11th February 2014

After a 2 hour minibus transfer to Phuket Airport and a near 7 hour flight we touched down in Dubai around 4.00am.  Most of the people on our flight were going to other destinations so only a few of us were collecting bags and staying in Dubai.  We were amazed how quiet the airport was at that time of night.  Quick visit to the ATM for some local currency and we were off.  Arrived at our hotel about 5.30am, checked in, shown to our room ( which has an amazing view of the beach and skyline).   We had slept a little on the plane so decided it was not worth going to bed and missing some of our first day here.  Dubai is big! - it's not somewhere you can walk easily to see everything, they have open topped tour buses which you can hop on hop off.  Also taxis are widely used here to get around.  After a quick look at the beach in front of our hotel, we decided to start our time in Dubai visiting the historical area around the creek. We made a bit of a mistake by allowing our persuasive Indian taxi driver to take us on his own mini tour before taking us there which was not particularly good value for money. He whisked us on to Palm Island giving us a bit of a running commentary on the properties there and pulled up outside the Atlantis Hotel for pics (sun in wrong place unfortunately).  Once at the Creek we spent time walking around the Spice Souk looking at the colourful shop displays and then moved on to the Gold Souk which was nearby.  Then we crossed the Creek on one of the old Dhow       Boats for 1 Dirham each and walked the short way to the Dubai Museum which was fascinating and showed the incredible transformation of the Country over the last 50 years.  Then, having hardly slept for 48 hours, we were tired so caught a taxi back to our hotel. 










0 comments: