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I realized I never wrote a post about spending 22 hours in Dubai. If I were to have a chance to either layover at the airport for 4-8 hours or 22 hours, I would choose 4-8. Dubai is just not an easy city to enjoy, unless you are insanely rich.

I flew into Dubai around noon – I had my camera bag and carry-on duffel bag to lug around with me. Going through immigration was kind of silly – the woman had trouble understanding that I didn’t have a hotel in Dubai and that staying in the airport didn’t make sense to her. She eventually stamped my passport and let me onto UAE soil. It took about 10 minutes to walk from there to the metro station, since the arrivals hall is longer than a football field.

I took the metro to the Mall of the Emirates, which is one of the largest indoor malls in the world. It was huge – I took multiple hours just wandering around and didn’t actually buy anything. Since it was a bit past noon when I got there, I eventually wound up choosing to eat at “The Butcher Shop and Grill”, which is an import from South Africa, where they apparently have excellent steaks and meats. I got a steak sandwich, which was actually really damn good, probably because I hadn’t had beef for more than 3 weeks since I was coming from India. A great meal, actually:

From Dubai

I spent more time wandering the mall, including looking at Ski Dubai, an indoor ski slope:

From Dubai

Around 5ish I made the choice to try and visit the Atlantis Hotel, since it’s apparently one of the nicest in the world. So, I hopped into a cab – the driver was confused when I said “Atlantis” and responded with “Palm Hotel?” Since the Atlantis is located on a man-made palm shaped island, I figured that’s what he meant and confirmed that. After driving for almost 45 minutes, I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to the Atlantis hotel and shortly thereafter, I got dropped off at “The Palm Hotel,” a random hotel. I went inside and asked the conceriege how to get to the Atlantis hotel, explaining that my driver took me here by mistake. He told me to get on the nearest metro and go to the Mall of the Emirates and then take a cab from there to the hotel. That was frustrating, since I had just come from there! So, I begrudgingly went to the nearest metro stop and then headed to the mall once again. The next cab driver I had near where the Atlantis was and I got there in one piece, albeit after a 1.5 hour detour.

Unfortunately, only guests staying at the hotel can get inside the main part of the hotel, so I was dropped off at the shopping/restaurant/aquarium side of the hotel. Since I had spend so much time trying to get here, I walked slowly through the small amount of shops (felt so small after being in the Mall of the Emirates) and then went to their aquarium. It was 100 dirhams (~$27 USD) to go inside. I did feel a bit cheated – while it’s probably super-impressive to have a giant aquarium in the middle of a desert, the displays paled to the breadth of experience you get in Monterey. I guess I’m spoiled. Nonetheless, I did find Nemo!

From Dubai

Coupled with kids running around the getting their fingerprints on the glass, it wasn’t the best use of my time. I then wandered outside to take a picture of the hotel that I never got to go inside:

From Dubai

By that time it was early evening, so I headed back to the Mall of the Emirates. I ate a Big Mac meal from McDonald’s and wandered over to the arcade section of the mall. It was actually pretty darn impressive – a carousel, bowling alley, and some random thrill ride that didn’t look very fun to me because a mechanical arm just tosses you around:

From Dubai

I did play Guitar Hero, and got a high score by a longshot. Maybe the score will stand the test of time!

From Dubai

By then it was closing in on 9PM, so I slowly made my way back to the metro stop and back to the airport. The airport was literally empty and getting through customs and security was a breeze. I then came to the international terminal and that’s when I realized that’s where everyone stays! The place was crawling with people laying over from flights around the world. Emirates is flying to places around the world 24 hours a day, so every hour they would be calling a flight. I tried to kill more time by walking around and checking out Duty Free stores, eventually buying some chocolates. Others were purchasing bags and bags of Kit-Kats (to which I wondered…why?). I got to around midnight and decided I had enough – I found a ‘quiet’ corner of the airport and sat in one of their chairs and slept. Luckily I got in around 6-7 hours and didn’t have to be bored throughout the ‘night’. A lot of other people were in similar situations, there were entire families sleeping or queuing up for their next flight. Ridiculous.

By morning and by the time I was on my flight, I was happy to leave Dubai.

If I had a long layover again, I would have probably done Ski Dubai – it was about 180 AED to ski or snowboard for two hours, which is a pretty reasonable use of time when you think about it. I would have done it had it not been for my long detour in a useless cab ride. And if I had a few days in Dubai, I probably would have gone on one of their desert safaris, plus checked out their Spice Souk and perhaps some of their nicer restaurants. I guess it’s hard to travel to Dubai by yourself, as a lot of the stuff is likely enjoyed in the company of others. And the hotels and activities – well, if you’re really rich I’m sure it could be a lot more enjoyable. So that’s my experience with Dubai.