Day 8 - Dubai

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This morning we went on the Yellow speed boat out of Dubai Marina. When we picked our current hotel, it was with this in mind, as today is Friday and there is no metro until 1pm today.

Priyankara, our guide, was very good at keeping us informed of all the buildings we were passing on our route out of the marina and along the coast line. This man knew how to drive a speed boat.

There were only eight of us on the boat, although it could comfortably have taken double that.

When we got to the top of the Palms and to the Burj al Arab, (the only 7* hotel in the world) Pruyankara stopped the boat and took photos of each party on the boat. He has just earned himself a positive review on Trip Advisor. He also provided us all with cold bottles of water whilst on board.

The boat ride lasted 90 minutes and was very good value for money, even better that we had an Entertainer voucher for this, so only paid for one person. It is definitely a trip that we would do again when next in Dubai. We are planning our next trip already.

As there was still no metro running once the boat ride was over, we decided to take a ride on the newly completed tram system. We wanted to go to Dubai Mall, and figured this would get us closer than we currently were. A taxi ride then completed the journey. This is how locals get around on a Friday morning.

Last Friday was our first day in Dubai and we had taken part in one of their Friday Brunches. We enjoyed it soo much, we decided that we would try another one. As we had tickets to go up Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world currently) for 15.30 today, we found a restaurant actually in Dubai Mall that looked to offer an interesting Friday Brunch.

The restaurant name was NA3NA3 and they offered a very high quality top end organic brunch. We had an Entertainer to get one person free for this, and the address on the voucher said ´The Address Hotel´ in Dubai Mall. We did not realise there were going to be two of the same named hotels within the Mall, and of course, we ended up in the wrong one.

Twenty minutes later, and several rounds of the Mall, and at last we found the correct hotel and the restaurant. We were not to be disappointed at all.

The selection of food on offer for this brunch was truly amazing and very different to last week, but we enjoyed this one just as much as the last one. Every possible food item you can imagine was on offer.

After a couple of hours enjoying a relaxed buffet brunch, we made our way to the entrance to the Burj Khalifa. We had previously heard stories about there being long queues for the tickets and to get in. We did not find queues for either.

The walk up to the lift charts the progress of the construction of this building which was very interesting. Then the lift up the 124 floors takes just under a minute. Like flying, we felt our ears pop as the lift gained rapid speed. The view from the top was utterly fantastic, other than the fact that it was still a bit hazy, so no long distance views available.

We decided that we would have a lazy night tonight, and stopped off in the Carrefour at the Mall and got some bits for tea in the hotel room.

When we got back to the hotel at about 7pm, we noticed that the loud music was playing again but it appeared to be much loader than last night. The windows in our room were vibrating from the base of the music. They are really asking for it now.

We had planned to be up at 7.00am in the morning as we needed to leave before 8.00am for a different boat ride up the creek this time. We were slightly worried, as, when we went to bed, the load music was showing no signs of stopping.

At 2.30am having had a particularly bad night, we called down to reception. We were told that it was stopping at 2.00am, and the receptionist was surprised that it was already passed that time. She said she would ask them to turn down the volume.

Not sure if they did actually turn it down, but thankfully, at 3am they did eventually turn it off, but we were already wrecked from very little sleep.

See tomorrow’s blog for the conclusion of this saga.

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