How does one describe the UAE's busiest and brightest international hub?
Intriguing, peculiar, distinct, manufactured, over-the-top... All of these perhaps. We were here for just two days to recover from some jetlag, and as most people do, we also came to climb the world's tallest building and float in the balmy Persian Gulf.
I admittedly don't love flying... in fact, I hate it most of the time. I put up with it to get to the destination.
However.
Flying in business class always makes it a bit better (actually a whole, whole lot better). And a bucket list item for me has been to fly business class on Emirates, one of the world's top three airlines.
Even thought it was a 14.5 hour flight from Seattle to Dubai, it was easily the best flight of my life.
I had a suite all to myself that spanned the length of not one, but three windows. It was luxury everything. Luxurious Arabic food, luxurious champagne, and luxurious designer amenities.
Even the details from having real orchids at your seat and in the bathroom to the twinkling stars on the ceiling of the plane once they turned the lights off were just... over-the-top. I guess a precursor to the destination we were flying to!
I wish I had photos to commemorate the experience more, but I was too busy drinking the non-stop flow of cocktails... and then actually sleeping on the plane which is a rarity for me 🤭
I've been fortunate to fly in a handful of different business class seats, but this was by far the best.
ANYWAY. Dubai is exactly 12 hours ahead of Seattle, so once we landed, my body was wrecked. I've yet to be to a place that was the exact opposite in terms of time zones.
And I still feel a bit wrecked a few days later as I'm writing this 😅 The jet lag has been brutal, but I wouldn't change a thing.
Dubai has always been this weird bucket list place. I think it's more about the novelty of the whole thing.
It's this manufactured, immaculate, mega-metropolis that seems far-away and exotic.
But what do you actually do here?
There's high-end shopping (meh), desert tours, and then there's the Burj Khalifa, and the Persian Gulf.
After being here a couple of days, I've realized that people come here to do nothing (in the best way). It's a total splurge-y beach destination with pampering and all the other perks you'd expect at a fancy resort city.
Our two days here were relaxing, which doesn't make for very interesting photos! In short, we climbed the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. And by climb I mean rode the world's fastest elevator up 148 floors in under a minute.
The remainder of our time was spent lounging at our roof-top pool and bar, meandering the water-front promenade, and working.
A beautiful, yet hazy desert sunrise from our hotel window this morning.
This was really just a positioning flight to get us over to the Middle East for the main event. So I had no major plans for Dubai but to absorb it for a couple of days.
Tomorrow we head to a country that has been at the top of my list for a very long time. It's considered the cradle of civilization and is home to some of the richest archeological sites in the entire world... Any guesses?