much of it on travelators. The Mall is said to be the world's largest - spread over 1 million square metres and containing 1200 retail outlets plus hundreds of food outlets. Naturally, all of the world brands are there but there does not seem to be a lot of business being done. It must be very different in the Tourist season, otherwise it is hard to imagine how they can all be viable - and nothing here is cheap. You just about need a gps to find your way around the Dubai Mall.

If the shops don't do it for you, there is a massive two storey aquarium (swimming with the sharks, scuba training etc), an underwater zoo, a three storey waterfall, an Olympic sized ice skating rink and a flight simulator, all on-site - as well as a re-created Souk selling all manner of traditional clothes, lighting, perfumes antiques etc (with barely a customer).

Adjoining the Mall is Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, at 828m high and with 156 levels. Adjacent is the Dubai Fountain (said to be the world's largest), the fountain is set in a 30 acre lake, with water being shot up to 140m high, and in jets swaying to the music. Joining the Fountain and the Mall is a boardwalk of restaurants -the busiest seemed to be KFC.

Back to Raffles on the Metro, afternoon tea and time around the pool before our last night of canapes and drinks in the Club Lounge. Wonderful staff, and it seems that Raffles is the only hospitality employer to have a 5 day week. This is highly valued by the staff who all seem to have been with Raffles for a few years.

Finished the day with a final visit to WAFI Mall and its associated Souk. Still no business being undertaken - the most difficult task is to avoid the perfume sprayers. Virtually no business being done in WAFI either - Carrefours (primarily a huge supermarket but with associated clothing, household, electrical goods and telecoms/IT, is the only store with multiple customers, most have none.

Early morning for transfer to Dubai airport and flight home - 5.45am scheduled arrival on Saturday.

Very much enjoyed our time in Dubai. Four full days is probably enough at this time of the year, particularly as you get older - but there are many attractions for young families (if they can be afforded and you are outside summer). Outside the summer you could do more in a day, but we paced ourselves pretty well to see a lot in what is the hottest time of the year over here.

You must stay in a top level hotel, and my advice would be to stay in one close to the Metro as it is easy to use and gives you a good look from up high. Raffles was perfect for us - and just such wonderful staff.

Dubai is something else - extravagant, glitzy, rapidly growing and with construction everywhere. On the one hand there is extreme wealth but with much of the development on the back of migrant workers, so too the hospitality industry. Arguably it's an obscenity, but the saving grace is that so much of the low level work is done by those who might not otherwise have employment. It seemed to us that those with a good employer have a fairly good life - a better life than they might otherwise have in their home countries.