Dubai oh Dubai~~~
It is pronounced as Dubayy by the local residents in the city.
It is a city of superlatives and also loads of man-made stuffs. Many asked if I had a good time and whether Dubai is worth visiting. I replied, "It should be in your bucket list. You need to visit the city at least once in your lifetime."
I enjoyed myself while some did not. But, for those who did, we began to appreciate Mother Nature even more. Dubai does not have its own natural resources other than oil and gas, so every living flora and fauna are very precious to the state. The city was originally a desert and in the short span of 30 years, it boomed and became one of the best cities in the world to visit.
Day 1 - itinerary
1) Penang - Singapore
2) Singapore - Dubai
3) Traders Hotel by Shangri-La - Dubai Mall
With fellow pretty colleagues in Changi Airport, Singapore during transit to Dubai.
It was one of the best company trips I've been (even though this was only my second one) because I get to meet all my colleagues from Penang and KL branches. Once a year, we gather and start to gossip about work and exchanged information! Haha.. Maybe it is not really a good idea.
Gate E8 at Terminal 2 - luckily there was a water cooler and plenty of power plugs to charge our phones!
Beef free meal. Never again.
The flight was 7h 40m and we flew with Singapore Airlines (SQ). I didn't really sleep because it was during the day and I don't want to go through a jet lag. Eventually, I did take a short nap and watched about 2 movies or so.
With my travel buddies
By the time we arrived at Dubai Airport, it is already 7pm and when we finished and exited from the immigration checks, it is already 9pm! It was the longest wait ever at the immigration and don't be surprise when there isn't any information or arrival card to be filled in upon arriving the city.
Our tour buses were late and we had to depart not accordingly. We just filled up the bus as we go rendering some with missing luggages as they thought their bags would've been collected and placed in the bus. Imagine the shock when they got to know that their bags were left at the baggage claim area still. Fortunately, everyone found their bags.
We bunked in at Traders Hotel by Shangri-La. I liked Shangri-La hotels. We stayed at Rasa Sayang Shangri-La resort before in Penang and loved the king-sized bed. So, for this hotel, I shared a room with my new roommate, Mei and we had a good sleep. The bed was not as hard and the pillows were the best! Good down pillows and very nice to hug with.
Bathroom facilities were fantastic and we got a bath tub too, unlike some.
So, rooms ending with 60 seems to be bigger in all floors.
Bathrobes if you need any to waltz in
After dropping off our bags and had our super late dinner (it was around 1am in Malaysia), few of us left for Dubai Mall to collect our tickets to see sunrise at Burj Khalifa. We took the local metro and were in awe. The station was very modern and very well maintained. It had good air-conditioning but the tickets were pricey. We paid AED14 for a return ticket (which we didn't use til midnight) and along the way, we get to see Dubai's night time.
So, the rumours were true. They do have Gold ATM machinese in the UAE and we were lucky to see one in Dubai Mall. Located at the lower ground of the Dubai Mall just outside Patiserrie, we were fascinated and intrigued by this machine. With a credit card, you can purchase any gold of your choice from AED580 onwards.
The available choices
There is also an indoor waterfall. We were late but guess what, the mall closes only at 12am on Fridays and Saturdays. It is their weekend by the way unlike the usual weekends in the rest of the world.
It was a short excursion to the Mall and we hope to drop by again some other time during our trip. We took the taxi back to our hotel. The taxi stand is located just behind this waterfall and there were plenty of taxis. When departing from the mall, the taxi fare starts from AED12 (instead of the usual AED 5.50) due to the government's regulation on all shopping malls. If you are travelling in a group of 4, then you can save on the taxi fare even more.
Gotta rush back to sleep and wake up to catch the sunrise at Burj Khalifa first thing in the morning.
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