UAE - United Arab Emirates. This is the land of people who believe in engineering and demonstrate them in the form of lots of infrastructural marvels, one of them being Burj Khalifa - tallest tower recorded so far. Their richness can be seen in the form of well planned city, well connected transport infrastructure, well built tunnels and tons of sky kissers. On top of all that UAE is hot tourist destination. So, as part of our anniversary, we decided to go for Dubai for our 2nd anniversary.
It was a short trip we had planned this time. We had planned for a 4 days itinerary. Having read in many travel blogs and many websites, we decided to keep it short. Also, we had our friends who had visited there recently to help us in planning the trip. For this trip we did not go for any travel partner. Everything we planned on our own - this added more flexibility for us also reduced the total cost of the trip :)
After juggling with dates, we finally decided to go between March 18-21. We kept checking the flight prices for any drops. We found that from Mangalore we were getting round trip flight ticket for 10K per person. Our in laws were staying there and hence this plan worked out very well for us. But, we had to compromise on the flight timings from Mangalore. It was at 12:20AM on 18th. However, we planned our trip accordingly.
Day1: Half day city tour + Sunset Dinner Cruise (Dhow cruise)
Day2: Dubai Mall + Desert Safari
Day3: AbuDhabi tour + Burj Khalifa top view
Day4: Return
As we can see, we did not waste time in any day. We had fully packed schedule waiting for us. Our flight - Spicejet outsourced and run by Corendum Airlines landed in Dubai at 2:45AM. For visa for Indian citizens, once we book the flights, one of the agent from the airline company we have to contact to get the visa. After getting visa, we had to get the OkToBoard attached to our PNR. Same agent helped us in getting this also done at charge of 750rp per person.The charges for visa keeps varying. There are two types of visa. One is faster (express) and other is regular. Depending on the number of days remaining for the departure one can chose between the two.Without VISA and OkToBoard, Indians will not be allowed to fly to Dubai. Once immigration procedures are done, we took airport taxi service to reach our hotel in Bur-Dubai.We had booked our stay in Bur-Dubai - Hotel Citymax. It costed around 60AED for us. The hotel was well located, and was at a distance of around 1km from ADCB Metro station and Al-Fahidi metro station.Also there was a Jyothi super market just beside the hotel. Along with that, there were plenty of Indian vegetarian restaurants near by. So, we chose this hotel. We were even happy with hotel's cleanliness and service.
We had prebooked some of the day trips in Dubai like city tour, dhow cruise, abudhabi tour, desert safari. Rest all we explored on our own using Dubai Metro. On Day-1 our journey started with half day city tour. They came to our hotel and picked us at 9AM. We first visited Dubai creek and it is a kind of museum which gave us an overview of how Dubai was and how it is now. We also got to know about local traditions, local culture, their day to day businesses etc. It was informative. Later we proceeded to 1-10 market which is famous for any items between 1AED to 10AED. The tour then proceeded to some under water tunnel, Gold Souq, Jumeriah mosque, and a photo stop at Burj Al Arab - worlds only 7 star hotel. Later we had a photo stop at Atlantis Hotel and palm islands. The tour ended and they dropped us at our hotel. It was already 1.30PM. We quickly freshened up at hotel and went to Kamat hotel for lunch. It was at a distance of around 500mt from our hotel. After lunch, we bought ice creams and set curd from the super market and rested for some time. In evening we got ready to witness the Dhow-cruise. Dhow means vessel. In earlier days, people of Dubai used to prepare boats (dhows) and sell them. That was their livelihood. As the time elapsed, they constructed ports and established markets near by the ports. This enabled them for trade. Eventually, all the goods are made custom free in Dubai. Hence the entire economy is well established now. We can get any brand from any corner of the world available in Dubai. Now, coming back to our itinerary, at 6.30PM, they came and picked us at the hotel. By 8PM the cruise started. In the cruise there will be live entertainment, music. Also it will be followed by dinner. We had experienced cruises before and we felt Dhow-cruise was not upto that mark compared to other cruises we had experienced. However, it was a good time pass. After some photo shoots, we ended our day in a happy note :) Here are few pics from day1.
