Hey all. It’s Sunday and on Sundays I have been taking you through the experiences I had earlier this year as I travelled late January to April from Dhaka Bangladesh to Dakar Senegal. And so it comes today to my short stop in Dubai. I’ve already written about my day at the Atlantis Aqua Adventure Park, and so now it’s time to turn to the rest of time in Dubai.

I stayed at the Millenium Place Barsha Heights, a four star hotel not too far from the Jumeirah area – but quite far from most things. The stay was comfortable and despite the lack-lustre attitude by the staff towards the patrons, I was pretty happy with the choice. It cost less than $100USD per night so that was a pretty decent price for a four star hotel including a massive buffet breakfast. Check out the above video to get a sense of the place.

So to be honest, Dubai was a location I had pencilled in before I left as a bit of a ‘pit stop’ if you will. That is a chance to pause and relax. And the hotel came in handy for that. It had a couple of pools next to each other next to a restaurant and I spent time in and around the pools on at least three days there. I also took the chance to do some editing and book ahead for the buses I would need to take for my next country, which just happened to be Saudi Arabia.

Annoyingly the roaming feature on the phone worked differently in UAE (and Oman) and so I couldn’t just have my phone connected all the time because it would have seen charges soar quickly. One half hour of using data in Muscat Airport cost me over $100AUD.

Despite the location of the hotel, getting around Dubai wasn’t that hard although I did have to use the odd taxi here and there. Walking to the closest metro station took 20-30 minutes, but the metro did get me to most places I needed to go. It was, however, packed on every ride. I discovered on the last day that the cost to go in the first class cabin was almost negligible and you could almost always find a seat in that carriage. Or half carriage as it usually was.

I gave myself one day out in Dubai to see what I could see. I headed out to an attraction called ‘The Frame’. It is located next to this big park called ‘Zabeel Park’. I got off at the appropriate stop. It wasn’t too far to the park entrance. You have to pay to get into Zabeel Park but if you go to The Frame it’s included in that ticket. It just meant I had to walk around the park to The Frame entrance. And that was a kilometre or so.

Prices for adults range from 50AED to 100 or more AED to the Frame. There’s a bit of queuing involved too. Who doesn’t love a good queue? 50AED is around $14USD which is the main reason I chose the Frame over the Burj Khalifa, at present the tallest building in the world, which is three times the price. On top of that you have to book a couple of days in advance to go up the Burj Khalifa.

The Frame is a gold coloured giant frame and you take as lift/elevator up one side of the frame, walk across the part at the top and then come down the other side also in a lift. There’s a glass floor and some great views, at 150 metres at the top. When you come down there is the predictable chance to buy photos and gifts. All in all, you need 15 minutes at the top to get enough photos before you want to go down. In reality, there’s a long queue for the lift to co0me down that added half an hour on my stay at The Frame. Would I recommend it? I don’t know. It is was it is. It’s there to make money which I presume it does as it’s novel and they have plenty of people paying to go up it.

The Zabeel Gardens were a nice stroll but there was nothing that made them special. They did have a couple of charging stations for mobile phone which weren’t working, and an amphitheatre. I guess though it’s impressive because it is a large garden in the desert, but then Dubai and cities like it in the Middle East have certainly learnt to move and harness water to make such spaces.

I headed to the Dubai Mall for lunch. There was a huge food court with so many options. I can’t remember the last time I actually saw a ‘Wimpys’ but they have one there. One of the biggest food courts/halls I’ve ever seen. There’s also an aquarium there as well and an ice skating rink, it’s all very impressive. The Dubai Mall Waterfalls are also very impressive.

Outside is a small lake or very large pond depending on your point of view. It’s a lovely area to walk around and pose for photos, and there are a number of restaurants with views of it too. At certain times of the day the fountains activate, but I was there for an hour or more and they didn’t whilst I was there.

Behind the Dubai Fountain stands the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Just because I wanted going to fork out the money to go up it didn’t mean that I couldn’t admire it from below, which is exactly what I did. Dubai has a number of malls and they are tourist sites in their own right I guess with aquariums and the like to check out inside. And usually they can be seen at least for free.

Then I took the metro back to the Mall of the Emirates, because the hotel shuttle bus picked people up from there. I walked past Ski Dubai, a massive indoor ski park which I had tried out back in 2009 which was very cool. This time I just took a couple of shots for the vlog, but I had had a busy day.

And really, this little list is a complete summary of my time in Dubai. I was there for five days/nights, the first I arrived, the second I did what I have outlined today, the third I rested, the fourth I went to Aqua Adventure and the fifth – which was an extra day – I relaxed and prepped for Saudi Arabia, which I will start to unravel for you next Sunday.

Dubai, to be honest, is a bit too much glitz and glamour for me, and not the sort of place I would normally spend too much time in. But it’s a comfortable option too, and whilst it is certainly not cheap, there are more expensive cities in the world. Thanks for popping by today, take care wherever you are in the world, and May the Journey Never End!