Sunday 11th
December 2016
With very mixed emotions, we dragged all of our belongings
from the hotel across to the airport terminal early on the morning of Sunday
11th December 2016. Weighing our bags, we were forced to throw on a few extra
layers of clothing before the attendant would finally agree to let our bags
through.
When scanning our carry on luggage, Brendan was pulled aside
and questioned about something that was showing as potential liquid. The
officer identified the suspect item, a small silver tin which turned out to
contain a very red coloured spice mix, and asked what it was however remained
cagey about showing Brendan what it was she was holding. Not remembering every single
item in the bags, he said he thought it may have been a candle. Still keeping
the tin close to her and not showing Brendan much, the officer decided to force
the lid open (complete with label clearly identifying it as spice mix). This
genius idea was conducted whilst holding it over the bag, comprised mainly of
presents and with white clothing at the top. Awkwardly jamming the lid off,
spice mix flew everywhere to her surprise and her meagre attempt at an apology
included the words “at least it smells nice”. Onwards to the plane and seven
hours later we arrived in Dubai, where it was evening.
Fortunately Gemma and Joel were waiting for us with their
car; we loaded it up and were whisked away through the city. Despite the
darkness, the lights of the night gave us a hint at the remarkable size of the
city and scale of the buildings. In the mostly residential district of Al
Safouh, we arrived at their apartment where there are surrounding construction
sites aplenty. From the kitchen window, there are views to the luxury Atlantis
resort.
The following morning, Monday,
we accompanied Gemma into her office, just off the mouthful of a street name Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard in the CBD of Downtown Dubai. We left her to be
productive and headed outside to take in the sight of the world’s tallest
tower, the monolithic Burj Khalifa.
The pristine appearance of the decorative Burj Khalifa Lake and surrounding manicured landscaping were amazing. We headed around the lake and into the huge Dubai Mall, to the base of Burj Khalifa to ascend the 828 metre tall tower. Being only just after 8am, there wasn’t much in the mall that was yet open.
We purchased the standard ‘At the Top’ tickets enabling
access to Levels 124 and 125, at 452 and 456 metres above ground. You can also
pay extra to reach Level 148 but we figured the view would be about the same,
just everything would look smaller.
On Level 124 you can go outside onto an outdoor viewing
terrace encased, of course, by swathes of pristine glass barriers. The views
are astounding and the scenery beautifully varied, the towers of the business
districts and immense landscaping, dotted residential areas, vast sandy
deserts, and the shimmering blue waters of the Persian Gulf.
Ascending the spiral staircase to Level 125, Brendan was
ambushed by staff determined to get him to take part in pulling obscure poses
for their green screen photography. Somehow Roslyn made it past undetected.
Interactive digital telescopes placed at various intervals along the floor
provided an interesting look at the city with the ability to switch between
live viewing, night time scenery and historic imagery. There were also hanging
pod chairs to laze about whilst looking down on the world below.
As we were on our way out and back down to land it was
obvious that the early rise had been worth it, there were now masses of tourist
groups gathered on the outdoor terrace resulting in people waiting around for
an empty glass pane to stand in front of for a photo.
We were back in the mall and although it had barely cracked
midday, our early start meant we were about ready for lunch. Gemma had
recommended the Lebanese Al-Hallab Restaurant, both because of its food quality
and also for the balcony view out to the Dubai Fountain – the world’s largest
choreographed water display.
What ensued was a bit of a bizarre back and forth between us
and the restaurant staff. We first entered and headed outside to lock in a
table with a good view of the fountain, expecting a water show to take place at
1pm and 1:30pm as per what we’d read online and what Gemma had told us. We
stayed out there for around 20 minutes before a staff member told us they
weren’t serving food on the balcony and moved us back inside. When we
questioned whether we could sit there to see the fountain at 1pm, he said there
was no show today. Confused but hungry nonetheless, we moved inside and ordered
food. A few minutes before 1pm Brendan moved back outside, not convinced that
1) the waiter knew what he was talking about regarding the fountain and 2) the
waiter even understood what we had been asking.
As expected the water show commenced at 1pm, choreographed
to music and dancing throughout the lake. Returning inside for food, the
fountain put on its performance again half an hour later with a varied
soundtrack and different choreography.
