United Arab Emirates: Dubai Day!

Our company is in the home stretch of preparing to launch our first academies in India, so I've been dispatched out to help make sure our first training goes off without a hitch. Our first academies here will be in Andhra Pradesh, a state on India's east coast.

Andra Pradesh is a lot of things, but "easy to get to from DC" is not one of them, haha. The best flight path for me had me flying 13 hours from DC to Dubai and hanging out in Dubai for a 19 hour layover, before taking a four hour flight to Hyderabad where I had another seven hours of layover...and THEN taking the hour flight to Vijayawada.

IAD > DBX > HYD > VGA. Whew.

Basically, a journey.

As soon as I saw the 19 hour layover in Dubai I knew that I wanted to do some exploring there. But I wasn't thrilled about doing it alone. Emirates flights from DC leave in the morning and arrive in the morning, and my flight to Hyderabad wouldn't leave until 3:40am, so I would have a ton of daylight hours. Amelia was on her way to India at the same time, so we formulated a plan. Since Boston flights leave at night and arrive in Dubai at night, she flew out a day early so we could have a super fun Dubai Day.

Two of the girls in the DC office lived in Dubai, and one goes back and forth a lot to see a friend who lives there, so I had lots of advice to plan the perfect day.

I woke up on Monday morning and it was really foggy, so our flight was delayed about an hour and a half. I headed to the airport on time (because messaging around the delay was shitty) and I was really thankful I did. I got through the line and up to the Emirates counter and the woman asked for my India visa. Now when I went to India in 2005 on Semester at Sea, the India visa process had been lengthy and expensive. So over a month ago I asked my boss if I needed to get that ball rolling, and she told me it was now visa on arrival like Kenya. Like an idiot, I read the visa on arrival, but totally didn't process the part of it being like Kenya - aka you have to apply ahead of time and get the visa online.  CRAP. I jumped out of line, and frantically bought my visa online, which they allowed as evidence that I wouldn't be rejected from India when I arrived, and we were good to go. Nothing like a close call to get your blood pumping first thing in the morning!

I had stayed up most of the night before so that I could sleep on the plane, however that was not to be. I ended up watching like five movies and sleeping about three hours, haha. Oops. Emirates just has really great movies and comfortable seats! I even had the two seats next to me open! Good travel karma racked up, apparently.

I landed in Dubai about an hour late, and pretty seamlessly went through customs and out into the arrivals area where I met up with Amelia. My co-worker's friend had offered us the use of his corporate driver for the day, which was absolutely amazing, and he picked us up and whisked us off to the souks.

We spent our first two hours in Dubai wandering through the markets selling gold, spices, plasticware, clothes, textiles, and everything else you can think of. Lots of winding little streets packed with sellers. Lots of people propositioning Amelia and I to buy luxury handbags, haha. Dubai is really known for its gold, so there was a LOT of bling.

Lots of shops.

Selling anything you could want.

All dat gold!

Seriously, this was like Game of Thrones body armour. Where's Cersei Lannister?

Lovely mosque on a beautiful day.

Poetry museum tucked away on a little back alley.

We mostly browsed, though I did buy some mixed spices to make curry when I get home. We did succeed in getting totally and completely lost. So it took us a while to get back to our driver, but we eventually figured it out, haha. 

Upon meeting up with the driver again we were whisked away to the Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world. It is BIG. Huge. We spent some time browsing and grabbed lunch in the food court before heading outside to watch a short fountain show. The fountains are beautiful and choreographed to music. At night they have longer shows, but on weekday afternoons it is only one song. It was beautiful to watch, and the mist of the water felt great. The fountains sit at the bottom of the Burj Khalifa, an insanely imposing structure as the tallest building in the world. 

Look at this crazy building!

Where the fountain show takes place. Burj Khalifa on the right.

Beautiful, beautiful day.

Then it was time for the big event! Amelia and I had bought our tickets ahead of time to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the 146th floor, which towers 555m above the ground and is the tallest observatory in the world. The elevators zip up at more than 9m per second, so in about 70 ear popping seconds you're at the lower observation deck (on floor 126). Then you board a separate elevator to go to the top.

Pro-tip, buy your ticket ahead of time...it will save you a LOT of money. We splurged on the more expensive ticket to go all the way to the top (which, at $137 was about $40 more than the ticket to the lower levels). I would totally say its worth the splurge. You get full VIP treatment, being squired into a private waiting room for dates and Arabic coffee before you head up, and being greeted with fresh fruit juices in a posh lounge with 360 degree views when you get to the top. It is ridiculous. Also, if you book all the way to the top you won't have to worry about fighting crowds to get the perfect shot, your time there is limited (to 45 minutes) and there are far fewer people who purchase the more expensive ticket.

And the views? They are incredible.

Coffee and dates before the ascent. And by dates I am obviously 
referring to the Chinese men.

The posh lounge on floor 146. Get the lemon-mint juice, you won't regret it.

Sippin' in the sky. As you do.

So pretty!

See, no lines at ALL.

Beautiful views of the Persian Gulf.

There is even an outdoor observation deck that is REALLY high up there.

The blue-green water is where the fountain show takes place.

Dubai.

She's on the top of the world and still her phone is more interesting, hahaha.

Couldn't wait to get to that water!

Looking towards Jumeirah Beach Row, the Burj al Arab, and the Palm (waaay off in the hazy distance).

