Happy 2023! I got to travel to Dubai to spend some time with my parents and celebrate New Years.
My parents and I were supposed to meet up on the 27th, but flight issues for them left them stranded until the 29th. I was supposed to leave the night of Jan 2nd but luckily we booked a flexible ticket and I extended my stay until the 5th and got to spend a few extra days with them.
I had never actually flown out of the Entebbe airport before but have been plenty of times to drop people off. I was questioning if I really needed to arrive at the recommended 2-3 hours prior to departure but I opted to be safe rather than sorry since I was checking a bag and I'm SO GLAD I did.
Between entering the airport and boarding my flight, my passport, visa, and other travel documents were checked no less than17 times (no joke...I literally started counting). It seemed excessive. Someone told me afterwards it was to cut down on bribery and extortion, but it gave me the opposite impression. I prayed so much that morning that no one would target me because I literally had like 5k of Ugandan money (~$1.30) on me at the time and would not have gotten very far with that little leverage. Ha!
I flew with flyDubai and it was good. No problems or issues and they made changing my flight pretty easy as well. My only silly complaint would be the waters they gave us. The packaging reminded me of individual pudding packages and they only contained 100ml of water...needless to say by the end of the flight I had an entire stack of these little water packets!
When I arrived in Dubai the city seemed to be in a flurry and someone told me Dubai had just had a rain storms and it pretty much inundated the city so transport might be a bit slow. I thought he was joking (being in one of the most engineered cities in the world) until my Uber explained that it really only rains two times a year or so and most of the infrastructure is designed with that in mind.
We stayed at the Dubai marina and I spent the first morning exercising in the hotel gym, exploring the marina area and grabbing some food and coffee. I almost cried tears of excitement and happiness at the gym just having basic amenities like a covered gym floor (not carpet covered dirt) and matching weights. It really relaxed my soul to be in such a familiar environment again. I don't drink much coffee, but even having the option of getting a good latte is a luxury I haven't had in a while!
Later that day I walked up and explored the area of town near the Jumireh Beach and the Burj Al Arab. I somehow ended up just walking into areas that were probably off-limits to non-guests, and ended up enjoying some live music from a cabana by the pool and got a free drink. I didn't feel like pushing my luck after catching one of the most gorgeous sunsets over the water so I took off to grab some food and head home.
My parents joined the next day and over the source of the week we visited the Burj Khalifa, Old Town/Souk areas, the Palm, JBR Beach (with Krispy Kremes!) and Atlantis.
We typically grabbed lunch at a local market or restaurant and had some great dinners in the marina area. I so much enjoyed getting good cheese, greek yogurt, sushi, and fresh green salads again!
We rang in the New Year on the harbor with at least eight sets of fireworks going off all around us silhouetting the skyscrapers and landmarks of the city. It was awesome!
We did TONS of walking (about 7-9 miles per day) and soaked up all the sunny 75 degree weather (albeit a bit windy). It was comfortable but I can't imagine going to Dubai in the summer when temps reach upwards to 110 F daily.
Dubai is a relatively expensive city (especially coming from Uganda), but normal daily expenditures didn't seem that out of line with the US. Yes, there were definitely ways to splurge, but you could still see a lot and experience the city without breaking the bank.
I was a bit worried that I would not want to come back to Uganda after living in the luxury for a bit, but it felt like a nice reprieve rather than an escape. I really enjoyed the clean organized city, high-powered washing machine, clean shoes, drinking water, and ability to keep my white clothes clean for the time I was there...oh yeah and seeing my parents ;). I think it was different enough culturally that it still felt like a foreign adventure rather than a reminder of something familiar and I really did feel ready to come back to Uganda nearing the end of the trip to take on T1-2023.
-
Kommentare