From Nairobi to Dubai

Finally I made the much anticipated Dubai trip! Heard and read so much about it, and had to see it with my own eyes!

Where to start? Ok, from Nairobi, Emirates fly to Dubai everyday, the flight leaves in the afternoon, arrives at night and it is a nonstop 5 hr. flight, (remember there is a one hour difference). The flight was full, probably because of Easter Holiday.

I have seen many Emirates commercials and probably because of that my expectations were high! Unfortunately it has not met with reality!! For some reason inside of the plane was freezing! I felt like we were flying to Antarctica instead of Dubai! All the passengers including me complained about the freezing low temperature but nothing has changed, throughout the flight I was under two blankets!!!!! And imagine, five hours under the blanket, at one point I saw people covering their whole body with blankets, from head to toe (including my husband)! After very uncomfortable flight, we arrived Dubai International Airport. This was the biggest airport I have seen so far. Since plane parked somewhere at the back, it took 10-15 minutes to get to the building by shuttle! Once we were inside, noticed there are 3 terminals and they are 8km from each other! Once we stepped in, I saw Emirates provides stroller for travelers with kids, it is much appreciated if you have two small children like me:) Honestly, I jumped one of them right away! There were queues/lines in every corner, passports lines, luggage lines, taxi lines, and comparing with amount of travelers there were not much waiting period. Good news is, rules are strictly applied and so everything works smoothly.

When we were at the door waiting for our taxi, temperature was somewhere around 30-31C. It was purely dry hot weather, can it be because we were in dessert:) There was also little bit of breeze, which felt so good! Our  friendly and talkative taxi driver said were very lucky with the weather, breeze was such a luxury in this time of the year. As long as there is no humidity I have no complain for hot weather:)

Because we arrived at night time, there was not any traffic on the way to our hotel, Mariott Harbour & Suites. It took 30 minutes by taxi to get to Harbour/Marina area. There I got shocked, may be not shocked but surprised to see so many people walking (something you get unfamiliar--walking outside--when you live in Africa, and after two years probably I adapted way to much:)). Some people dressed for night clubbing ladies in high heels! some people were returning from the beach, and some were just taking a stroll with their children. From airport to marina, there were restaurants in every corner, and majority was full with diners.