Trip to Dubai - July 2013

I never thought I would travel to Middle East, see this part of the world, experience the Arab culture and see the desert.  Dubai is a city perfectly equipped to entertain and amaze you, I'm so lucky to explore this city for free!

Burj Al Arab, Dubai

I got to travel to Dubai because the company I work for organized an off-site for all employee for a conference. Planning it was very exciting and time consuming, I was the main organizer thus gave me an opportunity to discover more about Dubai. But the most exciting was the 2 days before the company conference. Me and my manager was allowed to fly to Dubai 2 days ahead of everyone in the company. We got to explore more touristic spots and experience more heat of the desert, we went in July 2013, Summer freakin hot!

For a city in the desert, there was a lot of green than I expected especially in residential area when we visited a friend's house. I was quite amazed to know that more than 90% of water supply comes from Seawater desalination. Imagine how much salty water they boil to supply the whole city, those trees, grass, etc...

Another interesting I've observed are the workers or staff at the malls, hotels, restaurants and other places are all foreigners coming from Philippines, Africa, India and other parts of Asia. I didn't see or meet local Arab working or if ever they work at all! I heard that there's only a quarter of Arabs actually living there and the rest are all expatriates. Also interesting is that you get paid if you lose weight!! The government awards a gram of gold to every kilogram weight lost but I guess only applies to Arabs. I remember other weird incentive to locals about their house or having a baby but I'm not sure about details. Interesting!

So here's what we did in Dubai in 5 days:

Day 1: flew from Hong Kong to Dubai at 1:40AM flight on Premium Economy, my first time on premium class! normally I fly cheap. We landed at 6AM, went straight to the hotel, it's good they allowed early check in, after all it's a 5 star hotel, JW Marriott Marquis. Again, my first time on a 5 star hotel. I'm a backpacker and I like hostels, I like to travel cheap. I couldn't justify spending so much on accommodation when most of the time you're out and about exploring foreign land. But it's free, so I appreciated, double, the comfort, fanciness and excellent service it offered and triple the generosity of my boss for spoiling us.

So dropped our stuff, never mind tiredness and lack of sleep, we were so excited! We took hotel's shuttle bus to Dubai Mall to get on the hop-on hop-off big bus tour. We wandered around to check out Dubai Mall, it is massive! For those who are shopaholic, it is a dreamland! for me, it was a labyrinth!! We had a big brunch, we got a bit greedy when we saw some delicious Arab dish, we got so full, we couldn't finish. Then took the big bus tour, started with Red Routes. We only had afternoon to explore so Red route was perfect as it was more about old souks and touristic spots are quite condensed. We started at the Dubai Museum for some history and general info, pretty helpful and interesting to see how rapidly the city developed from a fishing village to a metropolis.Then we took Abras to cross Dubai creek for $1 Dirham! It was cool feeling like local, if you're in Dubai, try it. Got off the boat then tried to find our way to old souks and we got lost. The directory on the road was in Arabic and our map didn't include those narrow streets. So we just wandered, followed some other tourist and ta-da! We found the Gold Souk, all yellow, shimmering, jewels display on glass window. We checked out few stores, it was packed of tourist, mainly Indians and Chinese. We moved on to see Spice Souk, bags of spices, so colorful and quite strong aroma in the atmosphere. It was more interesting than gold, I bought some Saffron to bring home. We chatted with few vendors and asked for bargain. The funny thing was, I asked for a discount but they didn't give me then my manager asked, they gave the item to her for free! Then we went to Herb Souk and those souvenir shops. There are a lot of vendors selling copy bags, watches and etc., some was following us, it was annoying, I guess everywhere you get this.

We took the last bus back to Dubai Mall, we were so knackered already and hungry, bought take away food: Hummus, pita bread, chicken Kabsa, yum yum! Then we tried to find our way back to the shuttle bus stop but we got lost in the mall, it was frustrating. Finally back to the hotel, quick dinner and bed, I think I snored that night....

Day 2: We started with a big breakfast buffet at JW Marriott, their buffet had a wide selection of food from full english breakfast, french bread, croissant, pain au chocolat, chinese dim sum, congee, some arab dish...oh it was yummy. We started the Blue route at Dubai Mall to see the big Aquarium and shopped a bit as it was the end of Summer sale. Then had lunch at Nandos, yummy chicken! We took the bus to our next destination and along the way to Jumeirah, we passed some Mosque but didn't go in. We got to the Jumeirah Beach and it was all white sand and blue water. We were quite disappointed we didn't bring our bikinis. It would have been perfect to go for a swim in the scorching heat. We took photo of the famous Burj Al Arab then hopped on the bus to Souk Madinat. It is an indoor souk which makes it really convenient to walk around and check out souvenir stuff. Then we went to the Atlantis on the Palm, it was impressive to see what humans are capable of doing especially with so much wealth. We didn't explore much, we did see the aquarium and we wanted to get on the Monorail but it's only one way. We head to the Mall of Emirates, another massive mall, to meet a friend who lives in Dubai. This mall is quite interesting, it has an indoor ski resort, how cool is that? Then we head to our friend's house where I was amazed to see full grown trees in the desert. We had a quick drink and she dropped us off at the hotel.

