Day 1 – Dubai

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When we were conducting our research for this holiday, we heard about the book of entertainer Vouchers. For Dubai this is actually two books full of buy one get one free vouchers for restaurants, attractions and other items. For the book, the price was £88.00. This came with a complementary Travel book, which we have also managed to use for a good hotel in Abu Dhabi. As most of the hotels are 5 or 4 stars, they work out too expensive for the other areas we are staying in.

In United Arab Emirates (UAE) the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Friday is prayer day, so not a lot happens. The souks (local shopping centres) and any government buildings are shut. The metro underground remains closed until early afternoon too.

As we had a long day travelling yesterday, we thought today we would immerse ourselves in Dubai culture and attend one of their popular Friday Brunches. We found a buy one get one free voucher in the Entertainer book for Spice Island in the Crowne Plaza Hotel that was not too far from where we are staying.

Outside the restaurant entrance was a mountain of neatly assembled spice bags. On closer inspection and a bit of a smell, we realised that these were real spices. The mixture of different spices gave off a great exhilarating aroma.

We were not sure what to expect, but this vastly exceeded any expectations we may have had. The restaurant seated about 300 people and it was full. There were all nationalities present there, and it was great to see a lot of locals there in their traditional dress. We thought that being as it was in a hotel it would be only tourists and expats. We were wrong.

The buffet array of worldwide foods was enormous. There was something from nearly every culture. We tried to try some new foods whilst here and found some new foods that we liked.

For the price of 199 AED (United Arab Emirate Dirham) (About £34.75 / 47.52 Euros) there was as much food as you can eat along with soft drinks, as many as you can drink. They do offer an alcohol package, but that is not for us. It was a true banquet.

Three hours went really quickly and we decided we must go before we ate too much. What a great way to spend a Friday lunch time.

We took the car back to the airport and managed to get there without getting lost or having to turn around at all. All was signed off okay and we even managed to blag ourselves a free extra driver for our next hiring when we go to Abu Dhabi on Sunday. All we have to do is find the same man again.

It is really hot outside now at around 40 degrees. We took our first ride on the Metro back to the hotel for some R&R and to let our brunch go down.

After a little rest, we decided to try out the famous Dubai Mall. This is apparently the biggest mall in the world. They provide a map as you go in, and several interactive maps (In English and Arabic) around the mall to help you navigate your way around.

As we were entering our local metro station we could hear the train that we wanted was approaching. We hurried down the escalator onto the train, only to find ourselves in the Gold carriage. This is effectively / strictly first class and twice the price. There are very heavy fines if you are in here without the correct ticket. We quickly got out of that carriage and managed to get into the next carriage before the doors closed behind us. A quick look around identified that we now had another problem as we were both in the women and children carriage. A look around told us that we would be ok, as there were other men in there too. We must now always remember that gold and women / child carriages are always at one end of the trains.

On arrival at the Mall Metro station the walk into the actual mall was about a mile. There were travellators, but being Friday there were so many people, it was quicker and more comfortable to walk through the middle.

We had planned to have a really good look around and see some of the Dubai phenomenon, but the tiredness from yesterday was catching up fast with us. We had a good look around the food court and picked on a local Kebab restaurant for a light snack to finish off our very enjoyable day.

It was really strange looking around the food court. About 70 percent of the people eating had bought food from McDonalds, KFC or Burger King. Of them, over 50 percent were in traditional dress. We really did not expect to see this

As we were so tired, and there were so many people about, after eating, we called it a day and got the Metro back to the hotel. We will definitely go back another evening, as we need to see the fountains if nothing else.

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