Dubai

Dubai was only a short stop on our way to Nepal but it was still certainly memorable. Our flight from Joburg to Dubai was with Emirates. I had never flown them before but had heard much about them. This plane looked like it had the first class individual suites with beds, but we boarded well behind their location. The economy class was quite spacious with a really nice entertainment system. The highlight of the flight was when they turned the cabin lights down and they had lights in the ceilings to give the plane a starry sky effect!

Given we had just spent five weeks in Africa and were on our way to another five in Nepal, we decided to live it up a bit. I used my credit cards points to get us a room at the JW Marriott Marquis, which bills itself as the tallest hotel in the world! All my flying last year gave me status with Marriott which led to a club level upgrade which gave us access to the lounge as well. From our room on the 64th floor we were able to see out over the gulf and if the haze was cooperative, all the way down to palm island and the Burj Al Arab!  

The view from our room

Looking back towards downtown from the lounge

Our room was not ready when we arrived, but they let us up to the lounge where we got to have some breakfast. Once the room was finally ready, we were able to get some rest as we didn't sleep much on the flight. After our brief rest, we started working on some trip admin for Hawaii (I won't spoil our plans. You'll have to read about it). After enough work, we decided to reward ourselves with a drink. We headed to Vault, a bar in the top floor of our tower. We had a view of the Burj Khalifa and some amazing drinks. Their old fashioned with a twist was great. It was served in a box. When you opened the box to pull your drink out, smoke that was used to enhance the flavor came rising out, slowly revealing the glass. Their twist on it was the addition of cinnamon which added a nice warmth and got the thumbs up from Jess. One of the chefs stopped out to see how we were doing and brought us a sample of their chicken slider which was delicious. This was service at a whole new level. 

The view from Vault, our drinks, and the door to the bar

The unveiling of my Old Fashioned, which was served in a box

After our drinks, we went down to the Thai restaurant for our dinner. After three months of traveling with no Thai, the flavors of Thai had our palettes very excited!! We decided on the binge option: all you can eat and drink from a set menu. While the view wasn't much (just a construction site), the atmosphere was still very lively as the lighting cast a red glow over the room and a house DJ had the perfect EDM (electronic dinner music) going. After stuffing our faces full of delicious food, we somehow made it to the elevator to get back up to up to our room. All in all, an amazing day without having to leave the hotel!

The lighting produced a red glow over the whole dining area

Our starters and first round of drinks

The next day started with a great lay in, followed by another delicious breakfast in the lounge. Hawaii trip admin was the task of the day once again. We took a short break to have high tea in the lounge before deciding to finally venture out of the hotel. We caught the shuttle bus from the hotel and headed to Dubai Mall. I don't know many malls that have a large bus terminal. The mall was enormous and had just about every store you could think of. There were even sharks in the mall! They had both an aquarium and an ice rink. I'm sure there was more in spots we didn't see. 

Sharks in the mall!

This mall was attached to the fountains that sat in front of the Burj Khalifa, the current world's tallest building. Every half hour, the fountains would light up and there was a water show synced to music, just like the Bellagio in Las Vegas. It drew quite a crowd as people would end up watching two shows just to have a good view for the second one. After watching the show, we made our way back through the maze of people in the mall (very few had actual shopping bags and we did see some tour groups) to catch the shuttle back. Dinner was once again at the lounge (there's a trend), and once finished it was back to the room for a few loose trip items. 

The Burj Khalifa with surrounding water feature

The water show at dusk and then when it was darker

We sadly had to depart the next morning, but not before one last lounge breakfast. As we were packing up, there was a knock on our door. One of the lounge managers and staff had brought down a plate of fruit and a thank you card signed by some of the staff. The service received at this hotel was absolutely amazing. Everyone wanted to know how our stay was, if we enjoyed Dubai, etc. Only a few times did it get annoying as it felt like more of an interruption when we were having conversation. After our thank you card, we caught a cab to the airport to head to Nepal. Dubai airport bills itself as having one of the most sophisticated baggage handling systems in the world. Much to our chagrin, when we went to check in, the counter agent could not check our backpacks in unless they were in a box or wrapped in plastic. The backpack straps apparently did not agree with their amazing system!! After getting our bags wraps, it was smooth sailing and we were off to Dubai.

I've never received a thank you card for staying at a hotel before.

Dubai is such an interesting city. It reminds me much of Las Vegas, though the vices are driven far, far underground. It's an over the top city that doesn't look like it belongs in the landscape. Perhaps that was the point. It's definitely worth a two or three day stopover if you had to transfer there, but I can't see how it's a vacation destination.

- Nick