A short trip to Dubai!

My husband Karthik was going to Dubai on work and we decided it was a good idea for me to join him later in the week. Sunday-Thursday is the normal workweek in the UAE (as against the usual Mon-Fri world over), so I booked my tickets for a Thursday morning flight.

I was a little apprehensive about my Visa as I wasn't sure it'd be easy for a woman travelling alone to an Arab country to get one without further processing. I booked my flight via Emirates (even though it was more expensive than other airlines) because Emirates provides an option to book your Visa online directly. The Visa processing was simpler than I expected and I got my 96 hour Visa in two working days!

I was quite excited planning the trip, booking the Hotel etc even though I was going to be staying there for less than 4 days!!

Thursday:

As I handed my passport to the lady at Immigration at Chennai airport, I could notice she took longer time validating my ID (as opposed to others) because the photo in my passport was taken a year and half back when I was my fattest best and I looked nothing in it like I do now. After a while she got bored and stamped my papers and let me in.

The flight to Dubai was uneventful even though I felt that a lot of domestic airlines like Indigo are far better than Emirates. The food (I'd ordered Veg Jain food), was very bleh and I wasted half of it. I shan't even mention the coffee! Surprisingly the return flight was much better, aircraft more plusher, and food more tolerable. Strange isn't it?

I landed in Dubai and waited in line for Immigration, and I got the first brush of 'racial discrimination' in the land. Oh no, it's not what you think. I was standing in one of the long queues with a whole lot of obviously poor labourer folk in front and back of me, when I heard someone call out to me "Ma'am, ma'am"... two airport staff called me separately and put me in a line which was much shorter. Well, I never! Anyway, we don't complain if discrimination works in our favour once in a while! The immigration officer spoke to me in Hindi, asking me to look at some camera and stamped me in. No questions asked. I was officially in Dubai!

Collecting my bags, I went out looking for taxi and here I was sent to some Ladies only taxi driven by a girl who kept talking on the phone through out the journey. That's one thing in Dubai I don't understand, cabbies talk on the phone all the time!

I'd booked a Classic Creek view room in Dubai Sheraton Creek hotel. The guy at the concierge at front collected my bags and asked me head straight to reception on first floor. I was apprehensive about leaving my bags but then I did as he said. I was at the hotel by about half past one in the afternoon but the check in time was at 3. The guy at front desk (Mohamad) said he'd check if there is anything available at the moment and told me there's something on second floor. I asked him how many floors were there in this hotel, he replied 11. I asked him to give me a room on a higher floor. Finally he said he'd give me one on 6th floor and was I ok? I was fine with that but I was to wait for a really long time.

And then came the big shock. As always, I was asked to show my credit card as check in procedure (and even though I'd already paid the room charges in full online it is still required). I completely forgot that my existing credit card had long expired and I had only my forex card with me. But they couldn't complete check-in formalities without my CC. So I had to leave all my bags there and run to an ATM across the street and deposit 500 AED with them with the assurance that when Karthik comes over that night he'd show his credit card and I'd get back my money. Phew! I was famished by then and my room wasn't still ready. Finally I was taken to my room on sixth floor and my luggage arrived. The room and the view were breathtaking but my mind was only on my rumbling stomach. There was nothing in the room to eat which was free. Everything costed a bomb. I left my bags and ran down to the lobby and ate an expensive sandwich (first and last in the hotel). My hunger finally sated I went back up to my room. I then realized that the hotel had sectioned each floor into categories. So Classic rooms were in floors 1-4 and club rooms were from 7th floor onwards. Floors 5 and 6 were reserved for Sheraton Preferred Guest (SPG as they called it). So I had got an upgrade without my knowledge only because I had asked for a higher floor. See, it doesn't hurt to ask!

Inside the room

View from room

I took a long nice shower and decided to head to Dubai mall where I'd meet up with Karthik later that night. I thought I would try and take the metro instead of a taxi to save some cost. I knew the station wasn't far away from the hotel but I was surprised at the lack of proper sign boards. In this respect Europe or Singapore wins hands down. I finally managed to ask some guy on the road and followed some folks and landed at the metro (even the station didn't have a name board on the side I was standing, and looked like any other building). I took a train which I wasn't sure was the right one until halfway through the journey! Again, I am sorry for the comparison but Singapore and German metro rails are far better.

It was long walk on several escalators at the Dubai mall station to reach the mall itself. The mall was humongous. I mean, huge is an understatement! I haven't seen a mall this big and I doubt I covered even 50% of it.

The Dubai mall is a great experience. There's a lot to look around, there's an underground aquarium where you have sharks and fish swimming above and below you. There's the dancing fountain that plays to music every half hour in the evening and is a treat to watch. There's a giant skating rink and amazing restaurants. And there are shops too. Oh yeah, shops where you can see but cant buy much unless you are a multi millionaire sheik I suppose. And its not just this mall. I found Dubai very expensive in general. And the one thing I realized is that shopping abroad is no longer such a novelty as it was say ten, or even five years back. These days you pretty much get everything here in India. The only thing that could possibly excite you is to get better deals. But this wasn't the case in Dubai. I saw a bag in Zara for almost double the price as the one in Zara, Chennai. Same bag! And cosmetics too, I didn't see anything that isn't available here.

I finally met Karthik by the dancing fountains and we had dinner at the mall.