Dry! 

Pretty city.

Also there are chairs you can sit in and look out over the city that made me feel like a super villain. 
Specifically Claw from Inspector Gadget. Someone get me a cat to menacingly stroke.

 After spending some time on Floor 146 we headed down to join the throngs on Floor 126. There were a lot of people, so we left fairly quickly and headed back down to ground level to meet our driver (stopping at the biggest bookstore I've seen in YEARS to pick up a book for Amelia on the way).

Kaleidoscope views of people peering out of the windows on the 124th floor.

The buildings are equally pretty from ground level. So many interesting shapes!

We jumped in the car and made a bee-line for the beach...with both Amelia and I falling asleep on the way. Our original plan was to go to Jumeirah Beach Park, but it was closed, so our driver took us to Umm Suqeim Park instead. It was perfect - turquoise and blue water, pale sand, sun, and a cool breeze, all in the (figurative) shadow of the Burj al Arab. It was about 90 degrees that day, but the beach had this incredible breeze that kept you cool enough to lay in the sun and enjoy it. We napped for a bit, then went down to dip our feet in the Persian Gulf before washing off the sand and meeting up with our driver again.

Agh, PERFECTION.

Looking towards the Burj al Arab and the Palm.

Next we headed to the 360 Bar at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, which happened to be just out in the water near our beach (in fact, you can see out in the water on a peninsula to the right of the Burj al Arab in the picture above. Our plan was to get sundowner drinks, but that was foiled by the fact that we were unexpectedly in Dubai on a "dry day".

Usually in UAE you can only get alcohol at hotels. However, on dry days, no alcohol is served anywhere in the country (and in many other places in the Muslim world). The trickiest part is that they are not announced much ahead of time...like usually only a week or two...and aren't really publicized until you get to a bar and tell you they are only serving juice. We decided to go for it anyway, and hopped in the golf cart for the ride out along the peninsula to the bar. Even dry it was a beautiful location to watch the sunset, and this would be an amazing venue for drinks with friends. You also get amazing views back towards the beach and downtown as the light fades.

360 bar, with the skyline in the background.

Even from far away the Burj Khalifa towers over the city.

That's also the beach we had just come from.

Jumeirah Beach Hotel looking lovely.

Burj al Arab and a yacht I plan to steal.

We got great seats for the sunset.

Which was quite peaceful and lovely.

After drinks we took a leisurely walk back towards the hotel, taking in all the light as we went.

360 looking all lit up and lovely.

The beautiful Burj al Arab, which changes colours every few seconds.

For dinner we headed to Reem al Bawadi, a really well known Arabic restaurant that has a bunch of locations across UAE. Holy shit the food was AMAZING. I had this grilled meat plate with phenomenal kebabs, goat, chicken, and the best pork chops I've ever eaten. All perfectly spiced and grilled. It was really really good.

By that point we were basically running on fumes. I was so tired since I had only slept about 7 hours in the previous 48. We decided that even though we were early, we'd head towards the airport. Amelia picked up her bag from the hotel where she had spent the night before and we got all checked in for our next flight. Then I learned a life-changing fact: Dubai airport has free showers. And they are clean. It was a miracle. Taking a shower after 31 hours of straight travel was a damn near religious experience. I took a shower near gate B13, but I know there are other locations too. You have to provide your own toiletries and towel, but they clean them often and the water pressure is strong. Two thumbs up.

After the magical shower we made our way down to a Heineken bar where we had (obscenely expensive) drinks and used their wifi until it was time to head to our gate. Boarding was standard, the bus ride out to our plane on the far reaches of the DBX tarmac felt like it took 17 hours, and people were pushy, but it was nice to finally be India bound. I settled into my seat (once again, seat open next to me, double jackpot) and promptly fell fast asleep, not waking up at all until we touched down in Hyderabad.

Once in Hyderabad we found our co-worker Jess, and picked up our luggage. We got our visas and bags in no time, and proceeded through customs quickly. Then we got on the escalator to go back into the airport to try and find a lounge for our 7 hour layover....except for the fact that they said we couldn't go in. Somewhat discouraged we went downstairs to the food court area, where we spotted the Plaza Premium Lounge Airport Hotel. GUYS. THIS PLACE IS AMAZING. They have a traditional lounge area with booths, or you can get a little tiny single or double room with a shower and bathroom. After some thought we decided to get a six-hour pass to three single rooms, which came with air conditioning, TVs, wifi, and shower facilities. When you turn off the lights and curl up in the cushy beds it is pitch black and the aircon blows right on you....its a PERFECT SLEEP CAVE. I set my alarm to give me an hour and a half before we boarded so I could take a shower and head to the gate, and fell asleep immediately.

Most perfectly twee little rooms.

That bed though....so comfy!

A few hours later the phone rang...it was the front desk saying it was almost time to board. Turns out I'd never changed my phone time, so I had to scramble to grab my stuff. Jess had already left, so Amelia and I headed towards the gate, having just enough time to grab food before boarding. Once again, fell asleep immediately (trifecta of open adjoining seats! the travel gods smile upon me!).

I was almost late for the mandatory frisking of my person! Hahaha.

We finally landed in Vijayawada more than 36 hours after I left DC. Hopefully I can sleep through the night and wake up raring to go tomorrow. Lots to do before training next week and launch on June 13, but these crunch times are the parts of my job I love most. Let's do this!