Cheeky day in Dubai!

12th December 2012

As I've already mentioned, I was up nice and early being sick. I didn't have long to feel sorry for myself because at 5am we were on a bus to the airport! We checked in online so all we had to do was drop our bags and clear passport control which was a complete dream – I will definitely give it to Thailand/the United Arab Emirates, they know how to get you through the airport in record time! After a short nap on some airport chairs we boarded our flight, only to find that it was completely empty! I've never seen anything like it and as soon as we were seated the air hostess told us that once we took off we could move around as we pleased! After watching a few episodes of the Big Bang Theory we moved around a bit and spent the rest of the flight lounging across three seats! It was like being in first class, but cheap!

When we arrived in Abu Dhabi we had some time to kill... thirteen hours to be precise! I normally don't mind being in the airport for a few hours but I spent the morning dreading those thirteen hours; I couldn't think of anything worse than being sick and stuck in an airport! However, the clouds parted and a miracle occurred, I started feeling a bit better and as soon as we got off the plane we hopped on a bus to Dubai! We had originally talked about going to Abu Dhabi as it was close to the airport but Ethiad operate a free coach to Dubai and we had more than enough time so without really thinking about it, we grabbed two seats and in just over an hour we found ourselves in Dubai!

I wasn't sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised. Dubai is pretty much America but without the Americans! There are more American restaurants than you an count and I recognised almost every clothing and home furnishing shop. We're talking Pottery Barn, Bloomingdales, American Eagle and of course, Topshop. While the shops are similar to that of an American city or mall, there was one slight difference; the Dubai Mall has an aquarium in the middle of it. As you do.

Rory and I were also really surprised at the price of things, food especially. We got a Nandos for lunch and it only came to £10 for what usually costs £25 at home! The ridiculously good value even extended to electrical goods. We saw laptops at £90 and a Mac Book for £500... Or so we thought. Turns out our exchange rate calculations were wrong, very wrong. Basically, if we thought something cost £1 it really cost £3 which might not seem that bad but it all adds up. Thankfully we had one very lucky escape; one of the first things we saw when entering the city was the Burj Khalifa building. It is the biggest building in the world and you can pay to go up. For 100 Dirham you can go up at an allocated time or you can pay 400 Dirham to go up right away. The only available time at the cheaper price was 9.30pm which was too late as we needed to get back to the airport so our only option was to pay the 400 Dirham. We thought this was around £23 each which was more than we hoped to spend but we decided to just go crazy and splash out! By the time we actually got to the building it was getting dark and after queuing we asked the ticket lady if it was worth paying to go up at night. Instead of trying to make some money she told us the truth; that it was much better during the day and not worth 400 at night. We took her advice and skipped the tour. I would still like to go up, on a clear day when you can make the most of the view but today wasn't that day and while I was a little disappointed, I felt much better when we realised that with the proper exchange rate the tickets actually cost £68 per person!

Rather than rushing off to another part of Dubai we decided to hang around the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, we even managed to fit in a sneaky Cold Stone ice cream before we got the bus back to the airport and started the next leg of our epic journey home! As I said, I was impressed with Dubai and I'm really glad we got to have a look around, even if it was only for a few hours! If anyone ever has a long lay over in the United Arab Emirates I strongly suggest they make the trip. The bus is free, you get a cool stamp when you leave the airport and you get to add another country to your travelling repertoire!