Dubai

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I had left on a late night flight from Shanghai, so my arrival to Dubai was in the early morning. I was quite glad that there was a sandstorm/poor visibility meaning that we had to circle for about another hour to an hour and a half. I got to get a bit more sleep in. We landed and I was through immigration pretty quickly. Since it was still early, around 7 am, I decided to sit in the Costa at in the arrivals section and have myself a nice, strong coffee to wake up a bit. After about an hour, I headed over to the subway, which is very conveniently located nearby. I took the train to where my hostel was located in the older part of Dubai. After getting a little bit lost, I found it. Why can't people write clear instructions like go left or right, instead of look for a random bus station, especially when they actually mean a bus stop. Everyone was still sleeping at the hostel, so I quickly got changed, dumped my bag and headed out to explore Dubai. I always thought that Dubai would be really hot, but it was actually pretty chilly. I was glad I was wearing a cardigan. I had decided that I wanted to see parts of the old and new Dubai, while I was here. Since I only had one day to explore, I had booked the Burj Khalifa for the afternoon, so I decided to spend the morning at the Dubai Museum, which is in the older part of town.

I took the subway to the nearest stop to the Dubai Museum and it was about a 10-15 minute walk from the station. I managed to make it there without getting lost. The area kind of reminded me of Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, but with slightly more Middle Eastern feel to it. I knew I was there when I could see the old fort across the street. There were quite a few people mulling about outside too, I didn't think it would be a popular tourist spot, but it obviously was. I headed round to the entrance, thankfully, there was no queue and I paid the entrance fee to get in. It was super cheap, which is always a plus. The Dubai Museum is housed in Al Fahidi Fort, which is the oldest existing building in Dubai, having been built in 1787.

The entrance lead to the inner courtyard of the fort, on display in there were some small boats that were used to transport things across the creek. There was also a mock up of a primitive house which was fun to look at. On the roof of the house, there was a summer house called Al Arish, which was basically a wind tower to keep people cool during the hot, hot summers. I then had a quick look around a couple of rooms off the courtyard which were filled with swords and guns of I remember correctly. Then I headed into the main part of the museum, which I think was downstairs, or maybe it was just the lighting as it was pretty dark in there. The inside was filled with dioramas depicting what life used to be like in Dubai. The museum smelt a bit musty, but I enjoyed looking around the displays. There were many different shops: a food store, another for herbs and spices, a blacksmiths and a tailor. There was also a school and a pearl merchant. I didn't know that the gulf region was famous for its pearl production and trading. I headed outside to take a look at the big shops in display and took a rest like loads of other people were doing as there were plenty of places to sit down. All in all, I enjoyed the museum as it gave me a brief insight into life in Dubai.

I decided just to head to the Dubai Mall as this is where the entrance to the Burj Khalifa is and there would be plenty of restaurants for me to choose from for my lunch. The subway journey was pretty simple and led me away from the older part of Dubai into the newer more recently developed area. The walk from the subway station to the actual mall seemed to take forever, it just have been well over a kilometre. However, it was all undercover to stop the harsh dessert heat getting to the potential shoppers. The mall was absolutely massive and I headed down to one of the lower floors, where a lot of the restaurants were located. I quickly spotted a Yo Sushi and decided that would be a good option if I didn't find anything better. After a quick look around some of the other places, I settled on the Yo Sushi. I had heard of, and seen the chain before in the UK, but had never actually visited it. I was pretty hungry so ordered a few different types of sushi and a fancy pot of green tea. The food was pretty decent but rather pricy, so I didn't leave the restaurant feeling too full. In needed more caffeine so I headed to The Humming Bird Bakery and Cafe, which wasn't located too far away from the sushi place. All of the cakes on display looked amazing and it was a real struggle to just pick one. I ended up ordering a brownie and an iced coffee. The brownie was decent, but not as amazing as I had hoped it would be. Still it was nice to chill in the cafe with my coffee, cake and book for a bit. Afterwards, I took a look around some of the shops.

