Arabian nights 2016

Month of Ramadan. 

This is the first time I’ve entered into a Muslim nation in my life, and the second time to have entered into a Middle Eastern nation. My plane touched down at 2:15pm. I did not book any hotel or tours in advance because my flight flies out at 7am the following morning, and I didn’t know how fast things function in Dubai! There seems to be a service at the airport called “Dubai Stopovers on Arrival”. However, I somehow missed that desk before getting out of customs, despite having tried “asking” an impressive virtual reality airport information lady for help. So I went to the Emirates desk for further help and they booked me in for the Arab Hotel for AED 253.36 ($99.19 AUD, $75 if booked in advanced at Hotels.com). I thought about booking a dessert safari earlier, but when the flight captain announced a temperature of 41oC on touchdown, I no longer fancied that idea. The tour operators in the airport already left their desks anyway. And there is already a “dessert” in front of the hotel which I had to cross to get to the metro station, which is golden in colour and shaped like some sort of engine! 

I noticed that Dubai is a very multicultural city: lots of Philippinos/Indians/Pakistanis, and some Chinese, African, and Caucasians! I decided to go to Dubai Mall and look at the current “Tower of Babel”: Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world! Again, I just bought the ticket on the spot, for AED 165 ($64.59 AUD), which would have been cheaper if I booked in advance… And they have this photography service but it costed AED290 ($113.54)!! I think it’s expensive but spent it anyways because I seriously don’t know when I will have the chance to come back, and all the selfies I took with my iPhone turned out quite bad on the top of the tower. The privilege to pray on the tallest building in the world had been a worthwhile experience! 

In the morning, when the plane took off, the sky had a foggy look to it, and the city of Dubai faded out like a mist.