Off to Dubai

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So we managed to board our plan in Calgary to London Heathrow on Thursday with no liquids (shampoos, gels, toothpaste, bottled water) in our hand luggage due to heightened security measures. It was quite the last mintue reshuffle in order to minimize our hand luggage. Surprisingly there were no line ups in Calgary and our trek had begun.

We were retrieved by our uncle and cousins in London and arrived at home to see the rest of our family. Our stopover was only scheduled for 6 hours until we departed to the UAE (Dubai). We knew that flying out of Heathrow the day after this occurence would be some kind of mission. The Emirates check in line took over 1.5 hours and security another hour. There were roughly 600 people ahead of us in line. We were pulled to the front of the line 20 minutes before our flight departure and if it werent for Manoj sprinting to the gate we wouldn't have made it! Everyone was travelling with see-through plastic bags as their carry-on and there was zero tolerance for anything but passports, tickets and a few papers. Suraj had his Halls thrown out, Dad lost his leather purse confiscated and all his pens/pencils chucked out. The flight took off an hour late but all in all we were glad it wasnt worse......

We arrived in Duabi around 7am local time (only about 30 min late). The Emirates flight was exceptional service (it felt like you were flying business in the economy cabin). Getting off the flight was hot (it was already 35 degress at 7am) when taking the shuttle bus to the terminal. We had a quick nap at the hotel after which we met Shamik (a good friend from Calgary) for lunch at Sukh Saggar (a good little vegeterian Indian restaurant) in Karama. After this we visited the Mall of the Emirates (a massive mall with many designer and high-end shops). As part of the mall, is Ski Dubai which is the world's largest indoor ski hill! They have built an artificial hill with man-made snow falling from the ceiling and a chair lift along with a T-bar. It is quite the sight! After this we visited the Ibn Batuta mall which had special themes in each area. For dinner, we went to Rangoli restaurant in the Mina Bazaar area. Mom and Dad visited some shops in the bazaar area and we were off for a night out in Dubai with Shamik, Raj and friends...

The next morning we visitied the Burj Al Arab (the world's only 7 star hotel) for breakast and a viewing. It is quite the sight from the 27th floor restaurant as the hotel is built in the ocean!! Rooms range from a $1000 - $15,000/night here. In the afternoon, we did the Desert Safari where drove over sand dunes in the dessert at fairly fast speeds in a Landcruiser. This was followed by a Arabaic bbq dinner in the dessert with some belly dancing entertainment and camel riding activities. The night ended around 10pm.

Monday afternoon we are off on a city tour of Dubai before we catch a flight at 230am to Mauritius..

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Photos

Dessert Safari
in the quads touring the dessert...

Comments

[Raythatha]

technical difficulties
We are having trouble uploading pics - hopefully we can add next stop.