We packed our stuff on our last morning in Africa and headed to the truck to clean it out before grabbing breakfast from the lodge. Throughout our time in Africa, we realized that they really enjoy cornflakes for breakfast. It’s an option everywhere we’ve been, and usually they leave out yogurt to mix it in, rather than milk. We then headed into the city to gas the truck and drop it off at Africa on Wheels before our airport shuttle. The guy checking in our car was thankful for the extra food we gave away and a large bottle of shaving cream we also had leftover.

Getting to the Windhoek airport, we checked in for our business class seats (ask Grant about some savvy tricks you can play with mileage upgrades – we only paid a few hundred dollars total for seats that would normally be a few thousand each)! We had heard Qatar Air business class was one of the best ways to fly so we were excited for the experience. At check-in the lady noted they had overbooked business class and asked “would you like to help the problem by downgrading one of you to economy and getting the difference in price back?” Grant just said “No I would not.” She was shocked when we adamantly refused and then she suggested we stay in Namibia for three more days so we could both fly business class the following Tuesday. It finally took Grant saying “so are we the last to check-in and you literally have no seats left?” before she backed down, as we were pretty early for the flight. Grant had booked these seats over 6 months prior so felt he was likely one of the first to book this flight. She finally gave up and continued on with the check-in process. She then asked us to verify we were headed to Frankfurt, and we had to remind her we were headed to Dubai. Thankfully our boarding passes and luggage tags had the right destination, so we proceeded through customs/security thinking chances were good everything and everyone were headed to the right place! As we had a couple of hours to kill, we grabbed a quick snack at one of the restaurants before boarding our flight.

Our business class seats were excellent for our 8-hour flight to Doha as we enjoyed a lovely 3-course meal and some snacks. It was by far the best airplane food either of us had ever had, and the flight attendants were amazing hosts and hostesses. Along with the meals, it was nice to lie down and sleep as we would get into Dubai early in the morning. Though the check-in process had its drama, the hype about flying Qatar business class was definitely true! Flying into the Qatar airport, we saw one of the stadiums used during the FIFA World Cup this past November. My nephew, Connor, was jealous we saw it (even if it was just from the air). As we landed in Doha, we met up with Tim (who was on same flight but different seats this leg) and headed to our next gate. Tim’s flight home to Seattle wasn’t until 8 am the following day, so he headed to the information desk to ask about his hotel while we exchanged some cash for UAE Durhams. However, Tim was told his layover was too short to allow for hotel accommodations, so we then tried to get him into the lounge to try and have a nice place to relax. Again that failed as the line was too long, and it seemed like you needed to prebook access as it was pretty busy. As the stressful traveler I am (still working on it…), I wanted to get to our gate, so we headed down the terminal and said our goodbyes to Tim as we parted ways.

Boarding our flight to Dubai was quite the process as we checked in at the gate and then took a 10-15 minute bus ride to a separate part of the airport. The plane wasn’t ready for us to board, so we waited another 5 minutes before they allowed passengers to board. The flight was quick, though they surprisingly offered a quick inflight snack and beverage before we descended into Dubai. Landing in Dubai, we were ushered through the terminal onto a train that took us to the customs area. The airport was super busy, even at 4 am! Grant was quickly approved through customs; however, when it was my turn to go, somehow, my contacts caused a problem when they scanned my eyes. Not sure if they thought my contacts had something in it, but they sent me off to the immigration office to get checked. They rescanned my eyes without issue and stamped my passport, so we were free to go! 

We quickly grabbed our bags and a taxi and headed to our Airbnb. Our taxi driver told us that there are over 200 different nationalities living in Dubai, and everyone lives peacefully together. He said that cameras are everywhere and that if anyone breaks the rules, they will get caught. As a result, he noted the city was incredibly safe to walk around at all hours, even if you are a female by yourself. Once in the Airbnb (around 5:15 am), Grant and I crashed for the next few hours. We finally awoke around 1:30 pm and needed to get up, so we didn’t flip our internal clocks again. Our Airbnb was about a 15 minute walk over to Dubai Mall and once we hit Burj Park, we got to watch a little bit of a Teqball tournament. Teqball is kind of like table tennis except with a soccer ball. Some of the teams were pretty talented. Made me miss my soccer playing days for a minute!

The architecture in this city is astounding. Every building is just massive! When you compare to any major city in the US, we’re likely to only have just a few of these tall skyscrapers amongst a sea of smaller buildings. Here in Dubai, almost every building in the city is a skyscraper. But nothing compares to the Burj Khalifa! Once we caught a glimpse of the building, we were a little nervous about being so high up as we had tickets to go to the 154th floor the next day.

We headed to the Dubai Mall to check it out and see where things were. However, once there, we realized our desired Ski Dubai activity for another day was in a different mall. They like their malls here in Dubai – sounds like the summer gets incredibly hot so many things need to stay indoors and are connected to malls! And we were shocked at how many American restaurants and fast food brands there were here. Throughout our week in Dubai, we saw the following: 

• Cold Stone Creamery, Tim Horton’s Coffee, Cinnabon, KFC, Pizza Hut, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili’s, Texas de Brazil, Hardee’s, Texas Roadhouse, California Pizza Kitchen, Baskin Robbins, Wendy’s, Burger King, Rainforest Cafe, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, McDonald’s, Caribou Coffee, Peet’s coffee, Eately, Charley’s Philly steaks, Five Guys, Krisp Kreme, Dunkin’ Donuts, Yogurtland, Subway, and Tony Roma’s

There were also plenty of high-end stores within the mall. It’s no wonder they call it one of the most expensive shopping malls in the world! We also realized here in Dubai, they like to have “The Most ___” regarding certain things. They try to do it bigger and better here! We grabbed a quick meal in the food court, headed outside, and were confronted with a large crowd to push through. We finally realized when we heard music that a fountain show was going on with images and lights flashing on the Burj Khalifa. These shows became one of my favorite parts of the evenings here! It was impressive to watch, and every show was different! 

We stopped by the market next door to our Airbnb to grab some food for the apartment and figure out our plans for the upcoming few days.