UAE

25-01-2024

Had a good sleep, the night through, and tried to sleep in as long as possible in attempt to counter my jet lag on arrival in London next week. I wasn’t too successful, but was up and about around 8am - I guess some would call that a sleep in. Having not thought through any breakfast plans, I thought going downstairs to the hotel restaurant would be good motivation to get dressed and showered etc. Although hesitant to pay more than necessary, I spotted a breakfast buffet (which are always hard to resist) and proceeded to get my $25 worth. A wonderful spread of hot and cold food, plenty of fresh fruit and veg, baked beans, pastries etc. I also managed to secure two serviette-enclosed doggy bags to help supplement my lunch later today. 

Having just missed the shuttle bus to the airport, I figured paying a few dollars would be worth the taxi ride to not have to wait an hour for the next bus. The friendly man who checked me out of the hotel told me the taxis were waiting outside - easy to spot, and to hear, as apparently two drivers were having a very heated argument, yelling right in each other’s faces, although I couldn’t decipher the cause of the altercation. Meanwhile, their customer stood with his luggage waiting to be served. It turned out that the driver who was first in line (who I was waiting for) was not part of the argument, but appeared and didn’t seemed too interested to see me. After asking for the airport, he nodded and walked away, before returning to open the boot of the car. To my surprise there was a huge gas tank in the boot of the car, and then seats in the back, leaving not much room for my luggage! He eventually folded the seats down and I helped myself putting my bags in and over the tank. All the while, the two Arabs were getting more heated, and now a third involved. I wasn’t worried about my safety or anything, as they were a little bit away, and were too involved with each other to even notice me, but eventually my driver hopped in and I followed. He exited the car park at such a speed that suggested he didn’t want to have anything to do with what was going on between the others! What amused me the most was the little cap he was wearing - the kind that is stereotypical of a taxi driver or porter, a flat cylinder, red and green (UAE colours) with big Aramaic lettering around the edge. And the English translation in bold letters on the other side: “ABSOLUTELY NOT”

Arriving at the airport in the sunlight this time, I was reminded just how big the place is! Grand opulence, a reflection of the rest of the nation! I bought a bus ticket to Dubai, apparently the cheapest way of getting there. It was fairly full, so was I was glad to have a seat. The trip there gave a taste of this dry, flat land. Everything seemed to be the same shade of beige as the sand on which it is built - even buildings and infrastructure. Not much greenery either, other than what you’d expect to find in the desert. It’s an amazing reminder that we can build huge and impressive nations, plant whatever we’d like, but the climate (which determines what grows) is out of our hands.

We passed several mosques and other buildings. Although I know very little about architecture, it’s obvious that things are done differently here. Every building is laced with patterns uncommon in Australia, or other western places.

We left Abu Dhabi at 11:00am and arrived in Dubai around 12:30 (I think). My goal was to find my hotel to drop my bags. I was initially worried that I would be too early for check in, but I had nothing to worry about:

The bus dropped us at a kind of transport hub, with hotels and a train station. I had no internet, so I had no way of knowing where to go or what to do, so I headed into the large shopping centre that was there. The mall was large and had many different sections each themed to a different country.  I had no luck signing on to their free wifi, so I sat down in their Egypt section to rest my legs and think of a plan. I was hungry by then, so the few morsels I had saved from breakfast came in handy. I decided to jump on the train, it is a single line to runs the whole length of the city. I knew my hotel was named “The Muse” and I knew it was near a metro station that had a unique name, I just could remember what! So I headed for the train station, navigated their ticket vending machine and saw the station in question on the map; “World Trade Centre”.

I negotiated my two suitcases onto the train and headed there. I remember weeks ago when I booked that once off the train station I had to cross the highway, but from there I had no idea! I found the foot bridge and crossed, by now my feet were sore and my luggage was bothersome, and I had no sense of direction. Coming out of the footbridge I endeared up at the entry of a very posh hotel. “They’ll have wifi” I thought, “I’ll waltz into the foyer acting as a guest to use their internet to find where the heck I am”. My plan was working until a bell boy appeared fo nowhere and took my bags! I quickly lied telling him I wasn’t ready to check in, I was meeting someone first. He said that was fine. I sat in the very fancy lobby (even the air smelled expressive) and logged on! The map said I was a 12 min walk to my hotel, it seemed straightforward, so I screenshotted the map, collected my luggage (saying I’d be back later!) and headed to the hotel. Do you think I could find it. I walked and walked and couldn’t make any sense of the where it was on the map. I thought I had arrived, only to find a large empty block with bulldozers on it! Eventually, after asking several strangers, I stumbled across ‘The Muse’

A lovely hotel room, more like a mini apartment, including a full kitchen, dishwasher and the works! A very good deal. After finally unloading my luggage, I headed to the hotel lobby coffee shop in hopes for a sandwich. They didn’t have that, so I settled for a drink. Had a great chat with the barristers who suggested a couple of places to visit, mainly the Global Village.

I also wanted to see the Burj Kalifa, so I took the train there first. Again, not really having a map to go by, I followed my nose (thankfully the trains are very easy to navigate, and go every 5 minutes, and the staff are very helpful too). To get to the Burj/fountains, I discovered you have to first walk through the famous Dubai Mall. I wish I had a step counter, because the walk way from the train to the mall went on and on and on. Once in the mall, it was another great hike to get to the other side where the famous fountains are. Past the largest indoor aquarium, the Apple shop, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant and other attractions. Finally I found my way to the spot; an incredible feat of engineering, and prodigal use of money has allowed the world’s tallest building to be created. It reminds me of the Tower of Babel.

I didn’t hang around for long, as I intended to return later in the night when the fountain show begins. I headed back to the trains on the way to the Global Village...

Having found to train to where I needed to go, I got off and searched for the bus. I found the queue and joined it, although I was skeptical that we would all fit on the bus as the line was quite long! I figured they would have sorted this out if it was such a popular destination. They had not. After standing in line for about 20 minutes, the bus came and went, only for me to move up to the front of the line to wait for the next one. The wait was 40 minutes! I really didn’t feel like standing another 40 minutes, but was also now boxed in a little. I asked the group behind me if it was worth waiting, they reckoned. I promptly sat on the floor and caught up on a few things on my phone to pass the time. When we finally arrived at Global Village, I was not prepared for what awaited…words cannot describe the sensory overload of sounds, smells, lights, structures, stalls and masses of people that were there!! I didn’t really know what to expect: it’s basically a giant theme park with sections from countries around the world. Each with their own markets and foods. Had the entire Arab Emirates not been there, I might have enjoyed it more. I think I passive smoked about 7 packs, and the ‘Turkish baked potato’ I had (covered with all sorts of pickled ingredients) left much to be desired. The live Bollywood show they had going on the massive concert stage drowned out other performers all competing for crowds in other sections, and the kids area shouldn’t have been so packed for 9:30 at night! You can see how impressed I was walking through the markets! 

In the end, and wanting to see the Burj Fountain show in the way back home, I decided to leave. The one bus they have to transport thousands of people was of course full again and so I am writing this in the line. Thankfully there are seats to wait at this time. After waiting a long while the bus came, I tapped my card only to be $1 short of the fair! The man was not impressed and sent me to top up my card, but didn’t seem to recognise me on my return, by which time that 2nd bus had also filled up! Too cross to care, I walked off and found another bus that went to a station. My next option was a taxi. I’m not sure if I will conjure the energy to stop in at the fountain show on the way back home, but we will see!

27-01-2024

An excellent day today:

It started early, 6:30am checkout and pick up by the Masandam Cruise people from the hotel. After about 30 minutes, we had picked up everyone: two groups of people; some Muslim ladies and two Indian guys, Kunal and Monish, who I later befriended.

We then drove for another half an hour to a mini bus, that was half full. We collected a few more in the bus along the way. 

We were told to bring our passports as the cruise entered into Oman. I originally assumed that we would sail North of Dubai and around the tip of the UAE landmass, however, we actually drove North East across UAE and entered into Oman on the bus. 

A quick stop at the border checkpoint to check our passports and the paper work the tourism company had given us and we continued on a short way to the docks.

Here the strong smell of boat fuel and fish hit us. About 6 ‘cruise ships’ were lined up at the docks right next to each other, so that we climbed into the first and continued walking through and climbing into the next until we filled the furtherest vessel. I can’t find the effort to describe the boats to you (refer to the picture), they were yay long and yay wide, two decks, deck chairs at the top, and cushions around the sides to sit.