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| Creek |
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| Jumeria Mosque |
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| Burj Al Arab |
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| Palm Atlantis |
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| Dhow Cruise |
After an eventful day, we were all set for next day. On day 2 in first half we had planned for Dubai underwater zoo and aquarium. We had bought the tickets online for the same. To reach this, we had to go to Dubai Mall. This gave us an opportunity to explore the Dubai Metro :) We walked to ADCB metro station from the hotel and the metro journey took around half an hour to reach the Dubai Mall metro station. On getting down at Dubai mall, we were stunned by its area. We had to walk for around 1km to reach the mall from the station. We explored the mall in a hurry because we knew that we would come back here during Burj Khalifa visit. Yes, we did Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa seperately to cover all the places as per our 4day itinerary. Dubai underwater zoo and aquarium is a special attraction which everyone should experience atleast once. For kids, it will be highly attractive. We can spot many varieties of fishes and like species. We took around 2hrs to explore this. After this we had planned to visit gold souq market, after all Indians have mad attraction at this yellow metal. We went to the souq in metro and explored all local jewelleries and branded shops. We found that cost was not very much tempting to buy. So, we bought some Kesari and some chocolates and returned hotel. We had MTR ready to eat waiting in our hotel to fill our stomach after which we had to get ready for adventurous Desert Safari - One needs to have guts to enjoy the dune bashing. We were picked up at the hotel by 3PM and we had to travel for about 45km towards Oman to hit the deserts. Before the bash, the tyres of mighty SUVs will be deflated and gets set for the bashing. By 5PM the bashing started and it was a thrilling experience. After that, there was an event organized with entertainment like Belly Dance, music etc followed by dinner. It was a thrillful funfilled day that came to an end once we were dropped back to Hotel by 11PM.
Huh, amazing right? Yes, now we were onto our final day of excursion in Dubai. Day3. This is the day we had planned for AbuDhabi tour followed by entry to Burj Khalifa - tour cannot end without visiting this place :) Again, we got picked up at the hotel by 9.30AM. We were accompanied by an elderly couple from India. First we visited the famous Grand Mosque which is one of the few mosques that allow visitors to enter into the premises. The mosque is known for its rich structure followed by the richness of chandeliers and huge hand made carpet. Each and every stone of this mosque is made of white marble and looks elegant structure. Women will be allowed to enter only if they cover their hair and also with full sleeve tops. With short tops they wont allow to enter the premises. We had few photos clicked and proceeded to explore the capital city AbuDhabi. We had a photostops at Emirates palace, Etihad towers, Yas Island, Yas Mall and roaring Ferrari world. We did not enter any adventurous games in Ferrari world as it was just a stop over. But may visit this place again for the same :) We also got to visit the dates market and bought some dates chocolates. We were dropped back to hotel at 4.30PM.
We had our booking for Burj Khalifa 125th floor at 9.30PM. So we decided to explore the unexplored part of Dubai mall. Hence we started to Dubai Mall by Metro from hotel. We have walked around 5km in the mall seeing the varieties of items and brands it has. Also we witnessed the famous Dubai fountain in the lights. We enjoyed the food courts of the mall and finally got tired and sat in the queue to visit the Khalifa. The lift took 77 seconds to take us to the 124th floor. We were at the top of the world by 10PM and enjoyed each and every moment we had till then. We also saw the fountain from the top which was a treat to watch from the top. We were so happy there and dint want to come down. But yes. Everything has to end somewhere. At 10.20 we decided to get back. We got out of the Mall and took cab to reach hotel which costed us around 20AED.
Finally our action packed much needed break came to an end. Next day, we had to check out of the hotel and reach the airport by 10AM to catch the flight which was scheduled to depart by 12:55PM. With heavy heart, we bid goodbye to the colorful city and got back home with loads of memories to cherish for life :)
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| Grand Mosque |
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| Chandelier |
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| Ferrari world |
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| Etihad towers |
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| Dubai Fountain |
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| Burj Khalifa |
Few Notes to plan:
1. Dubai is a place which can be planned for any number of days ranging from 3days to 10 days.
2. For youth, students, kids, it may be a heaven because there are hell lot of adventurous activities, theme based parks, desert bashing etc. So they may plan for 5-6 days visit.
3. Everything can be booked online. So take your time and do the home work to get better idea of the destination you are travelling to. Otherwise go for travel agents.
4. Everything is available in Dubai. So pack light and enjoy tight :)
5. We had booked TRIO combo package for sight seeing costed us 1200AED for a couple. (at 18rp perAED)
6. Dubai aquarium,zoo tickets Burj Khalifa tickets are available online - 400 AED per person.
7. Look out for flight price changes and save some penny over there.
8. Be careful. Enjoy the moments.
