Seriously Dubai WTH! They say everything is big in the USA, however I think they need to change this to Dubai as everything is HUGE here. That includes the distances between places, nothing is that close together although I guess it is lucky that Taxi’s are cheap compared to home, although not exactly what I would call a cheap way to get around.
Turns out my motel was in the middle of nowhere but given that it was about 3 times cheaper than any other motel on the website I booked on I’m not totally surprised. It was nice though, so if you don’t mind paying for taxi’s or get up early enough for the free shuttle to either Ibn Battuta mall, Mall of the Emirates or JBR beach (all three connect to the metro) then I’d recommend it. Just use a booking website to book it as I paid $690AED for my three nights and at the motel they were advertising $495AED per night! The motel was the Premier Inn Dubai Investment Park and it was $AED115 for a taxi from the airport.
Speaking of the airport when you arrive and get to the area with the taxi’s if you are female they will direct you towards the ‘lady taxi’s’ which are pink and all have lady drivers. As with a lot of the female segregation here I’m not overly sure if it’s a sexist thing or more to protect the females from some of the males? There are also separate carriages on the metro for women and children, which were packed! Although given the look of any metro carriage I saw they were all pretty full!
So my first full day in Dubai after arriving just after midnight and the almost hour taxi ride, running on minimal sleep (I either was stuck in Dublin time or am just far too excited about getting home to see K, I am thinking the later as three days later I’m still having difficulty getting to sleep, sappy stuff over promise!), I grabbed the next free hotel shuttle which was going to Ibn Battuta Mall.
This mall is pretty cool as it has different ‘wings’ eg Egyptian and Arabian which are all decorated really nicely so you can just wander around looking without going into shops and it is still interesting. I’d had enough of this mall (it’s small compared to other malls here at 1.3km long and only 1 story) after a couple of hours and some lunch so found the metro and headed to the Mall of the Emirates. A single 1 zone metro ticket was AED4.50 and two zone was AED6.50 a day pass was AED16 (About $4.50NZD), Turns out I should have gotten a day pass as I didn’t realise I was going into zone two later in the day but it was only a tad more expensive so not to worry.
The mall of the emirates is huge and even has an indoor ski area where you can also toboggan/bob sled and it looks as though you can roll down the hill in a zorb like ball, although I never saw these running so can’t confirm that’s what the huge random balls were for. Of course if you are watching people ski when it is prob close to 30degrees outside you have to get gelato, rather convenient there was a stall right beside where I was watching. Is it just me or can you not beat lemon gelato or sorbet? I got strawberry this time around and it was nice but not as good as lemon, I always find this when I get different flavours. Anyway not what I’m here to talk about!
I spent another couple of hours walking around this mall seeing what I could see and having a bit of a shop at the same time then decided enough was enough, my knees were hurting and I don’t have enough room in my bag to give this shopping a decent go so I decided to go to the Dubai Mall (Yeah I know, WTF!). I decided that today would prob be the only day I was in this area so might as well check it out, it is massive! This one has an indoor aquarium, waterfall and a huge ice skating rink, all rather necessary I believe. My highlight of the Dubai Mall was remembering that there was a Burger Fuel here and making it my mission to find it and have a burger for dinner and boy it was good!
If you had a lot of time, money and patience for shopping you could definitely do some damage here! May have to come back as a stopover on the way back from another future trip with an empty bag đŸ˜‰
Next up I booked a Desert Safari… Will it be a tourist trap?