Stopover Dubai - City of Superlatives

In advance: The first two days are done and I'm still alive :D

The farewell from my parents at Hamburg Airport was short but nonetheless painful. But a plane to Dubai was waiting for me and quickly I was filled with excitement and joyful anticipation.

The flight was great, at this point I have to praise Emirates Airlines. Even in economy class flying was fun, which was partly due to the built-in seat screens. With such a huge selection of movies, series and music, six hours were barely enough time to try everything. Even the food tasted good! Despite all the comfort, I only managed to sleep for about two hours.

I was then overwhelmed by the size of Dubai Airport. Its immense size, crowded with too many people, already gave me a good preview of the actual city.

Somehow, I managed to get to my hotel via the metro, where I refreshed myself with a shower and two espressos. After all, I had a city to explore.

The old Dubai (Bur Dubai) with its souks (bazaars) was not particularly impressive, but it showed how life outside the glamour of the skyscrapers was like. Characteristic were the sand-colored flat houses, streets of various widths with heavy traffic, and people of various nationalities. Additionally, there were a variety of small shops where you could buy anything from floor lamps to carpets to coffee machines. Eventually, I was able to develop an eye for supermarkets as well.

In the afternoon, I booked a desert safari. During the 2-hour car ride, I developed quite a respect for the traffic, any German BMW driver could have learned something from those overtaking maneuvers. Side and center lanes only differ in name and he who uses his turn signal has already lost. But together with very loud Arabic dance music, which was only outdone by the entertainment of a Kazakh family in the back seat, it created a great road trip atmosphere.

A camp in the desert (designed for tourists) offered camel riding, food (delicious!), and a show and was quite enjoyable. The 20-minute ride through the desert, where the car's shock absorbers could really show what they're made of, was a lot of fun, even though there were no actual shock absorbers! Despite this, it was still fun.

The longer the evening, the stronger the jet lag, so I was glad when it was time for the return journey.

Quick shower, don't forget to brush my teeth, and then off to bed.

The next day, getting up was the worst, but I had (literally) big plans for the day: the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

From the 124th/125th floor, one had a great view over the city and into the surrounding desert. In the center, one skyscraper followed another, concrete and glass everywhere. What sounds terrible actually had its own aesthetics. Each building represents the pride of the desert people, to have created a metropolis out of nothing but sand, which is incomparable (or at least that's what was explained in a video played in the fastest elevator in the world...). The Burj Khalifa is literally just the tip of the iceberg.

Next door is the Dubai Mall - the largest shopping mall in the world. However, the term "mall" doesn't do it justice because in its four floors, you could find not only numerous (high-end) shops and a huge food court, but also an aquarium, an ice rink, and a waterfall. If you can, you can, and Dubai can.

I spent almost two hours in the mall, after that I just couldn't take it anymore. So even the Emirates Mall with its ski slope couldn't impress me anymore.

So it was on to the metro and off to Dubai's next mega project: the Palm Jumeirah.

Here, I had my first problem with payment because the ticket counter only accepted cash - but I was only walking around Dubai with 10 dirhams and 5 euros in my pocket. Everywhere, even for the smallest amounts (1 dirham for an ice cream at Burger King), it was no problem to pay with a credit card. The next ATM was located at an unimaginable distance, but just giving up like that?

As luck would have it, there was a couple from Romania in the same situation in front of me, so the three of us took a taxi and paid in euros. The ride cost the equivalent of 15 euros, so much more than with the monorail. But I was able to make an interesting acquaintance with the couple, so we simply stayed together as a group.

At the end of the road, the mighty Atlantis Hotel towered in front of us. Attached to the complex were a water park and a mall with an aquarium (which we already know). I have to admit that the hotel didn't impress me, especially the interior design didn't appeal to me. Too much color, too much decoration. But for 400 dollars a night, you can't expect simplicity...

Then it was back to the taxi (I could also get rid of my remaining 10 dirhams), and then it was time to say goodbye at the metro station.

On my list was the last showoff building - the Burj Al-Arab hotel. But unlike Atlantis, I couldn't get closer to the building than about 500 meters. What a shame. And that's why I bought a bus ticket!

The day slowly came to an end, just like my energy. So I had myself driven to the nearest metro station (now I had this bus ticket!), quickly went shopping, and then it was back to the hotel to pack my things.

Did you miss anything? I haven't mentioned the weather yet. This aspect deserves its own paragraph.

It wasn't warm. It wasn't just hot. It was brutally hot. When I arrived at 5 a.m., it was already 26 degrees outside, my personal record for experiencing heat was 48 degrees. How do you endure that? You don't.

On my first day, I made the huge mistake of walking around the city for a good four hours. I couldn't take it anymore, especially at noon there was no escape from the sun. The few palm trees hardly provided any shade, I felt like my flip-flops were sticking to the asphalt and I was sweating everywhere. At least the sunscreen worked, I didn't get sunburned, but that was only a small consolation.

The next day, I was smarter, I stayed in the metro and air-conditioned rooms. Even short distances outside were exhausting, I only exposed myself to the heat when necessary (especially for photos). In the evening (by which I mean after 10 p.m.), the temperatures finally dropped to a bearable level.

So Dubai is a city of superlatives in every respect. I had about 48 hours to get to know the city, enough to say that it's not made for me. Too hot, too big, too crowded.

But of course, there were still a lot of things that I really liked. My top 5:

1. The metro. Taking the metro in Dubai is really fun. There are two main lines (red and green), so you can't go wrong. A day ticket costs 22 dirhams, which is about 4-5 euros. When entering and leaving the metro station, you have to scan your ticket, and that eventually became really fun. The trains are well air-conditioned and there's a separate compartment for women. You didn't even have to pay attention to departure times, as the trains ran every three minutes. The station had clean toilets and free WiFi. Big plus!

2. Cleanliness. For a mega metropolis, Dubai was super clean (there's another superlative). There were no dog droppings on the streets (well, I didn't see any dogs either...), no paper, nothing. A big compliment!

3. The breakfast. Not directly Dubai, but at least the Ibis hotel. The room was really good too, free WiFi, access to computers, and then the breakfast buffet - wonderful! I could also try some Arabic dishes that tasted great but had names too complicated to remember.

4. The people. Of course, I only got to know a fraction of them, mostly service personnel whose job it is to be nice and smile, but every time I asked someone, I got polite answers. I really felt comfortable that way.

5. The exotic. Everywhere you were reminded that despite all the high-tech, you were in a different culture: people in traditional clothing, signs pointing to prayer rooms, palm trees and flat houses, and last but not least, international brands with logos in Arabic and Latin letters. Exciting!

Currently, I'm sitting in the plane to Auckland (only 12,500 kilometers to go!) and I'm already tired. The computer can't help either. Out of frustration, I'll just eat everything that's served to me and listen to some albums.

Nevertheless, I always feel the thrill of excitement inside me because in just 13 hours, I will land in Auckland :D

I will try to keep you updated as much as possible!

Many greetings from the Indian Ocean!

Update: The WiFi on the plane was too poor. So, I have already landed in New Zealand and I'm waiting in the hostel lobby to check-in. But more on that later ;)