Dubai

If you were all waiting in eager anticipation of reading all about the beautiful sights of Dubai…the fabulous shopping bargains….the gold souks…..the great food…..you will all be very very disappointed.

Let me tell the tale…..

We flew from New York on a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt where we were in transit for a few hours. Then onto another Lufthansa flight to Dubai. So after about 14 hours of flying and hours in transit, we arrived into Dubai and discovered that this was their biggest event of the year….their Big Sale. Hotels & Apartments were booked out…..not just booked out…but many were double and triple booked out. Heard reports of desperate people offering double or triple rack rate for a room and getting it and the people who had booked were left stranded. We went to the Central Reservations Office at the airport and the man there was turning away people who just needed a single room!! He tried for hours to get us something before finally telling us that he could only get us two rooms for one night for 6000 dirhams each. WTF….that’s like A$2000 per room for one night!!! A$4000 to sleep off our jetlag??? I’m sorry….I DON’T THINK SO MATE!! And we were supposed to be in Dubai for two nights…so what were we going to do for the 2nd night????

Joseph and I had to re-evaluate our plans as A$4000 for a place to sleep in was just not in our budget! Not even for the chance to grab some bargains!! Call me a cheap skate if you wish….but heck….there was no way I can part with that kind of money just for a place to sleep in!! All through our travels….our most expensive accomodation was in Hawaii where we paid USD$190 per night for the 2 bedroom apartment. So A$4000 was just too much. In the end, Joseph and I decided that we would try to get the next flight out of Dubai to Singapore. That’s when the fun started….we asked at Information and after the long queue, the ever so unhelpful staff steered us towards the Departures terminal….and when we stepped out of the arrivals terminal…I was quite unprepared for the scene that I saw. A huge sea of people, speaking a language I wasn’t familiar with, the smell, the long queue of people waiting for taxis….it was all very overwhelming…a big culture shock!

In the Departures Terminal…it was another long wait for the Information desk. There were only two staff serving and Joseph and I decided to split up and join both queues. While we were waiting, people just kept trying to cut in front of us and I was just sooo tired, so frustrated and had to tell quite a few people to wait their turn. When we got to the counter, the staff told us that we had to go to another counter……another long wait with people trying to cut the queue….and when we finally get to ask our question….we were told that they could ’sell’ us a ticket out if we wanted…but they couldn’t rebook our flight…that was up to Singapore Airlines. When we asked where the Singapore airlines counter was….we were told that they were downstairs …..in the basement…..and they weren’t sure if they were open at all…as by this time…it was after midnight.

We slowly found our way down to the basement and after a little while, found the office which was thankfully staffed!!! The lady there was such a godsend!! She booked us out on the next Singapore Airlines flight which was at 8pm the following day. It was around 2am by this time…so it meant that we had another 18 hours to go. There was light at the end of the tunnel……..18 hours wait or $4000……it wasn’t rocket science! We were going to be Tom Hanks in the Terminal movie…we can do this…..we got some essentials out of our luggage and then got the rest of the luggage stored at the Left Luggage office. We walked around to find somewhere comfortable to spend the night and decided on the area behind Haagen Daaz. There were some small couches and some U shaped booths. It was close to restrooms and Haagen Daaz would be open all night..and the Filipino staff were ok with us camping out there.

We all took turns to sleep because someone has to be awake to keep an eye on our stuff! In the morning, I was desperate ….my hair felt disgusting. I usually wash my hair everyday and it had been over 24 hours since I had washed it last and while it didn’t look so bad,  to me…it felt horribly disgusting. And there are no showers available…so I had no choice but to attempt to wash it over a wash basin. Luckily MIL came in at the right moment and helped me rinse it off with the help of a small water bottle.

Ok….we could have left the airport and gone shopping if we wanted to…….but we just couldn’t be bothered. Plus…if the taxi queues were so long at the airport, imagine the shopping centres. Imagine the crowds trying to nab a bargain! Imagine the checkout queues!!! Totally not for us….we rested and could not wait to get to Singapore!!