Fountain

Friday:

We took a cab early in the morning to reach Bhurj Khalifa, one of the tallest manmade buildings in the world. We took a tour up the 124th floor which had a good view of the entire city.

Here's a tip for first time travelers: Tip 1: Book your tickets to the Bhurj online in advance. We did that and saved a lot of money. For the ticket online is 125 AED per head, but if you book it right there at the Bhurj, it is 300 AED!

Later that day we took a Desert safari. This too, I had booked in advance. A car was to pick us up from the hotel at 3 pm and we would do the safari in the same car and then it would drop us back at 9 30 pm. As was my habit I was almost ready by 2.15 and was egging Karthik to get ready. A few minutes later I got a call saying the car was waiting. I was surprised and told him that we were to be picked up only at 3 as per the email. The guy on the other side (Raza, our driver for Safari) said he had to pick up other folks too and if we could come down in the next 5 minutes. I was annoyed by this but since I was already ready and it didn't take Karthik much time to dress up we were down at the lobby by 2.30 pm. I coldly told Raza that this was just not done, you couldnt ask a person to hurry and come before scheduled time, but I calmed down when he apologized profusely.

We picked up four other people from another hotel and reached our destination. Raza drove with skill on the sands and it was extremely exciting going on the safari. Very thrilling. I wanted to take a video but the camera just wouldn't stay in my hand. In fact the only good thing about the desert safari package was the actual dune bashing itself (the ride across the desert). Everything else, be it the henna design on hand or the photo in traditional costume etc were poor side attractions which we avoided. We took a ride on the camel and some sunset photos. The coffee/ tea counter had all necessary materials like a jar of nescafe, sugar etc and we had to make our own beverage. 

Queues for snacks and dinner were bifurcated by gender and this made it possible for me bring our food earlier. In the dinner queue, I asked one of the staff if this was a vegetarian queue (which it was) and he called me separately to a men's queue which was shorter and I got my food earlier. I felt special because he called just me, not the woman in front of me and not the one behind me :). 

During dinner we got to watch some dancing including one by a belly dancer. We got back to the hotel after a tired but eventful day.

Saturday:

I had wanted to go to Dubai Marina and Palm Jumeira however Karthik suggested that we finish the shopping on saturday so that we'd have time to pack before we leave the next day. I wanted to take a ride on the boat (traditionally called Abrar) across the creek. We took the first boat and went across to Old Souk at Bur Dubai. There were shops selling textiles, footwear and lamps... but none that we could buy because they were quite tacky. The only shop I bought stuff from here was a souvenir shop where I picked up some magnets, shot glass and oh, other souvenir stuff.

We took a cab to visit the famous Gold Souk. It is a street where blingy yellow metal are hung in windows shop after shop. Again I found most designs not to my taste. I found the salesmen to be quite uncouth as well. One guy even asked me to hurry up and choose my ring quickly (something that would never happen in a gold showroom in India!). I was quite disgusted and we left the place without buying anything. Tip 2: At the old and gold souks, there'll be a whole bunch of shady guys popping out of every corner trying to sell you watches and handbags. Just ignore them. I was already pre-warned after watching Sex and the City 2 (which was supposedly set in Abu Dhabi). Also when my mother and aunt visited Dubai last year, they went with one of them and he locked them in some dingy place and sold them an obviously fake Michael Kors bag for a steep price.

Having wasted a few hours at the gold souk, we decided to spend the rest of the day at Deira City centre, Another mall quite close to our hotel. Here, thankfully we could shop a little bit and I bought some bags. Here's another tip: Tip 3: You want to look around at the sights, go to Dubai mall. You want to shop, go to Deira mall. Oh it's still expensive because of the way our currency difference is, but at least there's something you can buy.

Sunday:

Bags packed, our flight was much later that night. We thought in the meanwhile we would visit Dubai Marina and take the mono rail over Palm Jumeira.We took the metro to Marina and did a short tram ride. That part of the city is different and more western looking.The mono rail experience was ok, nothing to talk about because it was packed. The view of the Palm Jumeira was really awesome though. Pristine beaches and homes of the rich and the famous with their own private beaches ... enough said! Utterly gorgeous.

We couldn't do the walk on the Marina due to lack of time. We got off at Atlantis hotel (which was supposed to be another tourist spot) and decided to take the cab back to the hotel. Bad idea, we should have just taken the metro back to Marina and taken another train back. The cabbie took us for a real ride - literally. Instead of turning the right at the Atlantis hotel, he took a long winded route around the Palm itself (which was beautiful by the way, but could have been avoided). The worst thing was the AC in his cab wasn't working! I hinted to Karthik that we had better get off soon because he knew we were tourists and I suspected he was taking a longer route. We made an excuse of the AC not working and asked him to drop us at the nearest metro. He avoided a couple of metro stations saying he couldn't park, but we insisted he drop us off at the next one whatever be the case. Finally we got off and took the train back to the hotel, just in time for check out.

After checking out and leaving our bags at the concierge we milled about to the nearby creek and Deira mall until it was time to leave for the airport.

Dubai as a place wasn't as cosmopolitan as I expected and considering it's a tourist destination, its not as tourist friendly as we'd like it to be. There are loads of other things to do like Sky diving and a trip to Ferrari world in Abu Dhabi which we couldn't do due to time constraints. Overall, I'd say my trip had up's and downs but I am glad I went.