Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Spring Fever 2008
Settling into Dubai
Surprisingly, given the late hour of my arrival in terms of Dubai local time, I woke up at a reasonably normal time. After getting myself organised, I made my way up to the Club Lounge for breakfast and was delighted to see how well presented it was. I also felt that I could hear Glasgow accents everywhere - no doubt about it when it came to the group of four women at the next table to mine. I know Emirates has a direct flight, but even so, this seemed just a little surprising.
Next, I took a wander to get to know the layout of the hotel and attended to the important business of booking myself on a tour for the next day. Eventually, I parked myself on a lounger on a grassy patch adjacent to the beach and spent the rest of the morning there, relaxing and reading. I had a nice al fresco lunch nearby.
In the afternoon, I took a taxi to the Mall of the Emirates, currently the largest shopping mall in the world outside North America and home of the famous indoor skiing slope. I later found out, not really to my surprise, that the country also has under construction a mall that will be the largest in the world and a further one that will then take over the title when it opens! Dubai is that kind of place. I had a look around the mall, which took longer than expected, admiring the impressive architecture and enjoying a somewhat incongruous, but very well presented, display of Irish dancing!
Back at the Hilton, I had time for afternoon tea in the Club and some further relaxation before enjoying the Club's happy hour cocktails and canapés, and a Mexican buffet dinner in one of the restaurants.
