Advertisement
Published: January 18th 2007
Edit Blog Post
The Tricky Path to Dubai
Traveling is Never Easy Today we left Germany, and Europe as a whole, for the Middle East. Our final destination for the day was the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The UAE is one of the most liberal countries in the Middle East and therefore is very accepting of travelers from other cultures. Dubai has capitalized on this openness and has become one of the world’s top tourist destinations. This city, directly located on the Gulf, is rapidly building resorts and luxury style houses which attract the world’s rich and famous.
We packed all of our stuff, mailed some postcards, and headed for the airport. Since we were staying close to the train station, the easiest way to the airport was the S-bahn underground. While we had some difficulties getting from the airport to Frankfurt when we first arrived in Germany in December, due to the time in Germany and Europe in general we have really become much better at using mass transit. The quick train ride to the airport flew very quickly and it seemed like the day was going to be great.
After seeing
most of the airport we found the Emirates Airlines desk. We had reserved our trip to Dubai, and on to Bangkok, a couple of weeks before our year of travel began. Our travel agent had informed us that we could wait until the day of departure to actually buy the tickets and therefore leave some flexibility if we needed to change anything. By was she wrong!
Problem number one: Our tickets had been canceled because we had never actually purchased them. Thankfully we were able to get the flight to Dubai but we had to get a flight to Bangkok a day later than we had initially planned. No big deal, we figured we’d just stay in Dubai an extra night and deal with the hotel when we arrived.
Problem number two: we had been told by many people to book the rest of our South East Asia and Australian flights once we got to Bangkok. The Emirates airline people informed us that Bangkok will not let you into the country unless they have proof you will be leaving the country in 30 days or less. Our only flight out of Thailand is in May, almost 120 days
after we arrive. We are still seeking a solution to this one, we think we will have to just do some internet research and buy some tickets before we arrive on Sunday.
With tickets in our hands we checked in and got on the plane. Emirates airline is known as one of the top airlines in the world and we can definitely see why. When you fly in the US there are usually the bare minimum number of flight assistants on the plane based on FAA regulations. On this plane there were easily 20 stewards and stewardesses. While it was a big plane, a 777, there were more people there looking out for our every need than I have ever seen. The meal on board was fantastic, a surprise I know.
The trip was rather fast despite the 5 hour duration and was without any issues. We arrived in Dubai at about 11pm. As we exited the plane we realized immediately that we were in a very different world. All over the airport were people sleeping waiting for their next flight. Almost all of these people were pilgrims returning from the Haj at Mecca. Each country has its
own unique outfit that their pilgrims wear so throughout the airport were groups of people in similar outfits stretched out on the floor and seats trying to get some sleep. It was absolutely foreign.
The Madinat Jumeirah Once we got through customs we went to the desk of the hotel and told them we had requested for a car to take us to the hotel which was included in the price of our room. Problem number 3: They had our reservation, thankfully, but did not have our car reservation. Thankfully they were prepared and able to get us a car without much difficulty.
Before I go further I want to let you know about the background about this part of our trip. Throughout Europe we have been on a pretty strict budget and have done a very good job overall of sticking to it. As a reward for our good behavior and because we will most likely never be back to Dubai we have decided to stay in one of the best hotels and do our vacation up like we would if this was the only place we are traveling to. Thus, the hotel, the
car to the hotel, and some of our restaurants are all very nice and more expensive than usual.
So our car, a brand new BMW 745il took us to the hotel. As we drove through the city I couldn’t help but compare Dubai to Las Vegas. Similar to Vegas, Dubai is completely flat and has sprouted out of the middle of nothing. There are also many huge buildings and tons of lights that remind me of the Vegas strip only much more spread out. Moreover Dubai is a hot spot for tourism with huge resorts, tons of luxury and multiple shopping malls that are as large as the Mall of America.
After the 30 minute drive through Dubai we arrived at the Madinat Jumeirah at about 12:30am. To give you an idea of the service this hotel offers I will quickly recount our check in. First one guy led us from the car to a lounge for the first stage of check in. There we were given damp towels scented of flowers for us to wash our hands and face with and we were each offered fresh dates. While we waited we sat on comfortable couches with Arabic decoration around us. From there another person led us to the fifth floor for our official check in. Here we gave up our passports and sat in another comfortable lounge waiting for our room assignment. Once check in was done the same lady took us to our room and showed us the view and walked us through the use of the accoutrements in our room.
By time we were done with check in, the lady left our room and our bags showed up it was 1:15am. Kel called her parents and I called mine but we were still too keyed up to sleep. After reading we finally fell asleep at about 3:30am.
What a day! Hope you are all well at home and haven’t been affected negatively by the nationwide ice storm we are seeing on CNN. Stay well and safe, we miss you all!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0293s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb