Dubai 1

Max 41, Min 32

We arrived 30 minutes early at 5am into Dubai and Emirates offloaded us pretty damned quickly. Gotta love Emirates efficiency. Through customs which was an inperson check with essentially the Smartgate photo ID. Nice chap asked if it was our first visit and gave us two sim cards with 1GB free each.

Collected our bags and out the nothing to declare lane without seeing another official. We were astounded to see so many passengers going through the Connections (transit) lanes), we felt very much in

the minority. The Metro was easy to find and we checked into our accommodation a one minute walk from the Financial District Metro stop, one stop short of Dubai Mall.

We booked the hotel including breakfast from the night before we arrived, so were able to check in straight away. Had showers and went to a fabulous breakfast. Wanting to get through to at least 9pm and being eight hours behind NZT, I had a snooze for a couple of hours. Pete went wandering in 37+ degree heat and managed to get lost. Eventually he asked someone for help back to the metro and found he had to catch a train two stops back to the hotel.

Had a cuppa to sort him out and then took the train down to Dubai Mall. The station is quite a walk from the Mall – we recorded over 1100 steps coming back but extensive use of travelators, and of course everything is airconditioned. The first shop we saw was a bookshop. It is the biggest book shop we have ever seen and we spent over an hour there. For those who know us well, will know we have difficulty walking past a bookshop and even more difficulty walking out without a purchase. Alas, I have succumbed and purchased yet another Malcolm Gladwell book.

The Dubai Mall is huge. We saw the massive aquarium glass wall which is at least two stories, the ice rink, China Town and the Souk. Loved the architecture / design of the souk, not so much the pushy vendors.
About 4pm we went outside by the fountains / lake. The heat and humidity is difficult to describe. 46 degrees in Melbourne was like walking into an oven but it was dry. Here it felt more being totally immersed in hot water and flooded lungs making it hard to breathe. There is also a lot of sand in the air at the moment and visibility is hazy.
After half an hour outside we needed a sit down, so had an early dinner at Jamie Oliver Dubai. Obviously, they hadn’t heard about the bankruptcy but it was a good meal, they had really cold water and aircon.

We the watched the fountain display along with inspiring music. Made the trek back to the Metro and experienced peak hour madness where the station attendants actually have to stop people cramming in. I chatted with a young lady and enquired if it was always like this and she laughed. Gave us some hints and she crammed into the next one. After four attempts Pete was in and made a space for me. I had to jump. We made it to 8.45pm before retiring to bed. Pretty good effort I reckon.