Day 3: First day of our company conference but I'm only gonna talk about dinner part, the fun part. For dinner, we went to this place, Souk Al Bahar, where you can dine al fresco, watch the majestic impressive Dubai fountain show and admire the Megatall Burj Khalifa tower, tallest building in the world so far. You will definitely enjoy the fountain show, so don't miss it when you're in Dubai! We had dinner at Abdel Wahab Lebanese Cuisine, it was good food as I remember, quite pricey though. It would have been ideal to dine al fresco at their terrace and watch fountain show every half an hour but it was too hot and humid! If this wasn't a company trip, I would have just bought take away middle eastern food and sit somewhere around the fountain and eat while watching the show, drink something really cold! Note: be careful drinking alcohol in Dubai, very strict! you need a license I heard, just don't end up in jail on your holiday.

After dinner, we went for a quick night out, we were curious to see how locals party. I don't remember which hotel but it was around business district. We didn't see local arabs partying but I guess you can consider them local coz they live and work in Dubai. The only thing I could say is, they like dancing and smoking in the dance floor. It wasn't that interesting after all.

Day 4: Again only the fun bit I'll talk about, it is dinner in a Dhow cruise at Dubai creek. Very touristic activity, good food, standard drink and okay service on board. I wouldn't fancy it, if it was a personal trip because it was just a dinner on a boat, it wasn't very interesting like the boat cruise in La Seine in Paris where you see all the touristic spot like Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, etc.. I guess you can do this with a big group, like our company, we enjoyed it not because of the view but with catching up with colleagues and gossiping during dinner.

Afterwards was a big night out, as I remember it was at a tiki bar somewhere in Jumeirah. It was so packed of expats mainly bankers even on a Tuesday night, we managed to get in thanks to my director's friend. The place is really cool and cocktails was really good but pricey. We had this treasure chest box cocktail with rose petals on top loaded with Rum, it was such a fun drink. I could say one of the best night out ever with my colleagues, awesome DJ playing the right music, yummy alcohol and paid by company. We partied till it closed.

Day 5: Plan was to go up Burj Khalifa but my brain was too infused with Rum I couldn't be bother getting up to see what's up there aside from sand and buildings. The photos I posted here are from my manager, she managed to get up. I didn't even get up to have our last breakfast buffet, shame! I regretted it but sleep was more important to mend my so hangover. The other plan was more interesting and exciting, an afternoon at the desert! We hopped on those 4x4 car for our desert safari adventure. We started with the Dune ride, my much anticipated favorite part that afternoon. I sat next to the driver expecting amusing thrilling tricks on the sand. To my disappointment, my colleagues started feeling ill, dizzy and asked the driver to slow down, booooo! Guess the alcohol in their system was the culprit. We had to stopped couple of times to get fresh air and yeh, puke. Then we got to Bedouin Camp for dinner and some entertainment. I got on the Camel for the first time in my life, it wasn't really a ride coz it lasted only 5mins from trying to mount and getting off the camel, too short. We tried to do sandboarding but climbing up the sand dragging the heavy board for someone hangover wasn't much fun. I only managed to go up once, sat on the board then slide down...not as fun as skiing where you have the cable car to go up the mountain. Tried some other activities like henna tattoo or dressing up as local with those Hijab. Then BBQ dinner and some entertainment, belly dancing. For me, this was the highlight for this trip, the desert. I wish we could spend more time but we had to catch our flight back to Hong Kong.

Overall, this trip was amazing and if you get a chance to visit Dubai, go for it!

other info:

Visa: tourist visa can be obtain through your hotel, pretty convenient. 

Entertainer book, it's a book with all deals from food to activity. We bought it but didn't make enough use of it, 5 days not enough to use all those coupons.

Big Bus Tour, definitely worth it, buy online in advance for some discounts.

Hop-on Hop-off Big Bus Tour Dubai

Here are some photos, enjoy!!

Dubai Fountain Show

Abra ride to cross Dubai Creek

Gold Souk

Spice Souk

Burj Khalifa

View from Burj Khalifa

View from Burj Khalifa

Desert beauty

4x4 Dune Ride

Mosque

Atlantis at the Palm

Burj Al Arab

Indoor Ski Resort

my version of Sandboarding

Bedouin Camp

Famous Treasure Chest Box Cocktail at Trader Vic's