Day 2.
This afternoon sees us head to Dubai to drop the tourists for an overnight desert safari. When they return in the morning they are booked on a four hour bus tour to see the sights leaving the afternoon free to do the Dubai Mall, the Burj Khalifa and anything else before being treated to an evening dhow cruise with meal on the Dubai Creek. A full day awaits.
Only one hiccup in the plan so far - I didn’t book the Burj tickets as wanted to wait to confirm with them the time. Guess what? None available on Saturday!
Where would we be without Facebook? A couple of frantic messages on various groups and pages sees the tourists flooded with beds for the night so they can do the Burj on the Sunday morning before catching a bus back to Abu Dhabi. The up side is that this saves me a midnight trip to pick them up.
We head off around 1.30pm, about an hour later than I had planned. My plan is to drive to Ibn Battuta Mall and park there then catch the Metro into Dubai itself. The reason for this is because I don’t know Dubai but I do know that driving and parking there is difficult.
We make good time and are at the Metro buying tickets within the hour. Several men move over or stand to make room for the niece and me to sit down. She is seated opposite me and treated with interest and her every move has the men on either side of her craning to see what she is reading, what is on her phone, what is in her bag, etc...
As we are trying to figure out where to get off the metro, each time she reads the page in her hand the men look down at the paper, then she looks up at the board and they look up. TM & I are giggling behind our hands as we watch this display. The niece is oblivious to it all!
The niece has her shoulders uncovered so as more men enter the carriage I motion for her to cover up. I also have short sleeves under my dress so cover up at this stage also.
The metro is so easy to use and saves any hassle with parking. We are fortunate as the line runs directly to our destination then it’s a ‘short’ walk in the heat to the meeting place. The short walk seems to take forever and we are glad to reach an air conditioned building and go inside to wait.
A phone call earlier that morning to the tour company to confirm the safari is overnight led us to be told it isn’t and they will have to pay extra to stay overnight. Mmmmm....
A dodgy driver arrives and I snap pictures of his number plate and name on his card. Just letting him know that I know who he is. I ask where he is taking them and when I am satisfied I leave them and head back to the metro for the return trip to Abu Dhabi.
Imagine my ‘surprise’ when I get a text at 7am the next morning from the niece! To cut a long story short - they paid the driver the 300AED for the overnight. When the evening safari was over all the other guest’s vehicles arrived to pick them up but not ours. The camp owner said no-one was staying overnight - it was too hot - but they could stay with only the labourers there. They opted to return to Dubai with another group.
Then began the process of trying to get the 300AED back. Needless to say that wasn’t an easy process and has resulted in several heated phone calls already today. They won’t get it in cash and I am waiting to see if I get it reimbursed into my bank account. Talk about argue! I couldn’t get a word in and that’s saying something.
As to the adventures that followed the pair during an unscheduled night in Dubai...
That’s their story and we’ll just have to wait for them to return tomorrow and tell it.
This afternoon sees us head to Dubai to drop the tourists for an overnight desert safari. When they return in the morning they are booked on a four hour bus tour to see the sights leaving the afternoon free to do the Dubai Mall, the Burj Khalifa and anything else before being treated to an evening dhow cruise with meal on the Dubai Creek. A full day awaits.
Only one hiccup in the plan so far - I didn’t book the Burj tickets as wanted to wait to confirm with them the time. Guess what? None available on Saturday!
Where would we be without Facebook? A couple of frantic messages on various groups and pages sees the tourists flooded with beds for the night so they can do the Burj on the Sunday morning before catching a bus back to Abu Dhabi. The up side is that this saves me a midnight trip to pick them up.
We head off around 1.30pm, about an hour later than I had planned. My plan is to drive to Ibn Battuta Mall and park there then catch the Metro into Dubai itself. The reason for this is because I don’t know Dubai but I do know that driving and parking there is difficult.
We make good time and are at the Metro buying tickets within the hour. Several men move over or stand to make room for the niece and me to sit down. She is seated opposite me and treated with interest and her every move has the men on either side of her craning to see what she is reading, what is on her phone, what is in her bag, etc...
As we are trying to figure out where to get off the metro, each time she reads the page in her hand the men look down at the paper, then she looks up at the board and they look up. TM & I are giggling behind our hands as we watch this display. The niece is oblivious to it all!
The niece has her shoulders uncovered so as more men enter the carriage I motion for her to cover up. I also have short sleeves under my dress so cover up at this stage also.
The metro is so easy to use and saves any hassle with parking. We are fortunate as the line runs directly to our destination then it’s a ‘short’ walk in the heat to the meeting place. The short walk seems to take forever and we are glad to reach an air conditioned building and go inside to wait.
A phone call earlier that morning to the tour company to confirm the safari is overnight led us to be told it isn’t and they will have to pay extra to stay overnight. Mmmmm....
A dodgy driver arrives and I snap pictures of his number plate and name on his card. Just letting him know that I know who he is. I ask where he is taking them and when I am satisfied I leave them and head back to the metro for the return trip to Abu Dhabi.
Imagine my ‘surprise’ when I get a text at 7am the next morning from the niece! To cut a long story short - they paid the driver the 300AED for the overnight. When the evening safari was over all the other guest’s vehicles arrived to pick them up but not ours. The camp owner said no-one was staying overnight - it was too hot - but they could stay with only the labourers there. They opted to return to Dubai with another group.
Then began the process of trying to get the 300AED back. Needless to say that wasn’t an easy process and has resulted in several heated phone calls already today. They won’t get it in cash and I am waiting to see if I get it reimbursed into my bank account. Talk about argue! I couldn’t get a word in and that’s saying something.
As to the adventures that followed the pair during an unscheduled night in Dubai...
That’s their story and we’ll just have to wait for them to return tomorrow and tell it.
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