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Phil’s Travels – Dubai, UAE (09.25)

Phil’s Travels – Dubai, UAE (09.25)

Your blogger had to cut short his lengthy holiday in Cyprus and fly at short notice to the incredible city-state of Dubai for a critical meeting. Rather than subject my wonderful wife to the embarrassment of returning our wounded hire car at Larnaca Airport, I drove the Staircase to Larnaca and spent 40 minutes sorting out the paperwork and additional payment for my wonderful wife’s new paint job. I learnt a valuable lesson by this experience. As soon as you damage a hire car, to use the exact word in the small print, ‘immediately’ call the hire company and report such damage. We didn’t! If you don’t ‘immediately’ report, the fully comp insurance is null and void, and one has to pay for all repairs. I did!

Although the car incident was expensive and hurt, I was in a great mood for my flight to the Gulf. The Staircase had been well used and I returned it covered in dust and bird poo (some kind of compensation for having to pay for its repair). The night before my departure I had eaten a delicious Pikis kebab and watched the most handsome goal of the year scored by the most handsome man in football (at least according to my darling daughter) – Liv 1 Ars 0.

My flight to Dubai was with announcement-happy Emirates.  They just love their announcements. Be they on the PA or via the inflight entertainment screen, they just don’t leave you alone. Despite all the interruptions, the inflight movie library was terrific. I watched Conclave (almost as good as the book) and The Apprentice (which explained a lot about how Mr T operates, note below).

• Rule 1 – attack, attack, attack.
• Rule 2 – deny everything.
• Rule 3 – always claim victory.

A quick observation. BA’s checked-in luggage allowance is a paltry 23kg. EK to Dubai was a generous 30kg (which I used to the fullest extent). EK to London was a super generously bountiful 35kg (which I did not exploit but probably could not lift anyway). Why such variance? Thus, if you have to go to Dubai, fly EK. For other destinations, especially around Europe, BA is good and certainly better than those meanies at easyJet, et al.

The new e-passport gates at DXB were speedy quick. In the old days, one could queue for an hour for passport control. Net result though, one had to wait 30 minutes for luggage to arrive.

My hotel room was big and overlooked Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, although the view was murky thanks to the high humidity (65%) and heat (39C) at 03.00 in the morning. 

My day in Dubai was a notably news-filled day: the leaders of Russia, Iran, China and North Korea met in Beijing (unprecedented); EPL clubs spent more than all other leagues in Europe combined (meta-bucks); and Ursula’s plane was jammed by Russia (Boeing?).

After our meeting, we had a massive meaty meal in Dubai Mall (hence no vino) and I was up early the following morning for my flight to Stansted (e-passport gates again, joy). Stansted was buzzing and I caught the Stansted Express and Lizzie Line home.

The end of my holiday was thus a blur, but well worth the detour. Well done everyone in Dubai and let’s make it happen.