2013 Indonesia, Dubai Stopover

London 20.3. 2013

Awoke to another dreary cold day, another of months of ongoing winter gloom that seemed to never ending this year.
But the plus side today is we're leaving at around 20:00 for out flight to Indonesia, and better still I'm working from home today,

It was a relatively quite day workwise and I was able to finish early and help with final packing and preparation. Very soon our cab arrived and we're off to Gatwick to catch the flight.

But of delayed start but soon on our way. with the kids maxing out usage of in-flight entertainment.
Around 6.5 hrs later we landed in Dubai and exited into 30+ degree heat, such a luxury!
We eventually bought day tickets from the Metro and made our way to the Emirates Towers stop and caught a cab to the Jumeira Mosque, in time for the organized tour.


This tour was about an hour and 15 minutes and I found myself nodding and woke myself up snoring! Didn't seem to raise eyebrows too much and Ruby was fully stretched out asleep on the floor.



Cabbed it back to the Metro and after a change of line and a few stops to Al Ras, we emerged near the Gold Souk which was 10 min's walk through thronging market streets.
The Gold Souk is literally that, with gold shops from one to the other.
There were some very impressive pieces, often encrusted with diamonds for extra effect. Some pieces were enormous, more like the size of a shawl. I didn't bother to even look at the prices. 




So, now time to eat, but there seemed very few restaurants in that area.
Eventually found an Indian restaurant called 'Bangalore', with some help from the local workers who seemed to be predominantly Indian.
The restaurant was very similar to ones we'd used in India, good vegetarian Pouri and rice and incredibly cheap. It was 14 Dirham for the whole meal including extra rice, so around £4-5.



After what seemed a long and sweaty walk back to the Metro we decided not to bother trying to do much more and head back to the airport. We'd been within about 1 km of the Burj Khalifa tower, and that was probably the best prospect for it anyway, so never mind.
It is certainly an impressive building, but at the same time leads to thinking 'what's the point?'
Soon it will be second highest to another massive structure being built in China somewhere, so it'll only be the biggest dick for a few short years.


We eventually found some chairs we could stretch out at the airport, which in itself is almost as impressive as the Burj Khalifa tower because it is absolutely massive. Seemed very soon we were back on the plane heading for Jakarta, and suffering the usual round of airline food, improved a bit by washing down with as much red wine as possible.



Ruby's Dubai diary