Our first stop in Dubai

Sunday, September 03, 2023
Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
It’s time to tick off some more of our bucket list items and so we are heading to the Middle East. Firstly, we departed Port Macquarie on Friday afternoon (after a couple of holiday beverages with Mark and Kylie) and had a night at Rydges at Sydney Airport. One lady on our flight told us about the time she was kidnapped in Egypt so that was an interesting tale!
 (She was also staying at the same hotel as us, and on our flight in the morning).
We enjoyed dinner at the restaurant at Rydges - sharing the roast chicken platter for two - so much food! And then we were up at 3am for our 6am flight to Dubai. As we were boarding our flight, I was pulled aside and advised that my entertainment system was broken (the screen worked but no sound!) - and there were no spare seats being a completely full flight. They were very apologetic but there was nothing they could do. Tim let me have his headset for about 4 hours on the flight whilst he slept (how very generous!) otherwise it was a long and boring flight for me. Thank goodness for my kindle! Note to self: always have Netflix downloads as a backup!
We were very relieved to get to Dubai after that 14 hour flight and glad we were not going any further today, with most of our flight heading for connecting flights. The size of Dubai airport never fails to impress (when fully operational will be the largest airport in the world at 7,200 acres). The arrivals area and baggage collection  hall is quite luxurious. It was unusually very quiet though - apparently it is a quiet time of day at the airport in Dubai - with the busiest time being night and early morning.   Our hotel had sent a private driver to collect us in a big air conditioned suburban with water to hydrate so that was a nice touch as we arrived to a 40 degree day wearing jeans and socks and shoes. 
Our hotel is quite lovely, and situated on Jumeirah Beach near Dubai Marina with views of The Palm. Has several pools, a water park, lots of restaurants and a beach club. With facilities that can be shared with the hotel next door (which has a lazy river too) - it’s a great option for a holiday/sightseeing trip to Dubai - especially when the weather is so hot (we have stayed at this hotel before). This is my 4th stay in Dubai and Tim’s 3rd stay. There is so much to see and do here in Dubai -it’s an ever changing destination. The population growth here is one of the highest in the world with 88% of the population comprising of foreigners (especially construction workers).
But after a very early start and long flight - and being a bit tired - our first afternoon was spent by the pool and bar given we didn’t checkin until 3.30pm local time (and it was already late Aussie time).  
Our room rate includes Club Access - which has a daily 2 hour Happy Hour of drinks and canapés so given the price of drinks and food in Dubai ($20 a beer) we have plans to definitely utilize that. On that first afternoon after a refreshing swim and a few holiday beverages, we headed to the Club Lounge for a few drinks and dinner and exhausted, headed to bed for a 10 hour sleep! The beach club outside partied until 2.30am but the hotel has good sound proofing and the noise didn’t bother us.
As we have been to Dubai several times, we have already done many of the popular activities here but luckily there are always new things being built. There are sky cranes literally everywhere and even the view from our hotel looks considerably different to last time. Where there was once sea, now has reclaimed land and several skyscrapers - it’s insane.
Our first activity for the day was to navigate the tram and metro. We bought an all-day pass for $8.40 AUD each which was valid for both the Tram and Metro. The Tram now has a stop just put the front of our hotel so very convenient (this was still being built when we were last here in 2017). It was easy enough to navigate as we headed for the new Museum of the Future. This museum is devoted to innovative and futuristic ideologies. The building itself is one of the worlds most complex structures and was fascinating with some interesting exhibits. We finished on the outdoor deck and by now the weather was 40 degrees.
Back on the metro, and only a couple of stops away was the Dubai Mall so we thought we may as well have lunch here in the food court for convenience. It is the largest mall in the world by total land area, and the food court itself is massive with so much to choose from. In 2019, there were 84 million visitors to Dubai Mall. 
Back on the trains, we were on our way to Palm Jumeirah and boarded the monorail. 
By the way, you cannot eat or drink on the trains ( or chew gum) - there is a hefty fine! And there are some carriages only for women and children! We did enter one of these by accident - and Tim was hounded out!!
Built from reclaimed land in a series of artificial archipelagos, Palm Jumeirah is shaped like a palm tree when viewed from above. The unique island is home to some of Dubai's top luxury resorts, including Atlantis, The Palm, FIVE Palm Jumeirah Hotel, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, One&Only The Palm and many more. It’s absolutely massive, with a billion cars a year travelling to it. The highway in and out is 2 lots of 6 lanes. It’s hard to appreciate just how big it is until you see it. This was our 3rd trip onto The Palm but we wanted to check out a new attraction - The View at the Palm. Stunning 360-degree views 240 meters above the world famous Palm Jumeirah. At 240 metres high, The View on level 52 of the iconic Palm Tower offers panoramic, 360-degree views of Palm Jumeirah, the Arabian Gulf and beyond from an outdoor terrace. It was unbelievably hot up there but the views were incredible. This only opened in 2021. 
We were literally exhausted at this point after 14,000 steps (thankfully about 80% of these steps were in airconditioning - Dubai’s infrastructure is excellent) and headed back to our hotel at 4.30pm for a rest.
We had dinner and drinks again in the Club Lounge which was lovely. 
An attraction which was being built last time we were here was Ain Dubai - the Dubai Eye. As with everything here - it is bigger than all other Ferris wheels being almost double the height of the London Eye. The Vegas High Roller which we visited last year used to be the biggest in the world at 168 metres but Ain Dubai is considerably higher at 250 metres. Somewhat mysteriously, it closed a month after opening in October 2021 and is still closed. We would have liked to ride on it, but now have to be satisfied with seeing it all lit up at night from our hotel!
Other Entries

Comments

Sue Conno
2023-09-04

Dubai looks amazing! Did you fly with Qantas or Emirates? The rest of your itinerary sounds very exciting-enjoy!

Joan
2023-09-04

Oh it all looks so beautiful the photos were fantastic, and your story is wonderful take the photos coming and have a wonderful wonderful time.

2025-02-10

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank