Even though I only managed about 1hr of sleep on the plane, when we arrived at 6am local time I didn’t feel too bad. I spent my 7 hrs blogging, eating and watching a movie, consequently the time passed very quickly. Hugo and Lili were in another section of the huge A380, so other than boarding we didn’t get to interact with them on the flight. When meeting Lili at the airport she looked very worse for wear and explained she started to feel sick at the airport last night after eating dinner from the supermarket, had diarrhea, fevers and could not get comfortable or get any sleep at all on the flight. Poor thing.
Dubai airport is very large, modern and clinically cold people wise. The entry through customs was very serious with staff not wanting to engage with you at all, but it went quickly and smoothly enough. Good signs led us to baggage retrieval and the metro very efficiently. We must have timed it well as we got on a metro right away. They look nice and new much like the Singapore one and the same economical cost of about 3NZD for a half hour trip into town. The train got pretty full of local commuters who were a mixture of traditionally dressed Arabic men, and more modern dressed olive skinned men, and Indian looking men. We saw no women (apparently there are issues around them travelling by themselves?) by the time our stop of the Dubai Mall came around. Every one was quiet and serious on the train (metro) too.
I booked our hotel specifically for heat avoidance (no long walks in the heat), proximity to the Burj, good shopping, and for our traditional 5 star splurge for the end of our holiday. The Sofitel Downtown fitted the criteria on all accounts being a 3 minute walk across the road from the air conditioned metro station/stop. The Metro stop was alongside – joined to an air-conditioned walkway that went all the way into the mall for a distance of 20 minutes walk, or 15 if you sped up the pace along the moving walkways (flat elevators)! The Dubai Mall is the biggest – or one of the biggest in the world with around 1,200 different shops, and an inbuilt aquarium. Our hotel also has views of the Burj, and this is accessed through the same air conditioned walk way to and through the mall.
On stepping out from the metro to cross the road to the hotel we all got a surprise and then had a good laugh. So this is what 45 degrees in the making feels like at 7am – like walking into a hot hair dryer. The wind was blowing hot air around and I could just feel my curly hair dehydrating into a wild frizz by the second. At check in the service was excellent as you would expect and we both got upgraded to a Burj view room. Even better, the rooms were available for early check in which I really appreciated as check in is not officially till 3pm in the afternoon. Our rooms are really nicely appointed and comfortable, and whilst the view of the Burj is partially obstructed by a new building (must be killing the Sofitel as they can no longer sell ‘full Burj view’ rooms), we could still see about 1/4 of the skinny sky scraper around the side . The pool looks great and we all planned to hit it later in the afternoon when the sun was lower and it is shaded.
First on everyone’s agenda was a shower after the hot sweaty day in Amsterdam followed by an all nighter flight. The actual flight was only around 6-7 hours but it left Amsterdam time at 10:10pm and arrived in Dubai at 6am. The icky unclean feeling is the worst thing about travel in the evening when you have not had the opportunity to shower before hand. This feeling is intensified when it is hot and you have worked up a dust sticking bacteria growing sweat during your busy tourist day. Following a delicious long shower the super king comfortable bed was too inviting so we had a kip till 12:00 when we agreed to meet to go into the mall for lunch. It took seconds to fall asleep in the nice cool room, smelling and feeling fresh under the soft white sheets and feather duvet. Bliss to uncoil and stretch out flat in a spacious environment!
When we woke we had a bit of fun using the internet for messenger and annoying one another good naturedly by pressing the bell to the next door room. The sky-walk to the mall was a new experience – it took about 20 minutes and you get great views as you are up a few floors above street level with glass on both sides like a panorama carriage of a train. Arriving at the impressive mall was also a bit of a thrill and the first thing we did was find a directory and work out where the food hall was. All of us except Lili were starving. She felt better for having a couple of hours sleep but her stomach did not want anything yet. She had a good vomit on arrival and was still seedy. Her temperature had settled a little which was a good sign and a reassurance that whatever was ailing her was passing and on the mend. Vern and I did a circuit of the food hall which surprisingly was mainly European with a real American slant of burgers, and other unappealing foods (donuts, carb high, fries etc) to us. There are a lot of Asians, and Asian food; apparently there are more Indian here than Arabs. A lot of the food stands were eastern Asian with Phillipino and similar workers. We found a nice Arabic style food place that cooked the bread for your shawarma fresh – it was a thin large flat bread – tasted like Pita and was deliciously crisp and tender. We got a mixed sharwarma and a seasoned lamb dish with two types of rices – a yellow and a white with spices, a Arabic salad and an eggplant dish. Free soft drink and a water – total about 12 dollars each and we were pushing to finish it – in fact we left some rice and nearly all the fries (that came with shawarma) behind.
