Dubai: 8hr Layover

Our honeymoon adventure started with the most appreciated gateway we could have asked for an Emirates flight concierge handing us our tickets, followed by the words, "You have been upgraded," garnished with a faint smile and a wink. 

After leaving our wedding in Graham, Texas, we drove to Fort Worth, about an hour and a half drive, and arrived a few minutes past 2:00 am. The next morning, our flight was not unbearable, with an 11:00 am departure. However, sometime between the moment we got in the car to drive to Forth Worth the night before and the moment we arrived at our hotel, I became violently ill. The next morning, I felt like I was walking through a fog as I carried more tissues than luggage onto the plane.  This sudden aliment, mixed with the exhaustion from the wedding, not to mention the month of labor-intensive preparations that come with building your own barn, all surmounted into feelings of overwhelming love for this woman who just told me I would be able to sleep as we flew over the Atlantic on our way to Dubai.

So ready for take off so I can put this thing in a sleep position! 

I attribute this fortuitous moment to my less than covert tank top reading, “Just Married,” in rhinestones (thanks, Jena); regardless of the “why,” the “what” was incredible. I had already been building up the Emirates flight from rumors of the incredible service and luxurious visions the numerous Emirates billboards around DFW broadcasted. The reality of the laydown chairs and text-book-sized touchscreen control panel, in conjunction with the sea bass and lobster main course, was all that could have been imagined. Of course, this made the trip home two weeks later full of longing for what was behind the velvet red curtains separating the first class from the rest of us. But it is better to have loved than to never have loved at all.

We booked our plane itinerary so that our layover in Dubai would be worth the stop on our way to Bangkok. We had exactly eight hours between touchdown and departure. We spent the intermediate time wisely, and I will replicate this “quick-city-layover” tour again. We booked a Local Tour, in which a local picked us up right at the airport and personally gave us an exemplary history and current viewpoint of the city as we drove to each of the “must-see” sites, such as the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world),  Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs hotel designed like a sailboat and often, though not officially, accredited the only 7 star hotel in the world), Palm Islands (artificial archipelago in the shape of a Palm Tree), the largest indoor ski mountain and many more  "largest, tallest, greatest.."  

Of course, some of our favorite spots were those off the “path most traveled,” such as a local market where we had Camel Milk ice cream (a trip favorite).

When our four-hour tour was over, Aarif (our tour guide) dropped us off at The Dubai Mall, where we quickly ate and saw the world's largest degree-viewing glass indoor aquarium. We ended our Dubai experience by rolling our carry-ons outside the mall. We found a spot on the densely packed stairs surrounding the world's largest performing fountain stretching between the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa. The show is quite amazing with the backdrop of the Burj Khalifa, which sometimes sparkles like the Eiffel Tower, but the water hitting as high as fifty stories holds its own without the magnificent backdrop. 

After the show, we followed other tourists and locals to the metro station to return to the airport. One thing you will notice about public transportation in Dubai, which can be said for the city in general, is that "it's clean, very clean." Another characteristic of the metro and city alike is safety. Wherever we went, after taking a moment to wipe away the fog that immediately covered my glasses when we stepped outside the car (heat like you cannot imagine), I was always surprised by how clean everything was. 

While clean and safe do not perfectly correlate with a comparison to Las Vegas, there is one obvious parallel: you need a lot of money to fully enjoy Dubai. Staying long in this incredible new city would be hard without prolific funds. However, an eight-hour layover to hit the most impressive sites (from a distance, since again, it would be incredibly expensive to see from the inside) and see some of the "largest, tallest, greatest.." that are free, like the fountain and the aquarium, and the ski mountain from the outside the glass, provides a great glimpse into what makes this city so unique and why so many gravitate to it. 

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