Sydney to London via Dubai

The double-decker A380 from Sydney to London was very nice! The seats are quite spacious even in cattle class and there was endless list of movies and TV shows to choose from. Even the toilets were classier than usual, not that a bit of timber finish on the toilet seat makes it any less uncomfortable getting caught there during turbulence, but it was a nice touch. We were on the bottom deck. There was a posh-looking staircase leading up to the top deck, but it was cordoned off so we couldn‘t go up there. Apparently there is a beauty spa in first class. It’s a shame Theresa’s line of “I fell off my bike last weekend, can we get upgraded” didn’t work this time. I saw a couple of flight attendants coming down the stairs in their Emirates pyjamas…the bright blue men’s Pjs weren’t a good look, but the women’s were OK.

The service was great too and the ride was very smooth…although we got off to a delayed start after the little towing vehicle at Sydney airport was having difficulties unattaching itself from the plane. The English pilot assured us that this was “unusual”.

The plane is so big that at times it doesn’t feel like you’re on a plane. It wasn’t scary at all!

We had 10 hours in Dubai before our connecting flight so we left the airport and caught a ‘women and families’ cab to the city. The arab-looking woman driver, dressed in pretty pink and white head scarf and gown-type thing (excuse my ignorance, but you know the type of thing the muslim ladies wear), was very friendly and was probably the first taxi driver who we actually felt safe with. This was probably more to do with her being a woman rather than anything to do with Dubai as the next two male taxi drivers we had made me feel very unsafe (one guy clocked 140km/h coming over a seven-lane bridge - luckily Theresa was sleeping at this point - surprise, surprise) and we even saw a crashed taxi holding up traffic near the airport.

So what about Dubai? Well our first taxi dropped us off at the “creek”, which is actually a full-blown river maybe half the size of Sydney harbour. We knew we were close to the spice market and the gold market but our brief wander through the back streets revealed only pavements full of men sitting around not doing much and enjoying the change of scenery that we provided. We saw maybe six women…all Asian strangely enough…the men were mostly, I’m guessing Pakistani, Indian and/or Arab. Theresa felt slightly self-conscious and the heat was pretty overwhelming even at 8o’clock in the morning, so we quickly caught a cab to the Emirates Mall, which is not only air-conditioned but has a ski-field inside it! The ski field looked pretty interesting. It is fully equipped with chair lift, sled course, kids play area and a giant snowman. The mall was like any other expensive glamorous shopping mall, but with an interesting section called the Arabian Souk, which has shops selling the various types of merchandise that Dubai is known for from gold and silver to rugs and stuffed camels. We also checked out a huge Carrefour (the French supermarket giant that was a saviour in China), gawked at a $3,500 burka and took a photo with a life-sized stuffed giraffe on sale for about $1,000.

Now we are 36,000 feet in the air somewhere above Turkey on our way to London, crammed into a much less spacious 777 and desperately hanging out for sleep.