Lili needed to head back to bed as she was week and really not feeling well with a lot of pain increasing in her abdomen, so we left the kids and did a bit of exploring and price checking. We also looked at the aquarium from the outside which is free. If you are really interested you can pay to scuba in there or go on an internal walkway. The gold and diamond jewelry is plentiful and many of the items you can tell are for the rich and famous or oil made wealthy – not for the average cattle class tourist. It was good fun looking and trying to find something special to take home. As mentioned before I am not a impulse shopper as I don’t want to find out I could get it cheaper around the corner so I stuck to looking and memorizing and later I spent time on the internet checking out trademe for a feel of price per gram, and what I could get similar at home. I have figured that it would be cost effective to buy here, with new 18ct prices being the same as second hand 9ct prices – plus they have some different styles which are more interesting than what we can get at home.
All this pre purchase research had restored our appetite so we stopped in at a big Cheesecake Factory which was combined with a restaurant to have a coffee and share a cake. The portions of the main meals were ridiculously huge from what we could see coming out – real American dining which even for our well trained bellies would have been far too much for one person. The fresh strawberry cheesecake slice was normal size, very nice and a good finish to our day. When we got back to the walk way we were surprised to see it was completely dark outside and the city had come alive with buildings lit up and fairy light lined palm tree streets.
We checked in with the kids and talked about plans for tomorrow. Lili was feeling a bit better, had better colour but was still weak. Hugo had got her some fruit at a shop and that was all she was up for, and thankfully managed to keep it all down. Whilst she was sleeping he had enjoyed the pool at sunset and recommended we do the same tomorrow. We were disappointed to have missed it but that is what shopping in a big mall is like – you totally loose concept of time. Probably didn’t help that we had not changed our watches yet either! Hugo wants to do the Burj tomorrow, whereas Vern would like to have more visibility before going up so we will pass. There is a lot of heat haze this time of year and Vern has already indicated he would like to come back here but in winter… so one can do more. The other activity we considered was a half day tour which includes the beach area, a ride on a traditional boat across the river, going past some key buildings, the old town and old souks. I did some googling on tour reviews and the majority were not thrilled for various reasons so we decidied to pass and just taxi to any we wanted to see.
Whilst we were chatting and I was trying to access some reviews the internet was not behaving as it should so I went downstairs to complain and see if there was another server I could access being an Accor member. I also brought up my query as to why I got the rooms cheaper through the travel agent than directly as this didnt seem right. No explanation could be offered for the pricing but the internet was sorted immediately by a staff member going up and doing ‘something’. Then to my surprise and protests the reception said that she would move us to a better room to improve our experience and compensate for being a member and not getting the best deal directly. I tried to say that we didnt need to shift but she insisted and said we would love the room. So at 10pm I raced up and said to the kids – pack your bags we are moving. They weren’t super impressed as the room was more than fine. Vern was in the bath and wasn’t impressed either to be turfed out and a quick pack to be done.
I apologised to the family; explaining that I really had tried to stay put but the reception had insisted. We threw together our things which was not too hard at all and like clockwork in 10 minutes a staff member came with a trolley and moved us up to the 12th floor where we had a suite and Lili and Hugo a corner view room. Our suite was over the top – floor to ceiling glass and views on three sides and three separate rooms – lounge, bedroom and bathroom – all super spacious. We felt like celebrity’s and quickly settled in, me having a nice long soak in the free standing bath with a glass of wine viewing the city through the glass. Ah, how the other side lives eh?
Travels with Valrock 