November 22: 🚢
Land Excursion: No joke, it's raining AND hailing in Dubai
Another "wall to wall" day of Dubai and despite my good intentions to put my thoughts down at 4 am tacked onto a loo stop - i just couldn't do it. Managed to check the Ausssie football score (oh dear, money does talk apparently in the $1 billion difference in the player pool) but then succumbed to the call for more sleep. No doubt the lack of time pressure helps - going to have multiple hours starting this evening when we answer the pickup call for the airport at 11 pm.
Definitely rolled back over and had no trouble picking up slumbering just where I left off. Apparently I slept through the duelling midnight alarms and @Mac did a fancy slap and tap combination to silence them both.
We had crammed so much into the day-that-was though.
The morning - personal exploration at Atlantis
Tuesday morning saw us up at 6.30 to a bitterly cold 18.9 in the room (we really can't work out this touch panel do-hickey) and the fog vista which obscures the horizon and admitting that we are still a little sleep foggy as well. And yes, Dr Google had coughed up some incredible stats for us on the air quality in Dubai - man oh man, it's filthy.
Anyway, on with the show. Headed to Kitchen6 for breakfast (we did get lost cause we headed to level 6 ... silly billies) and after two separate escorts by staff to get us back on track, emerged somehow from Tower B instead of Tower A. As we gave our room number were greeted by the welcoming staff with a cheery "Good morning Mr and Mrs Chang." We could only smile and nod, as we had confused ourselves as well as everyone else. As we settled into our first breakfast selection the cheery welcoming staff member did come and ask for us to "sign in" and clarify our "exact" room number. Seems as if both towers A and B are numbered in the same way and there was a little bit of concern because there were now four "Changs" in Kitchen6 instead of just the real two from Tower B.
Amused us for a little while. And, I am sure we will be better tomorrow monring.
All sorted and ready in the foyer for the @LoRi meetup at 8.15 and we immediately bundled into a taxi for the 40-minute ride out to Atlantis. @Liz had filled us with tales of this magnificent resort which is perched imposingly on the outer ring of the totally man created reclaimed series of canals called the Palm Jumeirah. Certainly a testament to the vision of Dubai - let's just create our own landmass by filling in the ocean in any shape we choose and then fill it with the most extraordinary assortment of residences, shopping malls, beaches and boardwalks. Why not?
Unfortunately, we were not amongst the elite of the elite and despite our best efforts at sneaking in, we were thwarted at every turn and hedge by super vigilant staff.
We could only gain access to the shopping precinct (which was closed cause we were so early) and the entrance way to the "largest water park in the world" Couldn't resist hamming it up with the photo ops and the line of the month has to go to @Loraine. As @Mac perched himself in the chair of Atlantis, she quipped with a very cheeky grin AND a wink, "Show us your trident." He had no answer to that one.
Finally opted for a stroll along the boardwalk in an attempt to reach the beaches. Um, no luck there either - everything was a "private" beach and again, all were manned by vigilant security.
Perched ourselves up in the monorail and took a ride to gain a bird's eye view of the fronds and afforded ourselves better views of the hotels and beaches. Interestingly, there was a British couple on the monorail and they were guests at Atlantis and hearing of our foiled attempts at gaining entry, were only too pleased to take out their phones and share their stay via their pictures. Quite funny really - but we did get to see what we missed.
(Just BTW, we have since found out - far too late of course - that we should have got off the train at the Pointe Station - and we would have had stunning views of Atlantis AND had access to the beaches. Bugger. So close.)
Followed the signs to the taxi rank, only the be accosted by a very "un taxi" and because we were very pressed for time in meeting our noon deadline at "the tallest building in the world" decided to "take the risk" and jumped in the unmetered hybrid Tesla and took the ride for a pre-negotiated fare. I mean, with four of us, how much trouble could we possibly be in.
Midday on top of the world with more personal arrangements
No worries as it turned out - and arrived back at the Dubai Mall right on time to collect our tickets, in our designated time slot, for the ascent of the Burj Khalifa. Was almost a 15-minute walk to the entry and then a series of very long and extremely slow-moving queues for another 20 minutes until we were at the head of the elevator for the ascent. Totally bamboozled as to WHY you need a timeslot - there were hundreds of people in the queue.
Fabulous 360 views across the landscape - contrasts of water, expanses of desert sand, low rise white residential homes and the gleam and uniqueness of every tower in downtown Dubai. Only trouble was that the "mist" was still in evidence and some areas were in your imagination rather than in your view.
The building stands at 828 m tall and has been open since 2010 we were viewing from the 125 th floor but it was possible to go even higher for a food and drinks experience at levels 152, 153, and 154.
