HEADING BACK HOME!

Heading back home tonight, the past 15 days have been a roller coaster ride but one full of experiences (both good and bad) and lesson's to be learned. There is no place like home and many of the little things in life, you don't truly appreciate just how lucky you are to have them in your life until you are in another country where you no longer have access to them. I've greatly missed the barn life and driving so it's going to be nice to have both back again.

It's going to be a long one, as I have three flights with the second one being 10 hours. I recovered from my jet lag really quick when arriving here and hopefully it will be the same when I arrive back in Alberta. The plane just throws my sleep and appetite off since I can't sleep sitting up and airplane food leaves a lot of be desired.

Fingers crossed that I don't have too much difficulty getting past the Dubai airport security.

When I get back I will list the top 5 things that almost happened on this trip. This should be an exciting read.

5 STAR VIEW IN DUBAI

For those who have asked what the hotels are like here. My previous hotel that I just spent 11 days in was just okay, despite the food being very good and being given the presidential suite the entire time. I definitely would not stay there again simply for the fact that the taxi driver that scammed me for 630AED earlier this week is one of the hotel's drivers. 

I had a mysterious charge of 200AED on my room deposit refund receipt as I was checking out yesterday. Thankfully, I noticed it right away and had the charge removed. It's sneaky practices like this that makes a lot of people not want to travel to big tourist cities. 

Now being on the other side of the creek, here is the view from a 5 star. The hotel itself and the room's are just extravagant including the 6 restaurants but the views are something else from the 36th floor. It has multiple outdoor swimming pools and multiple patios on different levels to dine or relax on.

It's ironic that I feel much more nervous looking out of this window from the 36th floor than I did up on the 125th floor of the Burj Khalifa. 

There is a stunning black horse monument in the lobby, too bad I can't get a picture of it to show. It's too bad I can't show you all inside this hotel, everywhere you go, every corner you look around, it's just world class architecture. Easily some of the best building interior I've ever seen.

VISITING THE BURJ KHALIFA

I know many have been wanting to see Dubai from up above and after some unsuccessful attempts early last week to get into certain skyscrapers and rooftops (without having to pay a premium price), I just decided to get a ticket to the world's tallest building known as the Burj Khalifa.

The reason why I initially avoided this iconic landmark was because for one it's always over the top busy and two, I wanted a more unique, less photographed landmark.

It's a nice tower but be prepared to wait...a lot. I spent 30 minutes up top and over 2 hours just to get in and out of the tower. To get in, you have to enter through the main and largest Dubai Mall and it's a 15 minute speed walk just to get from the closest mall entrance to the tower ticket entrance. I will say that if you are into luxury, the Dubai mall is one location you must visit - literally everything in there is high end luxury goods. Even the cafes are extravagant and very spacious with expensive decor. Myself, I can't stand malls so I got in and out as quick as I could. :)

So once you reach the ticket gate, from there you have to go through a security gate, followed by a security check exactly like you see in any airport, then up a couple escalators, then another gate check, then through all these corridors, then another couple sets of gates. Every single point that you reach, there is a line up just to get through them. Then you will finally arrive in the elevator section which of course has another lineup. As soon as you reach the top, there is once again another lineup, once you are past that you can now see out.

Some really unique things in this tower and up top it's got a cafe, souvenir shops, photographer's everywhere ready to take your pictures (which you pay for and collect on the main floor as you exit), VR reality kiosks, and a super cool electronic platform that you can stand and walk on that shows below in real time (you will see in pics #9 and #10).

And then of course when you are all finished and would like leave, there is a lineup just to exit. Though I would prefer going at night, I went during the quiet time because ticket's are more expensive when you go in prime hours, and the lineups get much longer.

On a weekend, from what I was told, it can easily take about 4-5 hours just to get into the tower, let alone up it. No thank you, I will pass on that lol.

Great to see once though. :)

PORTRAITURE IN THE DESERT in DUBAI

I know that many of you were very much anticipating my photo shoot in the desert photographing riders during a sunrise. There was huge potential for this scenario, it's just unfortunate that things unfolded the way that it did. Nothing terrible happened, things just didn't go as planned. Here are the few images that I captured in the short period of time.

Click HERE to view the few images.

DESERT RIDING IN DUBAI

Heading out to our location yesterday, I thought I would gather some some sights and sounds on what it was like riding in the dusty and windy desert. Unfortunately the air is really bad right now all over Dubai so it was a dry, sticky and thick heat to breathe in. A plane was passing by every few minutes. Sorry for the sniffles.

Great feeling of isolation out there, though I was able to see how one could easily get lost. One thing that I was completely surprised about is that you get full reception out there, despite us being well outside of the city and in no man's land.

DUBAI HERITAGE

Dubai culture promoting UAE Heritage at this past week's Horse fair.

Things aren't always going to go accordingly as planned and that is a big part of running a business. Unfortunately, everything that could have gone wrong today did, including getting scammed by a taxi driver and into a "he said she said" argument as I absolutely refused to being taken for my money. This is where language barriers can be an issue. Wish I had found out about these taxi scams prior but it's too late now.

I didn't want to get arrested so I just accepted it this one time simply because I am a tourist, but this incident has left a real sour taste in my mouth. Today is a forgettable day but it's just something that you have to overcome and learn from. Tomorrow is a new day :)

Thank you to the super friendly and polite girl working at the Lebanese food vendor for giving me the best falalfel's I've ever had. She asked how my day was going, I was honest and told her it could be better and she brought me some complimentary falafels. Thank you for your kindness. I made a post earlier in the week about how good the food is here and this is just another one of the items for anyone visiting Dubai to must try.