DXB | Travels, Adventures, and Leisure

Final full day in Dubai! We started the day fairly late (woke up at 1pm). Trying to decide what to do while the sun is still out, we ended up going to an awesome rooftop bar that is very close to Burj Khalifa (it is on the 54th floor of the Address Sky View buildings, on the actual bridge that connects the two). Details can be found here (I would say reading the following blog post is part of this blog post):

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/12/01/ce-la-vi/

Afterwards we made our way to the Dubai Mall via walking. We initially thought there were protests that were happening because it was fairly busy, and police were directing people. Seems like this may be normal during rush hour.

At the Dubai Mall the main thing we spent 2 hours doing is going through the Aquarium (it’s quite expensive though at $80 USD). I do think it’s worth seeing it. The main tank is quite large, but there are a bunch of smaller tanks and areas (ie penguin, turtles, bats, and alligators) to see and explore.

After the aquarium, just walked around to check out the mall (ie saw the skating rink, their food court (full of mostly American fast food), and China Town (not too special)).

We ended the night at a place called Tap Room, where it provides an excellent view of the Dubai Fountains.

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/12/01/the-tap-room/

We saw/heard 3 songs at the fountain: Thriller, Will Always Love You, and some Asian traditional song. The best show was the middle one of those.

We walked back to our hotel (took 30 minutes) which ended the night.

Next morning (day 8), we took an Uber to the airport, DXB. Our uber driver made so many wrong turns, that we were very rushed when we got to the airport. Next time would probably take a taxi since taxi drivers are more experienced.

Take-aways:

There are mosquitos in Dubai (around the Souq’s and beach areas). Bring repellants
Uber was our main mode of transportation
Next time stay in the Marina / Palm Jumeirah area (or a hotel in the inner circle of the Burj Khalifa, ie in the Address Sky Towers)
Probably bring 3L of alcohol from Duty free when flying into Dubai
For Emirates, if flying with the A380, the move it to book with premium economy, and then wait like 3 days before the flight to see if you can upgrade to business for basically half the price (ie it went from $10k to $3.5k USD)

We caught a flights at 11am on flyDubai from DOH to DXB. Aside from the long luggage line (and the flight agents asking if I had a ticket onwards from Dubai) the flight was a good experience.

Also, we ended up getting 2 whisky bottles at the Duty free since UAR lets you bring in 4 liters (and we didn’t want to deal with the whole process when we landed).

After landing, customs was easy (and they give you a free 10GB SIM card!). Then headed in an Uber to the hotel, the Taj Hotel. Will say the drive is interesting since the architecture of the newer parts of Dubai are amazing. (Really contrasts to old Dubai).

At check in they did greet us with an Indian style lay and tea drink.

Afterwards, we made our way to Dubai Old City. We did however first stop by the Al Fahidi historical neighborhood to get food at this really popular tourist restaurant called Al Khayma Heritage restaurant:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/11/27/al-khayma-heritage-restaurant/

After, explored the Bur Dubai – Diera Old Souk area of Dubai Old City, where there are lots of coffee shops and vendors (that are very aggressive). If you walk more along the river though, will say that was more pleasant.

We then took an Abra type boat to cross the river to make our way to the more modern (which reminded us of Asia) Souq area, where we went through the Gold Souq. Vendors there were also aggressive, but still did a bit of window shopping for a necklace.

(FYI lots of Al Fahidi was closed off/ under construction. Next time doing a walking tour around here and old Dubai might have made more sense).

From the Gold Souq area we made our way back to the hotel to end the first night in Dubai.