We strolled the mall for a while after lunch, keen to stay indoors out of the heat, sighting a significant number of familiar brands from the UK, America and Australia – could this be attested to Dubai’s large number of expat residents? When we eventually felt brave enough to head back outdoors we boarded the Dubai Trolley, unaware that the heritage-styled and free to ride trolley is more of a tourist gimmick than a viable form of public transport. As it turned out, we’d boarded at the middle of three stops and so our journey consisted of heading up the street to the end of the line, then heading back to the stop we’d just gotten on at, and continuing on to the other end of the line, returning finally to the stop we’d boarded at. A comedic adventure further enhanced by our spotting of multiple buildings that looked like famous buildings from other cities around the world, examples included New York’s Chrysler Building.
The four of us went for dinner at the Mall of the Emirates,
where Joel and Gemma showed us to the huge indoor artificial ski fields. That evening, we had our first experience of playing Cards Against Humanity - slow bloomers, we know...
Tuesday we’d
devoted to one of Dubai’s most significant and popular attractions and Roslyn’s one
non-negotiable Dubai activity – Aquaventure Waterpark at the luxurious Atlantis
resort. Tickets courtesy of Brendan's family for his birthday. Located on Dubai’s iconic manmade palm shaped island, Palm Jumeirah,
we’d been tantalisingly close for the last day and a half given that we could
see the distinctive Atlantis building from Gemma and Joel’s apartment. Gemma
had taken the day off work and also joined us.
We started by grabbing a tube each and then floated around
the interconnected rivers that stretch throughout the park, through calm and
sedate waterways and onto the more exciting Torrent and Rapids. Some of the
rivers even lead up to other water coasters, how easy (or lazy…) is that?!
Aside from the meandering rivers, there are two towers at
Aquaventure that house different
waterslides – Tower of Neptune and Tower of Poseidon. Brendan and Roslyn
dared the aptly named Leap of Faith where we hurtled down an open nine storey
water slide, shooting through a clear tube surrounded by aquarium sea creatures
including sharks and rays. Shark Attack required us to don a tube once again,
as we travelled down an enclosed water slide and through an aquarium tank full
of marine life.
Following lunch we climbed the stairs up to the Tower of
Poseidon, where the rides were a bit more adrenaline fuelled than those in
Tower of Neptune. Here we discovered our favourite ride of the day, the
Aquaconda, where a group of us were all put together into a large donut and we
swirled and swished our way down the huge waterslide. We really enjoyed this
one, and went on it several times over! Brendan also had a go on the Slitherine
(not too dissimilar to the earlier Leap of Faith) as well as the horrific
Poseidon’s Revenge. Step into a capsule and wait. Wait as there is a countdown
until the moment the floor falls out from beneath you and you plummet at high
speed through the enclosed tunnel. This one turned out to be more scary and
painful than it was an adrenaline rush of fun, with Brendan coming out the
other end with bruises and scratches from having slid around bends, in the
dark, and upside down through the hard, enclosed tube at great haste (the
Atlantis website says up to 60 kph).
We finished our visit at Atlantis with a walk through of the
impressive Lost Chambers Aquarium.
After picking Joel up from work, we headed out to the bizarre Global Village. Touted as “Dubai’s leading family entertainment and cultural attraction”, Global Village is like a cross between a market and theme park. There are around 30 pavilions, each representing and themed around a different country.
A full day of riding waterslides, compounded with three days
in a row of early starts and we were simply exhausted. By the time we woke on Wednesday morning, we weren’t really up
for anything too strenuous. We caught the metro down to the Mall of the
Emirates for a bit more of a look around. On the topic of the metro, the Dubai
metro stations are simply named as per whatever company or brand has “bought”
the naming rights. Instead of being named after their locality or a nearby
landmark, Gemma told us the names of stations regularly change and it
makes it hard to give accurate directions to people.
From the mall we headed across to the Palm Jumeirah Monorail
for a ride taking in views across the Palm, out to the sea, and over the
Atlantis resort. A bit like the trolley (though unfortunately not free) the
monorail is, for now anyway, more of a tourist gimmick than a viable form of
transport. Along the way we did pass by two other fully built but
non-operational stations.
