Day 1: Flight and arrival in Dubai

It's 4am local time here in Dubai, 11pm back home. I'm not tired. I should be as I'd only 3 hours sleep yesterday. Everything is happening so quickly, there is so much to take in, new experiences, new cultures new ways of behaving (well I'm not a changing!). I usually got to bed around 4am back home, so I should be getting tired at 9am local, not good really.

This morning was a little rushed, I'm never organised. Jody picked me up at 8:30am and we where in the airport for 9am checked in and sitting in the AerLingus Lounge soon after. Dublin airport is a scream. Anything goes, if you a chat you get a chat. We had great craic with one of the ladies in Duty free over the Airport security. Oh and I was over weight in my suitcase, allowance is 20kg, I'm 26.5kg, ops! They never charged me. Let's see if they charge me tomorrow when I fly emirates over to India.

The AerLingus Dubai route has been in operation for some two or so years now, leaving Dublin every other day. It's scheduled to be retired later this month with the aircraft being put into service on a daily Dublin to San Francisco route. Connections between Dublin and the USA sell more. It wasn't a fancy AerLingus plane, no in-seat entertainment. I wasn't expecting much. AerLingus do have one single modern Airbus, it must be on the LA or San Francisco route. We pre-checked in online in advance and picked the exit row seats. Lots and lots of leg room, very nice indeed. We experienced a little turbulence on the way over, one very bad drop, but overall a very smooth and quick flight (around 7 hours) taking us across Europe, Turkey, close to Iran then over over the Gulf.

Food on board wasn't too good. I didn't get to take breakfast, which I regret, so I was a little hungry on board. Unfortunately my vegetarian request didn't go through completely. I'd asked for no-wheat and what did I get pasta and cake with milk. Not good. This is only the start, I'm sure I'm going to really struggle to maintain a vegan (no-wheat) diet on this trip. The staff did however manage to provide me some fresh bananas which filled the spot.

We arrived in Dubai some 20 minutes early due to the tail wind, first thing that hit me was the heat. It's nothing like at home, so humid, too warm, and this is 10pm at night! I had to go to the toilet, I was shocked to find out the public loos in the arrivals hall of Dubai International Airport include holes in the ground - literately! They do provide shower hoses at each loo in case you need to clean down below. Yuk Conveniently a mosque is also located before passport control - just in case!

I must admin I was a little frightened approaching passport control, all of the staff where dressed in traditional clothing, white robes, sandals and head scarfs. That said they where extremely efficient and super friendly. I got myself a 60 day tourist visa, pitty I'm only here for 20 hours.

Something to note in future, I must look up the local currency and conversion rate before entering a country. Jody and I headed straight to the ATM to take money out. We didn't know what the currency was nor how much converts to 1 Euro. Total mess, but we did have a laugh at the ATMS involving more then one on-looker!

Taking a cab to the hotel was an experience in itself. The hotel was to provide a shuttle, but we couldn't find our man. The airport taxi rank is ran in military fashion. Some 30 cabs pull in, all taxi men get out and stand beside their cars, then, in file, we are let out and run to collect a car! Our taxi driver, a Egyptian native, works in Dubai 10 months a year then returns home for the remaining 2. He was a great character, had Jody and I in stiches. He thought we were an item, when find out we were not he offer to let Jody out at the hotel and to take me to a local Disco! MAD!

We checked in and settled for a bit before trying to head out to eat. Dubai appears to close early, around 1am. It was midnight and this stage so we opted to eat in the hotel. The menu is very friendly to my diet. But the portions are massive, and very cheap. From fresh boiled veggies for me to Arabian hummus delights, there was far too much food. We ate ourselves silly then retired for the night at 2:30am.

I'm planning on getting up at 7am for a swim on the hotels roof top swimming pool before heading off to explore the city and it's many shopping malls. 20 hours might not be enough in this city (which Jody thinks resembles LA!)