We were off to a good - and early - start. Michael arrived at my place about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, with Mum and her luggage, to take us to the airport. For once I was totally ready - even ahead of time - so we made it easily through fairly light Friday evening traffic.
As I had checked in online, we were able to go to the short luggage checkin queue, where we farewelled Michael, who had helped us with our luggage. Soon we were free to relax and wait for Melissa, who had said she was on her way to see us off.
She turned up pretty soon and found us, and we spent a relaxing half hour or so chatting with her and taking a few photos before she headed home.
I'd discovered that I could get one of the Emirates people - lovely Maxine - to take Mum through to the gate lounge in a wheelchair, saving her a lot of walking. What a brilliant idea! Each time there was a crowd, or a queue, Maxine just melted away the crowd, or barged through to the head of the queue, and helped us right through all the baggage scanning and passport control checks. She took us through ahead of all the usual checkin crowd, so it was amazingly simple and fast. A short wait at the gate lounge, then we were allowed onto our Emirates flight before all the usual crowd. The only problem was, as I discovered just as the plane was taxiing off, was that I left my good black jacket somewhere on a seat in the terminal, so who knows if I'll ever get that back. Oh well, it was just a jacket. Takeoff about 9.30pm.
I'd have to say the flight was one of the bumpiest I've ever had. More turbulence, often, and for longer spells, than I'd experienced before - including one really big jolt which resulted in a few shrieks from passengers. But apart from that, I slept quite well, the food was pretty reasonable, and the service was pretty good too. Good work, Emirates.
Saturday 12 June
We arrived in Dubai just after sunrise - doing a loop out over the Gulf for a short way before heading back towards the city and airport from the north-west. Views of some of the massive island-creation going on off the coast, lots of boats just offshore, then a city of pale buff-coloured buildings emerging from the early morning light.
No airbridge disembarkation here, as the plane had parked somewhere in the backblocks of the airport, so down the steps to a convoy of waiting buses - but Mum got VIP service at the top of the stairs, with a gallant gentleman who took her arm and helped her down the long flight with great care and charm. Then onto an airconditioned bus for at least a 5 minute ride around the side of the airport to the terminal. What a beautiful sparkling building - with tall silver columns, acres of blonde marble floors, and huge arrival halls looking more like a gigantic glamorous shopping mall than a mundane transport hub. One of a row of young fellows with luggage trolleys lined us up and offered his services which we were happy to accept - 20 dirham to collect our luggage and carry it for us to a taxi. Well worth the money, since Mum hadn't realised that the suitcase she had packed had had the extendable handle broken off on the last trip, making it really quite awkward to manoeuvre. But the customs check was a giggle! If you have something to declare, you go to the left, and I guess had to have baggage examined. We followed the 'nothing to declare' arrows, walked through some sparkling archways, between several official-looking customs officials arrayed across the wide hallway (with pretty businesslike no-nonsense expressions on their faces), and - wow - that was it! THAT was customs examination? Yes, it was. Off out to a taxi, paid off our trolley-driver, and headed off in a clean, comfortable taxi with a pleasant young southern Indian driver, who was quite happy to chat about working in Dubai, and how rarely he go to go home to India to see his family.
Freeways, bridges, roundabouts ... after a short ride we got to the Bastakia historic area at the south side of the creek where the Orient Guest House is located, but it was a bit of a challenge to find where the taxi could let us off. Eventually he found a parking and drop-off spot, but it ended up being a bit of a walk through pedestrian laneways of lovely old stucco-walled buildings, following pointed directions of several people along the way, before we found the Guest House.
What a charming place! Take care as you step up and over the threshold at the narrow doorway, through a small passageway and into the delightful courtyard. We sat to rest before being welcomed by the guest house's manager. We rearranged a few belongings, freshened up and changed clothes in a small bathroom, left our luggage in a store-room near the manager's office, then headed off to explore a little of Dubai. Up along a busy road to a nearby hotel that runs in association with the Guest House - where we relaxed in opulent comfort of air conditioning - naturally! - a comfortable lounge, cold drinks, and a chance for Mum to rest. The heat is taking a toll on her, and the fact that as she's had some illness recently she's not as sprightly as she usually is.
The heat is amazing! Over 42 degrees in the middle of the morning!
I left Mum relaxing in the lounge with some newspapers and a cold drink then went off for half an hour to check out where the Dubai Museum is - just over the road - 3 dirham entry - and most of the display is below ground (AC!) - will come back later with Mum. Then I wandered around between the Museum and the creek, in the area of the fabric souk. It's very much an Indian area, with a large Hindu temple in the middle of a maze of narrow laneways, beautifully arched covered alleyways, with fabric wholesalers' businesses, small Indian grocery stores, and tiny Indian trinket shops jammed into laneways barely wide enough for two people to squeeze past one another. Leis of jasmine and marigold flowers for sale, threaded on cotton thread - for sale in short lengths. Women twist a short length and thread it into their hair, or pin it in place with a clip or comb. I sat with a cold drink in a small shaded courtyard where people were waiting for friends/family in front of the temple. They removed their shoes and placed them in pigeonholes along the wall, before climbing the stairs into the temple. Just sitting there admiring the most beautiful women's clothing was a delight. Beautiful saris, other styles of loose flowing dresses over leggings - so many colours, styles, shapes. Men's clothing is a mixture of conventional Western dress - usually tidy dark trousers and smart looking business shirts - but no ties. But many of them also wear the traditional Arab-style clothing of loose white or cream trousers with a long straight high-necked white overshirt. Hope I find out the name of the outfit. It looks very cool and comfortable.
My internal gyroscope is working just fine here, and I found my way back to the hotel where I left Mum resting. By then I needed another good cold drink and a rest myself!
We went over to the Museum and spent a delightful hour or more walking in the large underground galleries through a most interesting display of aspects of traditional Arabic culture - the landscape, animals, shipping, traditional crafts, life in the oases, management of water, which is obviously a precious commodity. Just imagine that Ikea was in charge of planning the arrangement of the museum - you walk through the displays in sequence but there are no cut-throughs! It's obviously a popular spot for tour buses to stop at, so by the time we made it through to the end of the displays there was a crowd of tourists jamming the very small gift shop. I resisted temptation, and we climbed the ramp up and out of the museum and re-emerged into the heat of the day.
We visited the fabric souk and Indian area that I'd been to earlier. Mum found it fascinating, and we had a most interesting time. The hospitality of people is delightful. As an example, at one stage Mum was feeling a bit weary and sat down on a ledge beside the door of a fabric merchant.
more later ...
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