From the monorail we headed down to the Dubai Marina for our
water sightseeing tour aboard The Yellow Boats, also a birthday present for Brendan from Roslyn's family. We opted for the all-inclusive
90 minute Tour 1, starting with the impressive and ultra-modern marina. Out of
the marina, the yellow inflatable boat turned from sedate sightseer to rapid
thrillseeker, bounding over waves and turning at an almost vertical angle.
Surprisingly, this was all much to the enjoyment of all passengers.
We cruised around Palm Jumeirah sighting the uber luxurious
villas and five star hotels, with a stop at the peak of the palm to view
Atlantis, and onwards to the stunning Burj al-Arab. The Burj al-Arab is the
building sometimes referred to as the world’s only seven star hotel and its distinctive
design is based upon a ship’s sail.
We’d chosen a great time to go out, with our start time of
4:15pm beginning the cruise in the daylight and we then got to watch as the
city transitioned into the evening.
For our final night in Dubai, we met Joel and Gemma at the Madinat
Jumeriah hotel complex where we had dinner and cocktails at Trader Vics
restaurant. Important to note that of the various eateries and “bars” we’d been
to during the past few days this was the first that was part of a hotel and
therefore sold alcohol, due to the UAE’s strict laws around alcohol.
Gemma dropped us at the airport Thursday morning. Unluckily for us, the weight allowances at Dubai
Airport were much more strictly enforced than in London. Wary of our how heavy
our luggage already was, we’d specifically not bought anything else in Dubai. After
a bit of reshuffling, the checked luggage made it through ok but at the gates
we were then forced to weigh our hand luggage and it was here that we came
unstuck. Pulling everything out of our bags in a desperate attempt to shed
weight, we threw out an assortment of random items that probably shouldn’t have
made it into the bags in the first place, and Brendan ended up going through
the gates wearing three pairs of trousers.
We made it onto the plane and reflected on the last 21
months and our fantastic adventure, having travelled to an amazing 34 different
countries and creating a lifetime of wonderful memories.
The anticipation was that once the plane took off we’d be up
for a short layover in Bangkok, Thailand, and then be landing back in Australia
all in time for the lunch we’d already booked by the harbour. But it wasn’t
supposed to be. Poor weather conditions resulted in a late landing in Bangkok
and we were rushed through the airport to board the plane once again. It would
be another four hours before we were in the air again.
We drifted in and out of sleep during this time but
initially the plane made an attempt at taking off, we’d even taxied out to the
runway, however a medical emergency on board (which we never learnt the outcome
of) meant that the plane had to be grounded. There we sat for a lengthy period
of time (hours) awaiting advice from medical staff, and eventually taxied back
in to the gates where the passengers and their baggage were unloaded. Once all
of this had taken place, we were finally allowed to taxi back out to the run
way where we had to wait in the queue before we could take to the air for the
homeward stretch.
The flight we’d booked was scheduled to arrive at 8:45am Thursday, Sydney time, but didn’t hit
the tarmac until about midday. With the time it took us to disembark, clear
customs and collect baggage, we were finally able to see and hug our
families at around 1:30pm. And as we were soon told, whilst waiting for us they’d
spent most of the day standing beside Richard Wilkins and Collette Dinnigan who’d
been waiting for their daughter!
Highlights:
- Downtown Dubai
- Burj Khalifa, ‘At the Top’ access to Levels 124 and 125
- Amazing sky-high outdoor viewing terrace
- Dubai Mall
- Lunch at Al-Hallab Restaurant
- Choreographed water show of Dubai Fountain
- Rode the Dubai Trolley
- Spotted buildings that looked similar to other famous landmark
buildings…
- Aquaventure Waterpark at the Atlantis resort
- Lost Chambers Aquarium
- Global Village
- Rode the metro through various branded stations
- Saw the indoor ski fields of Ski Dubai at Mall of the
Emirates
- Palm Jumeirah Monorail
- Sightseeing tour on The Yellow Boats
- Dubai Marina
- Palm Jumeirah
- Burj al-Arab
- Dinner and cocktails at Trader Vics at Madinat Jumeriah
hotel complex
- Last minute cull of belongings at the airport and three
layers of trousers
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