Thursday 28^th August                        GATWICK  -  DUBAI

Well, it’s been a huge travel day (nearly 5 and a half thousand kilometres, to be exact) and we are now in Dubai, the city of light (from what we can see so far.)

We set the alarm for 6am this morning, and were not happy when it went off! However, we dragged ourselves out, got dressed and finished the packing and weighing. In the end, my big suitcase came in just under 30kg and my carry on at just under 7kg, so right on target. Lex’s big bag weighed around 29 and his carry on came in at 8, but that didn’t seem to be a problem when we checked in (luckily).

We were all done and ready to go down to breakfast by a bit after 6.30, so took our bags down with us. We had a quick breakfast, and were outside ready to catch the 7.05 shuttle. It came along pretty much on time, and a heap of people from the hotel crammed in. We travelled around the borders of the airport to the North Terminal, and began the usual processes of bag drop, security etc. We had a bit of time to have a look around the shops (they even have a Harrods) and grab a cup of tea/coffee before heading to our gate where boarding commenced at 9.05. As we were on an Airbus, this took quite a while – we were in the last group to be called. We then sat on the plane for pretty much an hour before we finally started to taxi for take-off.

                    Our Emirates Airbus

The flight was about six and a half hours, and we did a lot of movie watching. Lex enjoyed the movie Oppenheimer, and I watched both Hocus Pocus (the original 1995 movie – happy memories of taking Jim, Cait and the Hayes kids to see it at the cinemas in Rocky!) and followed it with the recent Hocus Pocus II, which I did enjoy. As it was all daytime travelling, I didn’t even try to sleep, though Lex had a bit of a nap. They fed us a few times – lunch was a very tasty Lancashire Lamb Hotpot. Time passed, as it does, and we eventually began our descent into Dubai. It was 8.30 Dubai time, but only 5.30 UK time.

                                                     We saw a couple of other planes up there.

The journey to get our luggage was absolutely epic – lots of walking through the corridors and plazas of the arrival building, then down elevators to a train, which whizzed us along to the bag collection area. We had to show our passports first then finally arrived in the baggage area, where our bags weren’t the last to arrive on the carousel – there were at least ten other people still waiting when ours finally arrived. We trundled them out, where the heat hit us – 39 degrees even at night. It reminded me of flying home to Emerald in summer, and getting off the plane to be hit with a wall of heat! Anyway, we easily found the taxi rank, where we got a taxi which charged us 76 Dirhum (about $31AUD) into town, so not too bad. The taxi ride along the freeway was lovely – so many lights in this city.

                               Huge airport - just about deserted by 8.30pm!

                  Somewhat blurry, but the lights of Downtown Dubai from the taxi     

We arrived at The Hotel Indigo in Downtown Dubai a bit after 9, and booked in to our gorgeous room on the 17^th floor. The view is lovely! We have a nice spacious room with very quirky décor. The restaurant had just closed when we arrived, so we booked room service for a meal. We both had pasta, and shared an Arabic dessert, Um Ali. It was basically sweet milky bread pudding with pistachios and almonds – we both enjoyed it. Now for bed – sooner or later….. Our bodies, of course, think it’s only eight o’clock, but here in Dubai it’s 11pm. Hopefully we’ll both sleep well anyway!

              Our room on the 17th floor, complete with flying camel mural!

                                                  The wardrobe is gorgeous

                                                     Um Ali for dessert