When I had decided that I would do a stopover in Dubai, I knew I wanted to visit the Burj Khalifa. I have been to quite a few tall buildings in my travels, so the chance to visit the world's tallest building was one I couldn't pass up. So when tickets became available, I booked up straight away. When reading reviews online, most people said that there was no difference in the views whether you opted for the more expensive option or just the normal one. However, I decided to go for the more expensive one, deciding that it would be a Christmas present to myself as I normally always go for the cheaper, lower observation deck options when visiting tall buildings. Since I had plumped for the more expensive option, I was gutted that I had to queue up with the normal peasants to check in. After that, I was shown to a smaller separate queue, where I only had to wait a few minutes before being ushered into a room off to one side. The room had some seats and we were served tea and some small snacks. After about 5-10 minutes out guide came in and ushered us out to the lifts. It was a short walk and since we were going to the higher level, we got to queue jump in the lifts. The lift shot up and my ears popped on the journey up. We arrived at the 148th floor, which is the SKY level. It stands 555 metres up, although the actual building goes up to 828 metres and the top adds another 1.8 metres. The SKY level was pretty swanky, there were a few sofas and chairs in the middle and floor to ceiling windows to take in the view from. There were also some chairs by the windows to relax in while taking in the view. One criticism that I have, for the price, I thought it would have been a bit more exclusive. There were loads of people in there, it would have been better if it was a bit quieter, instead it felt like they were trying to pack as many people in as possible to make more money. I headed over to the windows to take in the view. The view was in places obscured by the clouds, not that I minded too much as it was cool to be standing above the clouds. I've only ever really looked down on the clouds when in a plane, so it was cool to be standing above them in a building that was rooted to the earth and to see them move past, not like on a plane when you go speeding past. The view out over Dubai really wasn't that great. I could mainly just see tall buildings and lots of construction work. Maybe the better views were obscured by the clouds. I did get a good selfie or two with the clouds in view. After walking from window to window to check out the view, I got a coffee from one of the waiters and managed to find a seat. There were snacks on offer, but I was too full from my lunch to have any.

I headed down to the outside observation deck, At The Top, which is on level 124 and 452 metres above ground. Where you edit the lift you can see down on to the outdoor observation deck. It was pretty busy out there with people posing for photos and loads of people sitting on the floor, they were probably waiting for sunset. The outside observation deck freaked me out a bit. I was not a fan of the glass barriers that surround the observation dck, it just makes visualising falling to your death so much easier. I took in the views, which were still filled with cloud from the indoor and outdoor observation decks on the 124th level. I had thought about staying for the sunset, when I had booked my ticket, but I was tired and didn't think the views of the sunset would be too amazing with all the clouds and also there would probably be about a million more people up there. I took the lift down to bottom and on the way out read some of the information that was in display that explained who and how the Burj Khalifa was built. While I wasn't blown away by the views from the Burj Khalifa, I'm still glad I visited it, I can be say I've been up the tallest building in the world, well that is until someone builds a taller one.



I headed out of the mall and took a walk alongside the water. It was pretty nice and I liked the architecture style of some of the buildings opposite. It just looked so different to anything I see in China. It was a good contrast to all the generic skyscrapers being it. I could also see the Burj Khalifa, jutting out high into the sky above. The top was obscured by the clouds/haze, so I couldn't really get a good idea of how tall it actually was. It was also funny to think that I had just been up there, way up above the clouds. I walked along the promenade for a bit before turning back. Then, I headed over to the bridge bit, where most people were gathered to watch the water fountain show. I found a spot that was okay, but not great. The show wasn't going to start for about another thirty minutes and I was just so tired, that I just thought sod it and decided just to head back to my hostel. The walk to the subway station from the mall took forever, and the train was jam packed when I got on. It took a while to get back to the neighbourhood I was staying in. I stopped off at the convenience store to get something to eat for my dinner and for breakfast the next morning. I got checked-in and took a quick shower, before crashing in my bed.

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