DUBAI
- Tara Larkai
- Jul 7, 2014
- 4 min read
Our flight to Dubai was with Turkish airlines. After a painless check in and going thru security, we were now going through passport control A.K.A immigration. Still does not make sense to me that some countries only do passport on your exit out of the country. Our flight had a 2 hour layover in Istanbul therefore we did not arrive in Dubai until 6am the next morning. The Dubai airport is enormous and beautifully equipped with modern technology. At that time, the airport was empty; the only people in the airport were the people from our flight. After a very long walk from our gate we finally made it to the immigrant/customs area, there were about 10 open kiosks with immigration officers. The lines were very short too. Our immigration officer was pleasant and handsome if I may add. He briefly asked me a couple questions about my trip and stamped my passport with a big smile on his face. I think he wanted me! Lol
Prior to going on our tour, we had read a lot of blogs about Dubai and almost all of the blogs talked about how religious and conservative it is. We read that Women and men were segregated in many places such as the airport, buses and other places. We also read that women were not allowed to show their shoulders and legs. Women could not purchase alcohol and plenty of other restrictions on women. Failure to comply with any of these traditions or law could possibly result in jail time. So going in, I was a little uneasy. I did not want to do or say the wrong thing and definitely did not want to wear anything offensive. We hired a taxi to take us to our hotel which was located in the business bay area of Dubai. There was mad traffic during that time so it took us about 40 minutes to get there. We had reservations at the JW Marriot Marquis hotel. Upon arrival to the hotel, I had a flashback of our experience at the JW Marriot hotel in Hong Kong. The hotel is gorgeous from the outside and even better inside. The lobby was a large open area with several stations for concierge, tourism, and attendants. There were several large colorful floral centerpieces that brought a lush and warm ambiance to the room. I was still in my tacky airport outfit wearing sandals with socks. I was very embarrassed as it looked like I did not belong in that hotel. Chloe’s name was on the reservation so I waited in the lobby while she checked in. I kept thinking that we would receive the same treatment we did in Hong Kong so I had no hope in staying there. Instead the people were pleasantly nice and greeted us with bottles of water. Chloe had a key in her hand after 15 minutes. I was shocked but did not want to get excited yet until we had reached our room. The room was spectacular! I have stayed in many hotels in my lifetime and I can honestly say that this is at the top of my list. It was pure perfection. It was a large room with two queen beds and nicely decorated with modern artwork. There was a large desk with over 5 different international electrical outlets. The in-room media included a 40 inch LCD TV, IPOD dock station and a high tech touch screen monitor that allows guests to call for room service and other services without a telephone. It was very unique. The bathroom was my favorite part. It was a large marble spa bathroom with an oversized bathtub, separate walk-in shower, and a big double sink vanity area with complimentary products that were restocked daily.
After oohing and aahing of the room, we decided to get in a couple of hours of sleep before our escapades for the night. One of our other friends was joining us in Dubai and we had planned to take Chloe on an Arabian style dinner for her birthday, desert safari dinner. The desert safari tour began by our guide picking us up from the hotel around 4pm for the experience in a Toyota 4x4 truck. There were two other people in our party. We drove about 30 minutes before getting off the main roads onto the sand dunes. Part of the experience was to drive on the sand dunes wildly then we stopped halfway thru to get pictures. After this, we were taken to the camp site for our experience. There were henna tattoo artists, camel riding, jewelry vendors, bar, belly dancers and Middle Eastern costume for tourists to pose in. After all the fun, we enjoyed a traditional Middle Eastern buffet dinner. It was delicious! Thinking about it now makes my mouth water. Our adventure ended with performances by a couple of Arabian dancer performances. The desert safari was such a great experience. I recommend this to anyone visiting Dubai.
Comments