Dubai
And with that, we were off to Dubai after sitting in interminable Vietnamese traffic to the airport in Ho Chi Minh City, only to arrive hours early (unable to check in) and then find out that our midnight flight was delayed until 4 AM. If there is an airport in which you might choose to spend eleven hours, do yourself a solid and don’t choose the Tan Son Nhat! Luckily we were flying Emirates and the flight was very comfortable, even with a ‘dinner’ served at 5 AM and a breakfast a few sleep-hazed hours later.
We arrived in Dubai groggy and unclear as to what we would encounter, thanks to a massive flood a few days prior (hence, the flight delay). The drive into our apartment was a marvel of massive, incredible buildings and some flooded roads, though our driver told us that the worst of the water had been cleared in the touristy areas which we were crossing, and still festering in some less affluent areas. After a massive nap, we made our way to Salero Bodega for a delicious Spanish tapas dinner; Kieran slept through most of it and Grace discovered the joys of good olive oil on good bread for the first time.
The next day we fueled up with excellent coffee before going up the Burj Khalifa – having been up a number of city towers thus far, we felt we needed to go up the world’s tallest! The views were uninspiring (being mostly interesting buildings in the foreground and then desert or water in the mid- and background) and the influencer game up there was strong. Got a bit annoying, waiting behind people getting ‘the perfect shot’ and dodging hair flips and chiffon skirt swishes. But no matter.
Later that day we had booked a souk tour in the older town part of Dubai. We walked the 30-ish minutes to the meeting point which was relentlessly hot, there not being much shade on the route. So of course, I was worrying about heat stroke the rest of the day (what’s new) but all was well. The tour itself was really interesting; we learned about tea hospitality, the Emirates government system, and how Arab people lived in the desert through different seasons previous to modern buildings. We drank deliciously cool mango and watermelon juice and boated across the river to the spice souk (of which I took far too many photos). At the end of the tour, we were too tired to go out for dinner, so we made our way back to the apartment and Sean picked up some snacks and wine for us while I blogged.
We also booked a desert tour for our time in Dubai, which seemed a bit cheesy but was actually the source of some of our best DXB memories! After starting our day off right with coffee and Ladurée macarons from the Mall of the Emirates next to our apartment, a car drove us out to the desert whereupon we rode camels, drove up and down (and, scarily, along the sides of) the undulating red sand, ‘sand-boarded’ down a particularly large dune (getting covered in the superfine grit for the rest of the day) and met a beautiful falcon. Once again, we were exhausted, but we headed back to Salero for a quick dinner and finished off our day with their churros dipped in melted chocolate sauce.
Our final day in Dubai was spent at beach clubs on The Palm Jumeirah, the resort-laden artificial island archipelago just off the coast. We had lunch at Limonata and late afternoon drinks / snacks at Peaches + Cream, both of which were a blissful way to while away a day (ocean dips, beach lounging, pool splashes) in the desert heat.
Our trip to Dubai was instigated by us wanting to split up a long flight from Southeast Asia to Mediterranean Europe. Overall, three days in Dubai was a fun stopover that I’m glad we did, but that I wouldn’t do as a stand-alone trip. I’m glad we experienced all the wild dichotomies that make up Dubai, and would have loved to have been there just with Sean to experience a few more of the restaurants (the dining scene there is wild), but as it stood, we were thankful for our experience and also ready to move on to Greece!
Look at you overcoming your sand phobia in the most extreme fashion imaginable! Haha. Looks amazing!