We all woke painfully early - jetlag is a bitch - and after packing our bags and settling our bill (tourist tax plus wifi card; accom was prepaid), we set off to the old part of town around 9am (taxi AED8). We spent a very interesting hour and a half in the museum, housed beneath the Al Fahidi fort (built 1899).
Dubai feels a lot like India - rapid growth, ugly utilitarian concrete buildings with tiny shops all along the ground floor street front, lots of cars (but hardly any vespas, unlike India). Until around 1950, Dubai was a fairly small, quiet port, most famous for its pearl divers. It was only with the oil crisis of the 1970s, plus an expansionist sheik, that the place has sprung from almost nothing.
[Pics to come]
We emerged into the scorching heat and set off in a random direction looking for brunch. After wandering past a scores of tiny shops, each selling silk and other fabrics, we finally found a bunch of restaurants, all selling Indian food. (We also passed places that did month-by-month tiffen programs; tiffens being the tiered canteens of hot food delivered to and collected from your workplace each day.)
For AED24 (AU$8) we got a huge amount of samosa, bhaji, and other stuff, as well as a comfortable seat in air conditioned comfort. Our lunch the day before cost more than ten times that.
We managed to get some extra cash (after the extortionate taxi ride from the night before depleted our reserves), and found sunglasses and a cap for the boys. A little uncertain about what to do next, and Ky suffering badly in the heat, we decided to head for the train station by cab. Bugger all distance, it was little more than the flagfall, but the minimum fare was AED10 (still worth it!).
We considered catching a train out to the Emirates mall, the other big shopping centre, but that would be a half hour train trip, with barely half an hour there before we'd need to turn back to get to the hotel in time for our transfer to the airport. In the end we decided, bugger it, the heat is too much, let's just head straight out to the airport. As we couldn't bring forward our transfer, we cancelled it and just took a cab out (AED29).
An iced coffee/chocolate each, and we felt much better. We then had a light lunch as well before finding our check in gates. With no checked baggage, we could use the self-serve kiosks (a little astonishing for international travel, but there you go). We walked the length of the cavernous, and largely empty, terminal 3, and arrived at our gate with plenty of time to board an A380 for the six hour flight to Rome.
[Pics to come]
Fiumiccino airport is not as nice or efficient or functional as the previous three airports we'd spent time in (Dubai, Changi and Tullamarine). It took 45mins to get through passport control, with about three massive plane loads of people jammed into a small space, fed through two bottlenecks to four passport control agents who barely even looked at us or our passports. [NB, open out your passport to get a much more effective fan.]
There were only three ATMs in the place, and all were out of service, and the rates the bureaux de change were beyond extortionate. We ended up settling for the fast train to Roma Termini station (which ended up costing about the same as a cab would have), and then did take a cab to our hotel (given we had no idea where it was).
Note to self: on our way back, aim to be fully fed and watered before heading out to FCO airport, and time it so we don't arrive any earlier than necessary.
Dubai feels a lot like India - rapid growth, ugly utilitarian concrete buildings with tiny shops all along the ground floor street front, lots of cars (but hardly any vespas, unlike India). Until around 1950, Dubai was a fairly small, quiet port, most famous for its pearl divers. It was only with the oil crisis of the 1970s, plus an expansionist sheik, that the place has sprung from almost nothing.
[Pics to come]
We emerged into the scorching heat and set off in a random direction looking for brunch. After wandering past a scores of tiny shops, each selling silk and other fabrics, we finally found a bunch of restaurants, all selling Indian food. (We also passed places that did month-by-month tiffen programs; tiffens being the tiered canteens of hot food delivered to and collected from your workplace each day.)
For AED24 (AU$8) we got a huge amount of samosa, bhaji, and other stuff, as well as a comfortable seat in air conditioned comfort. Our lunch the day before cost more than ten times that.
We managed to get some extra cash (after the extortionate taxi ride from the night before depleted our reserves), and found sunglasses and a cap for the boys. A little uncertain about what to do next, and Ky suffering badly in the heat, we decided to head for the train station by cab. Bugger all distance, it was little more than the flagfall, but the minimum fare was AED10 (still worth it!).
We considered catching a train out to the Emirates mall, the other big shopping centre, but that would be a half hour train trip, with barely half an hour there before we'd need to turn back to get to the hotel in time for our transfer to the airport. In the end we decided, bugger it, the heat is too much, let's just head straight out to the airport. As we couldn't bring forward our transfer, we cancelled it and just took a cab out (AED29).
An iced coffee/chocolate each, and we felt much better. We then had a light lunch as well before finding our check in gates. With no checked baggage, we could use the self-serve kiosks (a little astonishing for international travel, but there you go). We walked the length of the cavernous, and largely empty, terminal 3, and arrived at our gate with plenty of time to board an A380 for the six hour flight to Rome.
[Pics to come]
Fiumiccino airport is not as nice or efficient or functional as the previous three airports we'd spent time in (Dubai, Changi and Tullamarine). It took 45mins to get through passport control, with about three massive plane loads of people jammed into a small space, fed through two bottlenecks to four passport control agents who barely even looked at us or our passports. [NB, open out your passport to get a much more effective fan.]
There were only three ATMs in the place, and all were out of service, and the rates the bureaux de change were beyond extortionate. We ended up settling for the fast train to Roma Termini station (which ended up costing about the same as a cab would have), and then did take a cab to our hotel (given we had no idea where it was).
Note to self: on our way back, aim to be fully fed and watered before heading out to FCO airport, and time it so we don't arrive any earlier than necessary.
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