Dubai City twinkled below the plane like a be-jewelled Persian carpet, clearly load shedding is not a problem here. The flight was good, but 8 hours is just not quite long enough for a good nights sleep (well the economy class seat is probably more of a factor here) and not short enough to stay conscious throughout. At least I did manage to watch “Elizabeth: the golden age” which I enjoyed, certainly showed an unexpected perspective of the Queen.
Despite the masses of people who seem to converge on Dubai International Airport the journey through passport control was painless, this is probably more a function of a British passport than any unexpected efficiency of the airport itself, but it was nice to be greeted by a smiling immigration official for a change. 60 days stamped in my passport and I’m ready to go! Of course I loaded up with irish whiskey in duty free before collecting my bag. And that was pretty quick too, so happy days all round.
Eventually I found my hotel pickup guy lurking outside instead of being inside with the other drivers, a moment’s consternation forgotten in the sudden heat of the outdoors. Not hectic, yet, at 6pm, but surely a hint of things to come.
Arrived at the Hotel Apartment or Apartment Hotel in Al Barsha (am never sure) after about a 30 minute drive. Nice 6 lane motorway most of the way, no trucks allowed which really makes things whiz along. Best part was seeing Stuart again, having a nice cup of tea and a chat.
I managed 40 winks after a very relaxing bubble bath, and then it was off of to the office for my interview. I was nervous, but unattached to the outcome, Mandy would be proud! After another 30 minute cab ride we arrived in the suburb of Bur Dubai in the older part of town where the office is.
The interview was more of a chat than any real “where do you see yourself in five years” type conversation, I guess the decision had been made and this was merely a formality. Here’s hoping for a good offer.\
Stu and I then walked down to the Lamcy Plaza (shopping centre) and had a mutton kebab with salad for lunch (we are both doing the no carb thing at the moment which is tragic in a place filled with humus, naan bread and all things starchy). Not to mention the ice-cream on sale everywhere, its just not fair!
Then after lunch we hired another cab and took a drive out to The Springs, The Meadows, The Greens and Arabian Ranches to look at potential places to live (hmm a bit of a theme is there?). These are all back out towards the Free Zone and closer to where Stu will be based for work, but our office should be moving out there at some point so hopefully my commute won’t be forever. Most of these developments are big estates with various style villas (town-houses) and low-rise apartment blocks mixed together. They look very nice I must say, most have a small shopping village attached and are pretty self contained. Our ultimate destination will depend on my package and whether I get a housing allowance or not, but that is vital in this place where property is the most expensive thing.
For dinner we headed off to the Mall of the Emirates, one of the biggest malls I have ever seen complete with an indoor ski slope and ski lift. Wow. We ended up eating at Apres which looks out over the slope. It really did have an almost Swiss feel about it. But very expensive. After dinner we wandered around the shops a bit. I could not believe the size of the CarreFour supermarket, the selection of fresh produce from all over the world was amazing, I didn’t even recognise some of the vegetables and fruit on sale. As you would expect the electronic stuff on offer (tvs, hi-fis, computers) is also very reasonably priced and the selection is awesome. Makes you realise how limited our options in the shops in South Africa are.
Sadly I forgot my camera at home in my efforts to pack up & move every shred of summer clothing I own, so I have no pictures for this post I am afraid.
After a pretty good night’s sleep it was up early and back to the airport. Luckily I had done an on-line check-in the night before so I didn’t have to queue at the check-in counter, and no luggage going back meant a very smooth transition through to the duty free shopping on the other side of passport control. I was very well behaved and didn’t buy much. Not this time anyway 🙂
The day flight back was ok, managed to catch up on my movie watching as you have your own tv and on-demand viewing. Saw 4 movies by the time we landed, yay!
My very short experience of Dubai thus far has me excited. It seems to be a place where some things work very well, and some things are just weird or illogical but all in all I think we will be very happy there. There is plenty to do and see, and travelling will be easy from there also.
Until next time, salaam (bye)..