Once we pulled out of the doc, we sailed about 45 min North. Tall rocky mountains that sunk straight into beautiful deep green seas. 

We anchored in the opening of a cove and were instructed that there would be speed boat rides, banana boat rides and snorkelling for all who wanted. It was a nice change (from last nights escapades) to be reminded by the guide that everything was included and they didn’t try to sell us any ad-ons.

The speedboat was the dingy we had towed behind us, which could seat about 12. I didn’t think it would be anything special, but it did pack a punch and go quite fast, to my surprise! I followed instructions and held on tight!

The banana boat rides were on an inflatable, on which five sat. It was good fun and they turned sharply to fling us off right near the bigger boat, so we could swim and climb out. Our group managed to hold on and balance so that when fling around we all stayed on! So the driver did another sharp turn, this time succeeding, however we were now much further away from the cruise boat, which meant longer to swim. This was okay because we had life jackets on. Halfway there a girl from Denmark seemed to be struggling. I over-confidently offered my help, to which her and her mother were grateful. I think she had a cramp in her foot, which then meant she struggled to swim and was a little panicked. I suggested she lay on her back to float and called the speedboat over to pick us up. 

The water temp was lovely, and the air temp perfect too! Definitely chose the right time of year to come!

We also had the option to be ferried (in the speedboat) to a small beach. There were at least six cruise boats like ours out, so the beach had many people on it by then. It was actually a very small (like there were two small bulldogs and some goats in a pen) village. Surrounded by steep rocky mountains, I assumed these people use boats to get places, although if you looked hard, there was evidence of some paths/stone walls in the sides of the mountains.

Back on the cruise boat, it was time for fishing: hand lines preloaded with bait for those who wanted, although no one was successful.

Later we were served a lovely lunch buffet including salads, bread and hummus, curries, rice and noodles. 

We relaxed on the top deck for a while longer. I enjoyed being swayed gently on the picturesque sea, surrounded by the mountains, reminded all the while of the One who created it.

In hindsight, I should’ve stayed a third night in Dubai, and just gone straight to the airport in the morning, however my accommodation is in Abu Dhabi tonight. 

The hotel transfer bus from the cruise people was not in a rush and you wouldn’t believe the traffic here! By the time we drove the entire length of Dubai city and back up, I was the last to be dropped off around 8pm!! So it was definitely a full day! My angst was growing as I still and to make my way to Abu Dhabi, and wasn’t familiar with the bus times etc. The man at the hotel (where my luggage had been stored all day) suggested I get a gold card (pay a bit extra for a special carriage on the train where I would have a seat and a place for my luggage). I was glad to have followed his advice because the rest of the train was packed!

Upon getting to the bus stop a man tried to convince me to go with him to Abu Dhabi, he would take me straight to my hotel. I explained that I wasn’t interested because I had already loaded money on to my train/bus card. After reasoning for a while, I figured even if he was ripping me off it would probably be worth being taken straight to my hotel, skipping the 30 min wait for the next bus, and then an expensive taxi from Abu Dhabi airport to my hotel. So I obliged. The walk to his car didn’t didn’t fill me with confidence as it was parked in a dark dirt square with a few others, but he explained that you don’t have to pay for parking there, whereas you do have to pay for the proper car park next to it.

Anyway, made it to the hotel, late but alive

28-01-2024

My time in the UAE has come to close. What did I think? I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and was so glad to have made my lay-over longer than it could’ve been. Of course, there are always things you’d do differently (like missing Global Village or booking less late night/early morning combos), but I’m not sure I’d come again. Don’t get me wrong, there are PLENTY more things to do and places to see, and I would 100% recommend extending a layover to visit for a few nights, but I don’t think I would make Dubai my holiday destination. I don’t think I would travel 14.5 hours for Dubai to be my destination. Treat it like a cruise ship: making getting somewhere fun!

About 8 hours later and I’m in London!! A pretty great flight - the A380 is a marvel of a machine, and quite comfortable too. I arrived absolutely knacked, so was grateful for my hotel room right at the airport (a lot closer to the airport than the Abu Dhabi ‘hotel airport’😅)

Woke up refreshed and ready for London! Thanks for following along and God bless.