Day 15 - Homebound

With the alarms set for 4am we didn't get too much sleep. We quickly finished the packing and checked out of the hotel by 5am.

All packed and ready to leave 

Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport is like a Disco

After check in - at Dubai International Airport

We had to take a bus to the plane, a tad annoying, which did mean it took longer to load everyone on board, so we took off a little late. The fight was just over 8 hours back to Dublin.

Our boarding gate

Our vegan arabic breakfast on board Emirates

During the flight we managed to squeeze in three movies (including Die Harder A Good Day to Die Hard and Olympus has fallen) on their impressive in flight entrainment system, which provided up to three screens!

The "ICE" information, communication and entertainment system on board Emirates. 

Due to local fog we circled Dublin for quite a while but landed safe and sound.

We've had an incredible adventure over the last two weeks. The contrast between China and The United Arab Emirates is great. We have loved both cities and are sure to visit both again.

Thanks for taking the time out to come on this journey with us, it's been great reading the comments. It's really appreciated.

Until our next adventure!

Patrick & Vinnie

Day 14 - Last day in Dubai

It's was our last full day in Dubai today, we fly home tomorrow morning. In keeping with our routine we got up around 10am and gorged ourselves on the massive breakfast buffet supplied by the hotel.

We spent at least 4 hours down by the pool you could get used to this heat. And today they even supplied some ice cold towel to cool use down! Perfect.

Ice cold towels where provided to cool down

We decided to head to the Dubai Outlet Mall in the afternoon. It's not connected to the metro so we had to take a taxi. They built this mall out in DubaiLand, an area which was meant to be home to numerous theme parks, alas nothing has been build. They do still have a gate for Universal World, but that's about it. It's all desert.

The Burj Khalifa (the worlds tallest building) as seen from the taxi

We didn't stay to long at the outlet mall as we just weren't in the shopping mood, so we jumped into a taxi and headed to the Dubai Mall (as you do).  Being the worlds largest mall it's more like a city. There is just so much to do there. We adore it.

Driving through the desert en route to The Dubai Mall

At the waterfall in The Dubai Mall 

A quick break for a very delicious Costa at The Dubai Mall

If you ever make it to Dubai, The Dubai Mall is a must see. It will take you hours to visit and experience it all. We've been back to it 6 or 7 times and we still haven't done it all. It's designed like a high street with a mixture of department stores, shops and restaurants along the same strip. It's also a theme park with an ice rink, aquarium and that famous dancing fountain which has a show every 30 mins from 6pm until 11pm. It is currently the  worlds largest choreographed fountain system!

The stunning aquarium inside The Dubai Mall

Under the Burj Khalifa, the worlds tallest building

The fountain show is worlds largest choreographed fountain system

After some supply shopping for the journey home in Waitrose we headed back to the hotel to pack and try to sleep. Our flight is at 7am so we aim to be out of the hotel by 5am. 

Day 13 - Aquaventure

There was no pool stop this morning for us, instead we packed our bags and headed on over to the man made island , The Palm Jumeirah.

Getting there involved taking the metro to Internet city, taking a taxi to the Palm Monorail and riding that down to meet the Atlantis hotel and Aquaventure at the end of the palm itself. 

We did visit this Waterpark before but we had to come back as it only expanded over the weekend to include a new set of slides. It's expensive to get in, €50 each. No food is allowed in, they do search your bags (but not your pockets). 

On our first slide we somehow found ourselves on the one we didn't want to ride. Six of us inside a tube going up wards and falling with a weightless feeling mid air. It was horrendous but amazing. 

We remained in the park until closing which is sunset (6pm). We took a taxi back to the hotel and enjoy a massive dinner at Wagamama which is in our hotel. 

We walked off the dinner by taking a stroll around the gold souk area near Deira and the Creek. We were the only tourists. There where no malls or big brand stores. This area was very local and immigrant heavy. Great to see. 

We rounded he evening off with a dance at the hotel nightclub. It was "ladies" night and featured a guy planing the drums in time to the dance music.  

