The kind of early start that leaves you with a headache all day. We arrived at terminal 4 and swanned to the front of the first class checkin feeling very smug. Imagine how we felt when we arrived at the lounge and were summarily downgraded back to economy! Aurora was in tears. Managed to get in the lounge at least and have breakfast. We had resigned ourselves to cattle class, when we were miraculously upgraded again at the gate. Probably shouldn't have started drinking champagne at 9am, but hard to turn it down when you're sitting in a giant business class pod thing. Watched an Italian film about the bombing of a bank in Milan in dec 1969, and an episode of the American office, which I had never seen before. Upon arrival faced the strange prospect of putting hand luggage through the scanner. Weird. Anyway we were met by a chap in a brightly coloured jacket and escorted to a black limo driven by a young lad from Pakistan. Very nice treatment I must say. Arriving at the hotel we were greeted by various people and shown to a lovely room with a kind of shower room, massive bath and massive bed. We even have a butler!
Day 2
Woke up rather bleary eyed and my phone said it was 2:48am. Well we are 4 hours ahead here so having had a hard time going to sleep before midnight (since that's only 8 for us) we were now struggling to be up before 9.
Went downstairs to the biggest breakfast buffet I think I have ever seen. Must have been the size of a tennis court. There was every kind of normal breakfast thing you can imagine, plus all the Arab food including chicken livers. We discovered that beef bacon and turkey bacon taste surprisingly similar to real bacon.
The service in the hotel is amazing. We wandered down to the pool and were greeted by a young girl from Russia we think who showed us to some suin loungers in the shade, laid our towels out for us, and brought us little bottles of water and fruit. Pool absolutely beautiful and tranquil. It has a place o can lie and get bubbled, and also some sunloungers which are actually in about a foot of water. Nt to mention double bed things.
Wandered down to the beach on my own since a was feeling a bit feverish. Had a swim in the sea which was probably warmer than the pool! Strange beach landscape. Clearly visible cement factory in the distance and a skyline peppered with cranes. But the sand is white and the sea a beautiful shade of turquoise.
Headed off to the polo match suitably dressed up in yet another limousine driven this time by a Nigerian. A strange landscape was visible from the car window. Bizarre alien shaped buildings in the distance, lots of cranes, high rises in a heat and dust haze. At the polo ground a strange mix of people. Evidently important (ie rich) emiratis stroll causally around with crisp White tunics and the headdress held in place by either a black or red and White checked loop thing. Meanwhile you can hear English, Australian, Dutch, french, a plethora of accents and languages: it was like the tower of babel there. With an English emphasis. You do wonder what all these people actually do out here. Apparently there are lots more women than men expats. And I am told that native emirates make up only about 10% of the population.
Had to actually make an effort to take nice photos for the magazine - we will see how that works out. They had camel polo to start which was hilarious - but they all took it pretty seriously - of course it's a proper sport but it looks so comical. Dubai skydive team showed up with some hair raising last minute spins and a low pass flyby. Polo itself was fine - Aurora said pretty dangerous since some of the players were far too aggressive. No alcohol in the hospitality - doesn't bother me I'm quite happy to not drink anything all holiday. Event was in aid of breast cancer research so everyone was wearing something pink including yours truly.
Anyway after nibbles, chitchat and more photos we headed back to the hotel where we ordered room service and ate on the balcony which was very civilised.
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