Our flight to Dubai from Copenhagen was inexplicably filled with children. If I didn’t know better, I would think we were on our way to Orlando, Florida. We landed in Dubai just before midnight, and then proceeded to walk for what seemed like a couple miles along with every other international flight arriving at that time until we got to passport control and baggage claim. The whole process went a lot faster this time around than our previous arrival one year ago, but we didn’t arrive at our hotel in the Uber (a Tesla naturally) until after 1 am.
This time we are staying in the older area of Dubai (at least pre-2003) to have a different experience. We are staying at the Hilton Heritage Al Seef, which is part of their Curio Collection, which places hotel rooms seamlessly inside historical buildings. They went all in on the vintage theme, which initially got us a room that smelled like an armpit in spite of Nicole’s Hilton Honors Gold status. We suspected it was mildew from the air con, but didn’t really care to be inhaling that odor all night, so they changed our room to a nicer one that had a balcony (and didn’t smell like an armpit). Sticking to the historic theme, two knobs controlled the temperature of the shower, and a millimeter of rotation in either direction seems to separate freezing from boiling.
These were minor setbacks, and I like all the character of the place. At the end of the day/night, the bed was very comfortable, and I slept much better than the previous night. We woke up after 9am to very different weather than we experienced in Copenhagen. It was already well into the 90s and we headed off to breakfast a few buildings away, where we had French toast. We explored some other areas of the Hilton, which is very uniquely “decorated” with old Coca-Cola crates, vintage looking bicycles, old wooden wheels, trunks, and occasional things like a see-saw. Only fools would hop on such a contraption.
In our ongoing efforts to have a different experience than last time, I suggested we check out the Ras Al Khor Flamingo Reserve. It was closed during our last visit due to Covid, and we never did get the chance to see many flamingos in Tanzania during our safari either, so now seemed as good a time as any to see these wacky one-legged birds.
Unfortunately, nobody else seems to share the desire to see the flamingos. Abdul, our Uber driver, was extremely confused. In his 2000+ trips he’s done for Uber, he has never taken anyone to the reserve. His new and unexpected mission was further complicated by the Uber app placing our destination in the middle of a body of water. It must be powered by Apple Maps. We tried to help him out, but it is evidently not the easiest place to get to. After half a dozen U-turns, we finally arrived. As we weren’t confident that another Uber would be able to find us to pick us up, Abdul offered to wait while we did the short walk out to the viewing platform. Only one local mother and her young children were able to find the flamingo reserve that day. Now we shared that space with her.
After a solid two minutes of looking at the flamingos, we returned to our Uber lifeline and had Abdul take us to to much more familiar territory for both us and Abdul — the Dubai Mall. There we had some lunch at Nicole’s favorite Dubai haunt — Paul’s, a place that fashions itself a French cafe, but is inexplicably everywhere in Arab countries throughout Middle East. Nicole barely needed to look at the menu before ordering.
Her turkey sandwich with honey mustard was consumed with such delight and tearful joy that I fear no meal for the rest of the trip can possibly surpass its divinity. After lunch, I suggested we step outside the mall for a minute just to see the Burj Khalifa, because it’s there.
Having seen it before, we looked up at it through the desert haze, gave it the obligatory minute of quiet contemplation, and did an about-face back toward our hotel in Al Seef. We explored the area again, checking out a few of the shops and admiring the antiquities.
It’s certainly a different experience than our previous high-rise in the middle of central Dubai, just around the corner from the Burj Khalifa and the biggest mall in the world. Things are a lot more quiet in Al Seef, and I think we both like that better.
Walking around in the heat was a bit tiring and dehydrating, so we went on the search for a cold beverage that wasn’t a water. This was actually far more difficult than it should have been, but we eventually acquired a Fanta and a sprite and drank them back on our balcony.
Whilst enjoying these beverages, Nicole made note that we were just across the street from the Museum of Illusions. What a fine way to enjoy a hot Dubai October afternoon than some air conditioned eye trickery. It was a short walk to the museum, but we were briefly distracted.
Meanwhile back at the museum, Nicole and I posed for some photographs with the help of a very enthusiastic museum employee (or so we hope anyway). Beyond simple illusions for photo ops, there were some brain teasers, puzzles, and other general disorienting rooms including one that appeared to spin, which Nicole really enjoyed.
After this unusual museum, we debated our best course of action if one has a 4am flight. We weren’t very hungry on account of having a fairly late lunch, so we didn’t want to have a big dinner if we were trying to get to bed early and such, so we had some ice cream and picked up some baked goods and bananas at Starbucks and called it good enough.
After one last sweep through the quiet arcades and alleys of Al Seef, we prepared our passenger declaration forms for the Maldives, organized our suitcases, and accepted that we are probably not going to get a great night’s sleep.
passports & pepto bismol 