Day 12 - Downton Dubai

It was another HOT day in Dubai. After we ate our weight in food at the breakfast buffet (mainly Indian) we lounged by the pool until mid afternoon. A perfect way to unwind and relax. 

We took the metro some 50 minutes out into the sunburbs and the desert to visit the IBN Mall. Thankfully we had seats all the way. The mall wasn't linked to the station so we did have to brave the heat, sand and motorway. 

Some of the must have ladies fashions are below:

They certainly love their giant supermarkets and the one at this mall is no exception:

They burn oud insense everywhere here, it's very beautiful. 

They are even partial to the odd camel

milk latte!

We took the metro back into town and out to Deira to visit the City Centre mall. 

Rounding off the day we took a taxi to one of the only bars with beer gardens in the city, aptly named The Irish Village. It was packed with live music being performed. 

Getting back to the hotel after midnight we settled in to watch all new Downton Abbey live along with home. 

Day 11 - Pool and Mall

Now we are in Dubai we can in earnest start to relax more and more. This morning was spent feasting on the wonderful breakfast buffet in the hotel followed by a nice three hour rest by the pool. Again temperatures are high 30s. It's too warm to sit in the sun, so we remained under the umbrella and took regular dips in the chilled pool water to keep cool.

The view from our room - the desert

Poolside

In the late afternoon we took the metro over to the Mall of the Emirates - the second largest mall in the area. This is the mall made famous for having a ski slope.

Inside the Mall of the Emirates

The Mall of the Emirates

Ski Dubai

Surprisingly there are no Abercrombie brands here in Dubai, so we where stunned to see a Hollister is opening here later this year. 

A new Hollister Store will open in Mall of the Emirates later this year

We stayed in later that evening (early morning) having a rest and catching up on some XFactor and TV from home.

Day 10 - Dubai

It was a rather quick flight back to Dubai (7ish hours) - we landed around 4am just ahead of the morning rush. It felt odd seeing the airport so "empty". By the time we cleared immigration our bags where already revolving around the belt.

It was too early to take the metro to our hotel so we took a taxi. As we where arriving so early we had contacted the hotel in advance to move our last days breakfast move to this morning. We were allocated a temporary room to sleep too before getting a little mini apartment upgrade later that afternoon.

After a wonderful rest by the pool, temperature where high 30s, we freshened up and headed to the Dubai Mall. This place is massive. We spent 5 hours there, covered only two floors. Had dinner in Vapianos and watched the dancing fountain. Everything you could ever dream of is under it's roof. Last year we had to take a bus connection from the mall metro station, but over the last year they've build an air conditioned walkway, which must be at least 1.5km long. It's takes a good 15 mins to reach the mall. Thankfully it has moving walkways. 

Before heading back to the hotel we popped into Waitrose for some hotel provisions. 

We popped over to the Ibis hotel opposite ours for a drink at sublime lounge. We had to take a taxi as it was too warm to walk. Only €1 or so. Then we ventured into our packed hotel nightclub before calling it a night.

Day 1 - Half way to Hong Kong

Yes after one day we are only half way to Hong Kong. 

Our flight leaving Dublin took off just after 2pm and landed some 7 hours later in Dubai (midnight local time). Our route shown below took us over Syrian airspace too!

We face a 3 hour wait here before connecting onward to Hong Kong. That flight should take around 10 hours. 

The last time we flew to Hong Kong we connected in London with Quantas, but as we wanted to spend some time in Dubai on the way home it make sense to book everything through Emirates. Cheaper too. 

Checking in back in Dublin Airport was breeze, made simpler now we have digital boarding passes on our iPhones. 

We always love to stock up on vegetarian sandwiches in Boots to enjoy on board so we where thrilled to find Boots have recently opened a larger store in Terminal 1's The Street area. However to our dismay Boots Ireland have cut back and no longer import food items from The UK, opting for a local bland brand of meat sandwiches. Horrible. 

Thankfully the good inboard was great and plentiful. We preordered a vegan meal and were treated to a delicious potatoes curry. 

We connect with our flight to Hong Kong soon so we plan on browsing the Dubai Duty Free shops first before our second day starts and we finally arrive to Hong Kong!