After a pretty uneventful 12 hour flight, with 400+ people on board (at least I got a window seat), we arrived in Dubai. I slept maybe 4 hours and watched two movies (The Intern is a lovely movie with Anne Hathaway and Robert deNiro). But didn't feel too badly. Emirates Air wasn't as great as I thought it would be. ONly one toilet in the back worked and the other was leaking water on the floor. And there were a few bumpy spots but I drank a little bottle of wine with dinner (not that great either - piece of salmon) so that helped the bumps!
We were WAY in the tail end of the plane - first to load, but last off! Went through the eSMART passport line so we didn't have to wait so long. Got our luggage and headed to storage. We shifted stuff around and left our big suitcases and went off with backpacks to catch the Metro to our stop - took about an hour! Can't imagine how long it would have been if we'd opted for a taxi and had to fend with traffic! Gail had said we should take a taxi from the Metro stop to her building and we did. We're ensconced on the 14th floor facing the Arabian Gulf. I'll post a picture of that tomorrow from our room. Gail was here cleaning and we are in a room with a woman from Indonesia who works in real estate here (maybe in her 20s). There are some guests in the other room but we've only passed in the hall. Kitchen, living room, outside balcony and two bathrooms. Very nice for about $40/night for each of us!
We headed off on our 1/2 day tour around town. It lasted about 5 hours and we didn't get back for dinner at Chili's until 6:30. We parked on the beach by the 7* (not an official ranking!) hotel that costs $2500/night. You can choose how you want to be picked up from the airport if you stay here. You can opt for a helicopter and there's a helipad on the roof! It looks like a ship! They have the most expensive ($350) cocktail! Can't remember what she said it was made from!
There was a Swiss set of grandparents with their 14 year old grandson, a lovely Japanese woman on holiday, an Indian couple (who said the gold here in the market was better quality and cheaper than in India - no one in our group bought any!), and maybe 4 other people we didn't really chat with. Our guide was a German speaking Austrian woman named Sophia. So the tour info was in English and German.
We stopped at an old fort that is the Dubai Historical Museum - very well done! We drove by the downtown area where the tallest building in the world (go to that maybe Thursday) and the Dubai Mall - one of the largest. I think many people come here to shop. There are no taxes here on income or purchases. And malls and stores everywhere!! So it's not really my (or Barbara's) thing!!
While waiting for the tour, we walked to the beach (on the Arabian Gulf) and looked out over the islands shaped like a palm tree, a new island being constructed, and kids having a GREAT time on a very large waterslide/bouncy slide. One guys job was just to lift them out after they slid down. We will maybe hit the beach and at least put our toes in the Arabian Gulf tomorrow morning before our Dune Tour in the afternoon.
The writing in Arabic is just beautiful on all the signs. Looks much prettier than our English letters. It is read from right to left! So the only word I recognize so far is Dubai on all the license plates. People so far are very friendly. Also amazingly varied! All kinds of ARab and African dress went by as we were eating lunch in a cafe outside across from the Hilton. Several people went by on Hoverboards! Gail our hostess doesn't mind a million questions and is very helpful (I left my MAC charger in my suitcase! Duh! She's going to find something for me! Or I'll find an Apple store. I'm down to 23% so I'll sign off!
No comments:
Post a Comment