Had our turn strolling around and snapping from every vantage point and then had to join a queue for exit. Your 30 minutes at the top of the tower needs to tack on almost 90 minutes of queueing and walking. When we booked last night, we opted for the lower level because we really couldn't imagine that we would want MORE food and drink. On reflection, we would definitely choose the higher floors - those guests were VIPs and they totally skipped all the queuing. Benefit of hindsight.
Grabbed a bite to eat (cannot possibly confess that we joined Colonel Sanders) and then we were scurrying to make the return walk to join up with the courtesy bus. As we popped out of the doors, @Loraine commented "It looks like rain." Surely not, not in Dubai.
But rain it did. It started as a little patter of "disbelief" on the dry pavement and before we knew it the HAIL was tip tapping and bouncing across the road. The wind whipped up, the thunder roared and with just 5 minutes, things started to overflow in waterfalls. Lasted about 15 minutes in total and then it cleared. We joined the bus and the driver had to negotiate the water covered round abouts and roadways on our journey back to the JW Marriott.
How bizarre.
Afternoon: rejoined tour for Desert Safari
No time to ponder that - it was a quick change of clothing and then into the lobby and sorted into groups of four to load into the 4x4 vehicles in a convoy of 50 vehicles to take the 2 hour journey into the desert. @Rashid was quiet as our driver but was able to answer our questions and keep us entertained with his ever-changing playlist from his phone on the trip along the highway. @Achmed had spent time in the morning telling us of the big brother system of monitoring drivers and the huge fines that were handed out by an automated letter from a speed camera if a driver even thought about touching a mobile phone. @Rashid must have known where the cameras were placed - otherwise he would have accumulated a squillion in fines.
Once we turned off though, it was the desert that intrigued. A totally different vista from our previous experience at Fujairah. No mountains here, just flat undulations of white dunes. We followed a path under the powerlines and eventually came to a halt and after conflabs out the window with other drivers - did a U-turn. Apparently, we had misplaced the camel farm rendezvous point. Tried another little trek with the same result and another U-turn. Getting serious now and the 10 drivers in this little sub convoy left their vehicles and had a serious conflab, complete with animated language and waving of hands, until a location signal was received and we followed Google maps to an enclosure housing some camels. Definitely never lost - according to our tour leader @Achmed these drivers know every grain of sand in this desert - it was just that we couldn't find the camel farm.
It was really only a rendezvous point so that the drivers could deflate the tyres and then it was into the dunes. Must say that @Rashid was definitely gung-ho and this was a wild ride with lots of slipping and sliding and mad spinning of the steering wheel - wasn't quite the gentle "no need to hold on" experience that I had outlined for @LoRi. Again a journey up the sand hills. across the top, down the sides, bumping along and lots of fish tails (is that what they are called) until we finally came to a stop at the base of a sandhill ready to view the setting sun.
Many
Only one cloud in the sky, and despite some determined climbing by many riders to seek the top of the sand dune for a better view, the sun was definitely hidden behind the cloud and the sunset came and went without the eagerly anticipated iconic photo opportunities. Must warn the uninitiated here, going up is more back sliding than you would think, but slow amd steady does it. Coming back down is an entirely different story. One gentleman was out of control- like a twisting ball in the bowling alley - complete with a strike at the base. He only took out one lady, skittles her flat to the ground and landed flat on his face on her back. Very fortunate that nonone was seriously hurt.
An Arabian Nights evening with the Bedouins
Nothing to do for it other than pump up the tyres and make the return journey to the highway and head for the night time dinner in the Sahara Camp. Think "Outback Spectacular" here. A very similar concept. Outdoor seating for about 500 divided into three zones with three setups of buffets. Tables and chairs OR can sit on cushions in a "tent like" structure (glad we had tables and chairs.)
There were mock-ups of Bedouin tents and souks and a temple. Photo ops with a falcon (@Mac didn't have enough hands to carry drinks and bags and then snap a pic), camel and Arabian horse rides and of course loads of food and entertainment. Treated to musical introduction (don't know the name of the instrument), belly dancers, fire eaters and the crazy spinning dervish of the Tanoura Dance.
Reloaded into the vehicles and completed the home journey via the highway and can't tell you how glad we were to see the lights of Dubai welcoming us back.
What a big day. There is so much to see and do in this place but have to confess the combination of traffic and the sheer number of tourists add to the challenge of getting around and getting in to see anything. With a "vison" to transform Dubai into a tourism mecca you would definitely need way more time to "experience" all it has to offer.
Weather: 31 and it rained and hailed!
Steps: 17 698
#RegentSevenSeasExplorer #RegentSevenSeas #RegentCruise
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