Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 19 - Saturday May 28th 2016 - Dubai, UAE

The day started with an alarm call but not a ridiculously early one but an alarm never the less. We showered had a semi leisurely breakfast and then headed out to the mall to find tape. The tape we were looking for was packaging tape for the box of clothes that we were sending home and in Carrefour the big supermarket we found exactly what we were looking for.

We checked out of our room, left the suitcases with the concierge and took a taxi to the central post office. This is not the first time that we have sent clothes home, we have done it before in Hong Kong and New Zealand, let’s just hope this time that the UK government does not make us pay taxes on importing our own clothes back into the country that they were bought in and have already received taxes for!!

Now the post office here was a slick operation, one desk to fill in all the address and custom declarations, the parcel was then shrink wrapped

within an inch of its life. We were then given a number (like queuing for the meat counter in a supermarket) and no sooner had we sat down we were up again handling over the goods and handing over our money to pay for the postage. The only slight snag was explaining that the United Kingdom was the UK…. seriously!!

Parcel gone for the grand total of £32 we head out to find a metro station in a strange part of town.

We walked for a good thirty minutes or so following the overhead concrete train line hoping that eventually it would lead us to a station and it did. We were walking around the non flash, non new part of Dubai here, all relatively normal concrete buildings with no more than five stories. Lots of commercial buildings and offices housing the small businesses that no doubt keep the flash malls and glass palaces operating. Tube station found we once again found our way back to the Dubai Mall with a plan to take the bus tour around Dubai for the day but before we did that we wanted to study the maps of the routes etc. to make sure it was worth doing as believe it or not it was going to cost us just shy of £100 for the two of us to get on a bus so it needed to be worth it!

Sat in Starbucks we pored over the maps and realised that in all honestly apart from the old town of Dubai we had already crossed off the majority of the highlights and those that we had not seen we were not bothered about but we did want to go to the old town. It was not worth the £100 bus fare so instead we researched how to do it ourselves and armed with a few google maps we were determined to go it alone.

Before we left the mall we had a quick bite to eat (yes it was lunchtime already) and Trevor fixed his need for technology by buying a thunderbolt to usb data transfer thingy (apple geeks will understand).

After a few changes of metro lines, we made it to the old town. Now this was the Dubai that Trevor was expecting to see complete with sand around the edge of buildings, dirty dusty buildings and the chaos of the old souks and being badgered by the merchants to buy things.

This area of Dubai is called Creekside in English for obvious reasons as it does run alongside a creek. We first wanted to make our way to the spice market expecting tremendous smells and sights but to be honest it was a little disappointing. You could tell that this was a centre of commerce and activity as all the boats lined around the edge of the creek were loaded with cloth sacks presumably carrying spices and goods into the area. These sacks of whatever lined the pavements and the flat bed trucks that were coming in and out of the area. We walked into a covered souk area full of small stalls selling their wares where the world shopkeepers (all Indian) tried to entice us into their establishments to buy the tourist tat that they were peddling……we passed. Very few people were actually selling spices in the spice souk but if you wanted an Arabic tea set or a colander or dust pan and brush you were in the right place. These little narrow arcades went on and on, twisted and turned everywhere you looked, it truly was organised chaos but everything this kind of market should be.

We left the market after a while and headed back to the creek just as we saw a tour boat leaving the quay, they came back in for us as we jumped on board to take a look along the creek and watch the world on the river go by. It really was a tale of two halves this look along the river. At one end you could see luxury very contemporary houses being built whilst at the other lay the rambling chaotic old town with its sand coloured buildings and chaotic signage and stalls littering the area giving it its character, a true Arabian bazaar. In all honestly I don’t think that this area will survive another 100 years. Certainly it will be there for the next thirty or forty but it will change. It’s such a contrast to the image of modern sleek connected Dubai that I’m sure those in power would like to see this real Dubai lost forever or have it turned into some kind of disney version of what it really is……. Time will tell.

The creek itself is full of wooden junk type boats offering tours in the day time but their main business seems to be creek night cruises complete with a buffet meal. These boats were literally three deep from the quay side so it must be very popular and they ran the length of the creek that we travelled.

Off the boat and we headed back into the chaos of the souks in the old town, the spices, the pots and pans, the gold and silver shops. We must have been offered dodgy fake watches every two or three shops that we walked past, it was non-stop but at least t is getting us ready for how we imagine Vietnam to be.

We had seen enough, taking in the contrast was really worth doing and I’m glad that Trevor got to see the Dubai he had imagined. After walking the boiling streets, we were in need of Air Conditioning so it was back to the Metro for us and the Deira City Centre Mall to cool off and try and waste some time.

Now I say waste some time as we did not have enough time to do anything major or travel too far from the hotel so this was a good bet but hardly that exciting.

We walked thought the floors, had a coffee actually wrote some of yesterday’s blog as we were a day behind before finally we went for some dinner and Trevor chose to go back to PF Changs again as we have never seen them anywhere else outside of the States before.

We ordered far too much food again. Some of that was our mistake as we ordered a mixed starter with a bit of everything but before we had even finished it out two identical mains showed up and it suddenly felt like we were on an eating marathon. We did our best but both gave it, we could not finish it all, not even PF Changs! We actually had a bit of a grumble with the waitress when she bought the bill over saying that it was really unfair not to even let us finish our starters before bringing the mains over. She agreed, we didn’t shout or demand anything but we both left stuffed and a tiny tingy bit disappointed.

We got back to our hotel, got the bags back then one at a time went off to the gents to change and get ready for the fourteen hour flight ahead of us tonight. We left the hotel behind us in a taxi heading for terminal one DBX airport.

Now after the flashness of Dubai we both expected the airport to be fabulous, how wrong can you be !!

We went to the first class check in desk and to be honest we might as well have been flying EasyJet. Yes, there was a separate lane and all that but it just felt naff and ordinary. We had flown first class before on Qatar and it was an outstanding experience this check in was not. Now to be fair we are only on an hour’s flight to Doha where we change planes for Hanoi but even so we expected more but worse was still to come. The worst was passport control and security. The queue was absolutely crazy, a real theme park ride snake up and down of crushed bodies all moving in the same direction. It took about half an hour to get to passport control in this snaking line and now we had another stress.

When we came into Dubai no one had stamped our passports to say we were in and this worried us. There was no need, we got our stamp and moved into security. Now to be fair to Dubai airport here we should say that up until now the parts of the airport we had been in were obviously going through works and improvements but all we both can say is boy do they ned them. We got on a monorail train out to our departure gate and suddenly everything changed, the airport was now a delight to behold. Great restaurants and bars, alcohol freely on sale and just a real sense of plush and special. We headed straight up to the first class lounge and the free booze (it’s been a while) with both of us ordering a gin and tonic, ah it tasted really good, really good indeed. We sat in the lounge for a good two hours drinking gin, eating sweets and abusing the free wifi. Now the blog for today should actually end here as our flight is actually at 12:30am so tomorrow but to sign off I’m actually sat in my seat on the plane (2A) writing this up as we make a short 50 minute plane journey to Doha. We have had the free booze on board but will pass on the food, still stuffed from PF Changs…..tomorrows blog will start from around 01:30 and Doha and then a whole other country………excited much.