Mini Dubai trip report - May 2009

[TrueBlue]

This was the first time in over 12 years that me & DH was going on holiday without our kids. It felt really strange and I wasn't sure how we'd get on together on our own so I was also a bit nervous. My Sister (maggie b on here) very kindly offered to stay at my house and look after our boys for a week (to which I am eternally grateful to her... love you Mags xxx)

My brother lives in Dubai and has been there for almost 9 years now. I have only been over once before so I was really looking forward to it. This was DH first time. We didn't need accomodation as we would be staying with my brother so the search for flights was on.

We booked our flights just after christmas and got a really good deal on them. I would have prefered to fly direct from Glasgow with emirates but at £700 each I decided against it and looked elsewhere. I checked out Virgin Atlantic and BA website and both were similar prices from Heathrow. BA swung it for us as it wasn't much more expensive when the connecting flight from Edinburgh as added on. Total flight price flying Edinburgh-Heathrow-Dubai (and the same on the return journey) was £350 each... bargain! .

We were wanting to go at Easter but my brother was going on a stag week to Thailand at Easter and on his return he would be flying out to Mexico 3 days later for a holiday he won through his work(lucky sod... he's won a holiday with his company for the last 5 years running). He does work hard though and deserves it so i'm not really jealous lol. We decided on May 1st as that date suited everyone.

Day 1..Friday 1st May 2009
Our flight was due to leave Edinburgh at 7am. We got up 4am, washed and dressed and was on route to the airport at 5ish. Took a while to find the NCP car park at Edinburgh airport. The directions on their website are not very clear at all. We got there eventually and parked the car up, hopped on the shuttle bus and was at checkin for 5.45am. As I had already done online check in the night before and printed out our boarding passes for both flights (thanks for the tip Jakey Rowling) we headed to bag drop and got ride of our luggage.

We headed upstairs and DH had a coffee and I had a hot chocolate (would have prefered tea but no-one can make a cuppa the way I can so decided against it). Before we knew it our flight was being called so we headed for our gate and seen our aircraft and crew on the ground.


I'm a really nervous flyer and generally because we always travel with the kids they always grab the window seat. This time I was the kid and got the window seat before DH lol. I actually felt much better on the flight this time around and I think it was because I could see out the window. Soon we were on our way and the flight left in time.

We were served a delicious breakfast of bacon, mushrooms, scrambled eggs, sausage and tomato with the usual roll with jam and butter and fresh orange juice. I'd say it was one of my best meals on a flight yet... well done British Airways

About 45 mins into the flight the captain announced that we were about to land. As Heathrow was very busy we weren't allowed to land straight away. We had to circle London for about 10 mins before we could get clearance for landing.

Some of the sites of London from above:


I'm assuming this is Lizzies house aka Buckingham Palace lol.

We landed at Terminal 5 at Heathrow about 8.15am and went for a wander around. We had been looking around the shops for about an hour and then decided to have a look for our Gate. We still had another 3 hours till our Dubai flight was leaving but the time went in really quickly as there is so much to see in Terminal 5... I was mega impressed!

We headed over to our gate about an hour before departure and got the first glimpse of our flight... I didn't realise we were going on a Jumbo...whooo hoooo

Not long after we boarded (we had the 2 seats right at the back of the flight...I secured the window seat for me again lol) the captain announced that there would be a slight delay due to a minor technical problem. I started getting a bit nervous, I hate it when they have to announce something like this. It turned out though that the technical hitch was to do with the online entertainment. The screens weren't working properly but they were soon fixed and we were on our way.

We were only up in the air for about an hour when they came round with our meal. I can't remember the name of what I had but here is a picture of it

Whatever it was it was really tasty. DH had lasagna and he said this was good too.

To pass the time I watch Michael McIntyre live at the Apollo. It was hillarious. Even though i've seen this one before I still couldn't stop giggling and got some strange looks from my fellow passengers. Next I watched Marley and Me... it was quite good too but I fell asleep before the end so missed the finish. When I woke up I checked the live map to see where we were as it was now pitch black outside. It turns out we were flying over Iraq (yikes... I started getting a bit scared again lol)


Just before we landed in Dubai we were served sandwiches (again I can't remember what was on them but they were really good). We also had fresh pineapple too.

The captain announced we would be landing soon and the tempterature outside was 38oc!
We touched down in Dubai approx 15 mins ahead of schedule at 10.30pm (Dubai time). The flight itself was only 6 hours and went in really quickly.

It took an age to get through the airport and immigration but eventually we got out the airport and found my brother Jim waiting on us. It was like walking into a fan assisted oven...there was a breeze but it was so warm, just the way I like it.

We arrived at my brothers city centre appartment about midnight and the men had a beer each before heading to bed

DH Ramsay on the left and my brother Jim on the right

[truesdpr]

What a great journey Marion - looks like BA kept you well fed!

Pam.

[purple myra]

Day 1..Friday 1st May 2009
Our flight was due to leave Edinburgh at 7am. We got up 4am, washed and dressed and was on route to the airport at 5ish. Took a while to find the NCP car park at Edinburgh airport. The directions on their website are not very clear at all. We got there eventually and parked the car up

Excellent start... would have been even better if you had parked in the multistory carpark... great rates if booked in advance

[joandwayne]

Hoping to go to Dubai next Feb for my 40th - looking forward to hearing more about it.

[TrueBlue]

Day 2...
We didn't wake up till around 11am the next morning (Dubai is 3 hours ahead of us so it was really 8am UK time). We unpacked a bit and went to the top floor of my brothers appartment to have a look. He lives on the 17th floor and the top floor (floor 30) is taken up by a full size gymnasium and squash courts etc. You then walk up some steps and reach his rooftop terrace with swimming pool

We sat here for a while just enjoying the sunshine then my brother suggested we head out for a drive to show DH the sites of Dubai (I had already seen them on my last trip 3 years ago). Dh was well impressed and although he didn't say it I knew he was thinking "WOW". DH is not a man of many words i'm afraid but I can sometimes read his mind.

We went to the golf course where my brother plays golf at the weekends. It sits right on Dubai Creek and has stunning views. It's very expensive in Dubai and cost £12 for 2 cokes and an orange juice.




We heading back to my Brother's around 5pm and got showered and dressed to go out for the evening. Tonight I was going to meet my brother's new partner Jude who's from West Bromwich in the Midlands but also lives in Dubai. It would be a slightly early night though as Jude was flying out the Texas, America early the next morning on a business trip (it's a 17 hour flight from Dubai to America).

We picked Jude up at her appartment around 7ish and headed to the Harbour Hotel where we went up to the 52nd floor (apparently the highest bar in the world) for some drinks. The views over Jumeirah Palm were stunning, my pictures don't do it much justice i'm afraid.

My brother Jim and Jude


Me & DH... my brother is terrible at taking pictures lol


Some pictures of the view from 52 stories high



After here we left and had to get a taxis to the hotel we were going to for our meal. It was the Habtoor hotel at the Dubai marina. We could see the hotel from were we were and it looked about a 5 minute walk but unfortunatly in Dubai you can't really walk anywhere... it is still basically a building site with no pavements so we had to get a taxis.

We went to a restaurant called Lucinao's. It was Italian and the food was delicious once again. I haven't taken any food pics here as it wouldn't have been very discrete. The meal came to about £100 for the four of us.

We dropped Jude off at here appartment and promised to catch up with her when she returned from Texas at the end of the week before we came home.

Headed back to my brother's, the men again had a few beers and I had a cup of tea (made just the way I like it lol).

DAY 3...
Today we were having a bit of a lazy day. Got up around 11ish again and sunbathed for a while at my brother's pool. It was only the 3 of us, not a lot of the residents use the pool area. We relaxed at his pool area till around 2pm just reading magazines.

I took these pictures whilst lying down looking up at the buildings next to my brother's... everything is huge over there and these building are quite small compared to some of the others. Remember we are already 30 stories high...I think the neighbouring building are around 60 stories!



This is my brother's appartment block in the middle


Next we went to the Mall of the Emirates. This shopping mall is massive and has what they call Ski Dubai in it. It's an artificial ski slope but is meant to be a world class pratise course. There is ski lift to take you up to the top. It has artificial snow which falls during the night. There is also tobbogan and slides for the kids. It was funny watching the local Arab's in their full traditional outfits having snowball fits with their kids etc. Most have probably never seen real snow in their lives.

Most of the shops in the Malls are all designer shops but I like the way they are arranged in the Malls over there. On the ground floor the shops are shops like Next, River Island, French Connection etc. On the second floor they are a bit more upmarket with the likes of Monsoon, Karen Millen, Ted Baker etc and on the top floor your have your Gucci, Tiffany's, Mont Blanc, Jimmy Choo's etc. This shopping mall I think has approx 600 shops in it.

After we left here we heading over to a pub called The Locker Room. It's a sports bar inside the Tulip hotel and has plasma screens all around it. On each screen they show a different football match. My brother, me and DH support Glasgow Rangers and they were playing Hearts so we sat infront of the screen that was showing live coverage of the rangers game. This is the pub that my brother meets up with all the ex-pat fellow rangers supporters. There was a big crowd of them in and the atmosphere was really good... good result too... we won 2-0 whoooo hooo.

I didn't take notes when I was over there and I can't rememer where we went for food this night. I am relying heavily on my memory for this trip (please don't hold out much hope lol).

[TrueBlue]

DAY 4...

Today was yet another long lie...I think we got up around 10am (it didn't get much better than this) We jumped in my brother's car and we were heading for Jebel Ali Beach Resort for the day. My brother plays golf here too sometimes so he know's the resort quite well. It's basically a hotel complex but if you are not a resident you can pay to use the facilities. We just chilled out at the pool for a while:





After a while I went for a swim, the pool was so warm I didn't want to get out again. I put my head underwater and when I came up again I had went deaf in my right ear!. This happens all the time but as I hadn't been in a swimming pool for so long I totally forgot all about it. I told my brother that for the next 3-4 days i'll be saying "eh? " constantly lol. Almost as soon as I came out the pool my right eye started watering. I think I must have rubbed it by mistake whilst I still has suncream on my hand or something. This really ruined the rest of the day for my.

My eyeball felt like it was on fire and wouldn't stop watering. I kept going to the restrooms (which are all very posh over there) and bathing it was cold water but nothing helped. It got to the stage that I couldn't even open my eye as the light was irritating it and making it worse. We left here around 5pm and I gave DH the camera to take some more pics as my eye was still very sore. There are peacocks wandering around all over this resort

[scottishmum]

Looks fab marion, your brother is so lucky to live there.

[truesdpr]

Originally Posted by purple myra

Day 1..Friday 1st May 2009
Our flight was due to leave Edinburgh at 7am. We got up 4am, washed and dressed and was on route to the airport at 5ish. Took a while to find the NCP car park at Edinburgh airport. The directions on their website are not very clear at all. We got there eventually and parked the car up

Excellent start... would have been even better if you had parked in the multistory carpark... great rates if booked in advance

See more...

Hey behave yourself! On here touting for business for your ow car park!

Pam.

[truesdpr]

It looks beautiful Marion - you can almost feel the heat in the photos. Looking well in the bikini by the way

Pam.

[TrueBlue]

Cont...

This peacock was showing us that this was his territory!


After we got back to my brothers apartment again I went for a shower and took some neurofen for the pain in my eye. DH suffers from hayfever so always carries anti-histimines with him. He gave me one and within 10 mins my eye was fine (pity my hearing wasn't eh? lol)

We headed out about 7pm and tonight we were going over to the gold souks. Traffic was very busy and it took a while to get a parking space but we got one eventually. We were parked across the other side of the Creek from the Gold souks. We had to walk through the textile souks until we reached the creek where we jumped onboard an Abra (a wooden taxis boat where you just sit on a plank of wood). I was a bit scared but once I was sat down and we were on our way I relaxed a wee bit. It only costs about 15p per person so they are good value for money.


We arrived at the gold souks and they were really busy. The heat even at this time of night is unbelievable. There were locals walking around with trays full of cold soft drinks but we were actually ok and didn't need any.

Some pics of the gold souk


This is the largest ring in the world! There was security men everywhere but they stood clear so that I could get this pic


We left here around 9pm and walked to a hotel called The Ambassador. This is where my brother used to meet some of his friends for a drink and a game of snooker when he first moved over to Dubai. We went to the hotel's bar called The Rose and Crown...it's a british themed pub. The food was excellent and really reasonably priced. I had Garlic mushrooms to start with and then beef stronganoff, my brother had prawn cocktail and scampi and DH had spring rolls and fish & chips (I think). The meal only came to about £30.

We headed back to my brothers around midnight and chilled out with a couple of drinks again.

Day 5...

Today we went to the Dubai Mall... the largest shopping mall in the world with 1200 shops. Most of them were more upmarket shops again with no prices on anything in the window (I guess if you've got to ask the price then you can't afford to buy it). I was walking around amazed at all the stunning clothes and shoes and bags and jewellery... and, and, and... I just want it all lol.


We went down to the ground floor and went outside. From here you can see the Burj Tower... the tallest building in the world!. It's 185 stories high and in the pictures you can just make out me and my DH in the background

This area is stunning. It still isn't complete yet but it is just beautiful.