Finally, we’re off! With a late Wednesday flight from Heathrow to Dubai. Trying to stick to a reasonably tight budget meant we had a 20 hour gap before our connecting flight to Sydney, but in the end it worked out for the best since it gave us a bit of time to recover from the first flight and see a bit of Dubai! Luckily we qualified for a scheme via Emirates called Dubai connect where the airline provide a hotel, meal, and transport to and from the airport all for free for passengers with long layovers. We requested this service about a week before check in, but didn’t get much in the way of a confirmation so weren’t convinced it was going to happen. But once at Dubai it was pretty straightforward to get our hotel voucher and directions to the right shuttle bus.

To try and adjust to Australia time we’d stayed awake for the whole 7 hour flight, so our first priority once we got to the hotel was to try and get some sleep! But after a reasonable 6 hours of shut-eye it was only 2pm Dubai time and we still had 12 hours until our next flight. So we ventured out to see some sights (and find some lunch)!

Dubai Metro

We looked up the various options for getting from our airport hotel into the city and decided the metro would be cheaper and just as easy as an Uber. The walk to the station was only 8 minutes according to apple maps - easy, we thought - until we stepped out into 40 degree heat plus humidity. 15 minutes later and more sweaty than I like to admit, we entered the glorious air conditioning of the metro station. Like anywhere that’s not London, NY or Paris, the metro was super clean, efficient, and cheap! £5 each bought us a day ticket, and we hopped on the red line down to Dubai Mall.

Dubai Mall

Like everything there, Dubai mall is massive. And it’s not even the largest mall in Dubai (I believe mall of the Emirates takes that crown). Even the walk from the station to the mall entrance was a long 15 minutes of travelators along a seemingly never-ending corridor suspended over the highway between very expensive apartment buildings and hotels.

Once we finally made it to the end of the corridor, the mall looked… well… just like Westfield back in london. Every Western brand you can imagine, including an M&S and a Waitrose! Sadly we didn’t have the time, money or baggage room for much shopping, so we just picked up some new socks for James and headed to the food court for a quick pizza and american-sized jugs of Pepsi.

One of the main attractions in the Mall itself is the acquarium. We didn’t pay to enter, but there is a large section viewable for free with hundreds of fish including large sharks, manta rays, and a swordfish floating around inside. We also stopped by the ice rink, the waterfall sculpture, and a few other art installations in the mall before heading outside to the lake.

Burj Khalifa and the fountain show

The world’s tallest building was… tall! We didn’t get too close, but viewed it from the bridge across the lake outside the mall and waited in the sweltering heat for the next fountain show. The fountain show was very impressive, if a little brief, and appeared to be the same show every 30 minutes. It drew a large crowd despite the sweltering heat, and provided lots of insta-photo opportunities!

Onwards, to Australia

And after a fairly full on day, now, we wait. We weren’t looking forward to a long layover, but it’s actually made the long journey a lot more enjoyable, given us time to get some proper rest, and let us experience a whole new country here in the UAE. Just 2 more hours to go until take off, and then it’s just 14 hours to Sydney where the real adventure begins!