We always fly Emirates so thought that it was about time to spend more than a couple of hours in the airport and see some of the city. We landed at about 1am and stayed in a fancy hotel, the Jumeriah Zabeel Saray. t was lavish and exactly what I imagined, but it was so big it felt a bit impersonal and I did kind of wish we had stayed in a smaller place like we usually do. We also had very loud neighbours which meant we only got a couple of hours kip. The breakfast the next day made up for it though. It was a buffet of every breakfast food we could want. We ate then sunbathed at the huge pool until the afternoon.
I had booked us onto an overnight desert safari tour as it had come highly recommended by friends and the internet in general. It was a bad start as the driver was a whopping two hours late, but we tried not to let is bother us too much and went on to have a good time quad biking and dune bashing in a 4x4.
At sunset we ended up at a little camp site to eat some food and watch a fire breather/dancer. We were very confused by the fact that everyone else at the site drove off the minute the performances ended. We were the only tourists left along with our driver and a couple of people who must have worked there. We asked where our cabin was and were promptly told that we had to sleep on a mat on the sand. No privacy, no tent, no sleeping bag, no nothing. Gobsmacked and confused we left the campsite immediately and I've been trying to get reimbursed ever since. The company, Sougat Tourism, have been an absolute nightmare so I would strongly discourage anyone else booking with them if they can help it.
We booked a late room at a hotel next to Dubai Mall which was lovely, then went up the Burj Khalifa the next day to take in the view. I was surprised at how barren Dubai is. There are a few skyscrapers (most of which follow the architecture of other buildings like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben), and between the skyscrapers are construction sites, dust and sand. I'm not sure what I expected, but I was generally quite underwhelmed by the place.
We flew back to the UK later the same day and had a whale of a time catching up with friends and family in sunny London and the West Country. The stark contrast between the vibrancy and beauty of England vs Dubai was huge. I'm so grateful I am able to travel around different parts of Asia, but even more grateful I am from such an incredible place as the UK!
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