For this one, I’m going to start at the end, then double back to explain how I got there.

At the end of day one in Dubai, I wanted nothing to do with the place; Too chaotic, too noisy, too strange, felt like everyone was staring at me, and I really just wanted to hide in my hotel until it was time to go back to the airport.

By the end of day two? Complete reversal; I can’t claim to understand the place, or have a handle on it, or even that it makes sense, but it’s no longer scary, and I’d like to come back.

The flight was the 17½ hour direct from Auckland to Dubai.
I’d booked the aisle seat, and I’m not regretting that choice;  Being able to get up and go for a bit of a wander, even if only to the bathroom, is a good thing on such a flight.
So is free onboard WiFi, which I took blatant advantage of by feeding different email addresses into to extend the window of free access; There are certain advantages to knowing every email address on a domain, so that you don’t use one that someone else has.
Having to get up to let Middle & Window seats out is a small price to pay, though the times that Window chose left something to be desired; Such as when the food or beverage cart was in the aisle and there was no physical way to get out of my seat which didn’t involve bouldering skills I don’t have. Or when the cart was a bit further back, so that he couldn’t get to the bathrooms anyway, the way forward being forbidden, blocked by the Curtain Of Affluence*.

(* That which prevents the viewing of Business Class. It is … Forbidden … to my people)

Slept more than I expected to, but less than I’d like.

There was a lot of walking involved once I got to to Dubai International.
To the extent that I was worried that I’d missed a sign, not turned when I should have, and was heading to the Arrivals Hall in the next Terminal, or possibly the next city. The concourse, which seemed to look down into the departure & gates area, just kept going in a mostly-straight line, punctuated with the occasional annex for toilets and baby-stroller storage.

The arrivals hall, …
OK, have you seen Fellowship of the Ring?
The bit in Moria, outside Balin’s tomb, with the enormous hall with the pillars?
It looks like that, but with better lighting, more terrazzo, and a Costa Coffee kiosk.
Oh, and a bunch of baggage conveyors.

Getting to the hotel was easy enough; I bought a travel card for the Dubai Metro, as my hotel was specifically chosen to be on a transport link, and an airport worker mistook my “reading the signs and figuring it out” for “lost tourist”, was heading in that direction anyway, so guided me.
(I was a little suspicious, so paid attention to what was going on, and while the “I’ll carry your bag for you” when transferring between trains was probably well-meant, there was no way in hell I was letting go of that handle)
I probably would have figured out the change in trains at Union Station, and the change in platforms required, but it sure was easier to just follow someone who was heading that way anyway.

Finding the hotel was easy; You can see it from the station.
Note paranoid screenshotting of local map, just in case I got lost.

Despite turning up six hours early, the nice folks at Hyatt Place Dubai/Baniyas Square found me a room right away, a nice VIP one no less, possibly to get my stinky self out of their nice clean lobby.

The View, of Baniyas Square, at around 7am.
Note almost total non-squareness of the space.

The hotel were also very apologetic that they couldn’t do free breakfast today, explained that because it’s a closed-off space it’s OK to eat there during sensible hours during Ramadan, and warned me not to eat or drink outside of the hotel.
They said I’d get a fine; Makes me wonder what it’d be like if I wasn’t white.

I showered, and I slept for a few hours.

Then I took a wander around the square, felt as though I stood out like a sore thumb, and went back to sleep for the afternoon.
My t-shirt selection, which I’m realising is entirely nerd stuff and con shirts … felt misplaced here.
Woke up for a bit at dusk, found that the idea of venturing out into the noise & chaos filled me with dread, and went back to sleep.

Day two was completely different.
I’m going to assume that sleep deprivation was not my friend when dropped into a new & very different environment, and I guess I’ll be trying to plan for that in future.

My best non-jarring option for shirts was my warm flannel shirt, which didn’t seem like the best option in a desert environment, so I went for a walk to the edge of Dubai Creek, to see how it would work.
Surprisingly well, as it turns out. The low humidity meant that the heavy fabric really didn’t matter, so I was able to wander along the quayside for a couple of kilometres without issue, though I did take the metro back. It was right there, and was airconditioned.

I’d not realised that the creek was a commercial port, if a small one.
Wooden boats which were clearly motor-driven, but also obviously built with more traditional designs in mind, are pulled up there, and the cargo get stacked & loaded & unloaded right onto the quayside. Kind of a different approach to, say, Auckland, where it’s all locked away behind fences & in containers.
The loading system here seemed to be “If you crouch down, we’ll lift it onto your back, and then steady it while you stand … OK, now go”.

With the shirt situation sorted, I went out to do Tourist Things!
Well, one tourist thing in particular – The Burj Khalifa, with an observation deck 555.7m up.

There’s a lot of view.

Also, there’s a outside deck, admittedly with very tall safely barriers, but it is open topped.

In other news, I need a beard-trim.

The haze was too great, but I’m told that somewhere out there is “The World”, still under construction.
And still looking for enormously wealthy people who want to own their own geographically representative island which they’ll only be able to access by boat, and which will be really difficult to build on because you can only access it by boat.

Pretty happy with this next one, as a picture.
The building, by the way, is Dubai Mall. All of the building, because it’s ridiculously large.

Getting to the Burj Khailifa involved a Metro ride, then a walk down a very long twisty … concourse? hallway?
I couldn’t tell at the time, but it’s an enclosed air-conditioned structure, with windows & travellators, which winds between buildings & across streets to deposit you at Dubai Mall. It’s over a kilometre long, from the look of it on Google Maps.

The mall itself is enormous. Ridiculous.
It has a waterfall.

A bit lower down on the building, there are another couple of floors of observation deck & souvenir store, with another external platform. Oddly, there’s a better sense of the building from down there, but much like Olympus Mons, you’re not really aware of the object while you’re on it. It can only be seen from a distance.

Self-portrait in mirrored window.
My combination of boots, jeans, flannel shirt & hat made me look like I was cosplaying a 2000’s Rap video.

And then there’s this.
My first … involuntary souvenir of the trip, a free gift with the elevator ticket.
I have no idea what to do with a plushy building.

In the evening, I caught up with Craig O., who I worked near at AECOM.
His desk was diagonally behind mine.
He’s living & working in Daubai, and is, from the look of it, having a fantastic time.

We had dinner over at Dubai Marina, which is rather more modern & high-end than where my hotel was.
And a great deal more expensive, I’m guessing.

 

And that’s it for Dubai.
Like I said, I had a complete change of heart concerning the place over the course of 48 hours, and I’m thinking that a lot of the negative impression was just being dead tired; It’s hard to be positive about anything in that state.

I think I’ll be back.
Maybe to work, because they have money, and I do like money.
And maybe to tourist, because they have a ski slope in a mall.

That said, there are clearly some downsides to the place; It’s a good idea not to get into unpayable debt, for example.
Not sure what worker health & safety is like, but I’d not be laying good odds on a robust system being in place.

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Baniyas Square at probably a bit before midnight. It was less blurry in real life.

And in the morning.

 

Downlighting in the closet gives a certain undeserved grandeur to my hoodie.

This is probably the first hotel room I’ve ever stayed in that didn’t have Gideons Bible.
Some of them also had a Book of Mormon.
This one … Takes another path.

This interested me, from a civic point of view.

Whereas it’s the disclaimer on this one I was drawn to.
“Bears no accurate perspective to anything” is something I’d have dearly loved to tag some work with over the years.