Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th May, Adelaide to Dubai

 We had a long but fairly comfortable and  uneventful flight apart from one funny miss-calculation.  After meeting our travelling friends, Trudy and Rob, we left Adelaide around 3.30pm on a domestic flight, bound for Perth. Arriving in Perth around 5.30pm Perth time. We transferred to the International Terminal and had time to read, wander around and purchase some dinner. We boarded our International flight, bound for Dubai just before 10pm, departing Perth at 10.20pm, (11.50pm Adelaide time). Our flight was to take just over 11 hours. We were about 2 hours into the flight when we decided to try to sleep. I took a “Phenergan” tablet to help me fall asleep. I had done the correct thing and tried the Phenergan out at home one night and sleep extremely well, waking in the morning, feeling fine.  Anyway, about another 2 hours later Rob decided he would visit the loo. Rob had the aisle seat, I was next to him in the middle and next to me with the window seat, was a pleasant young man. With Rob vacating his seat we both decided we too should visit the loo. I managed to slide myself out of the seats but felt a little strange walking more like stumbling to the loo……..As usual I had to wait for a toilet to become vacant and another woman was standing near the toilets and I asked if she was waiting. She wasn’t but was just moving around as she struggled to sit for too long. Most people on the plane were asleep but this lady who was returning to the UK, wanted to chat. She asked so many questions and I was having trouble standing, let alone trying to talk to her without slurring my words. I could hear it in my voice but couldn’t stop it. Finally the toilet was free and I could go and hide from this woman. I’m sure she must have thought I was heavily intoxicated or on drugs! Anyway I returned to my seat and continued to try to sleep. By the time we were being woken with breakfast I was back to normal, thank goodness. The rest of the flight went without incident and we landed at around 6am Dubai time. (This meant we had probably had “breakfast” at around 3am.) At Dubai we were met by a chauffeur who drove us to our amazing 5 star accommodation at the Taj Dubai. We arrived there at 6.45am and we were so appreciative of the fact that we were able to go to our rooms as soon as we had checked in. Our accommodation is amazing, luxurious, huge rooms with magnificent views, as well as a pool and gym to die for. We showered and then went to the hotel’s breakfast room for our second breakfast of the day because it had been at least 5 hours since the last one! Following breakfast we took the hotels complimentary bus to the Dubai Shopping Mall. We spent an hour or so wandering around the high end shops here before taking a taxi to the Palm Jumeirah visiting another shopping centre and seeing the famous Atlantis, The Royal to see its famous architecture. We returned back to the centre of Dubai to visit The Museum of the Future. This new museum has the most eye-catching sculpture for its entrance. We were able to go inside but unfortunately tickets had sold out for the rest of the day even though it was only about 3pm. Even so we were suitably impressed with the futuristic displays that were on the ground floor. We returned back to our hotel for a short break before heading out to visit the Burj Khalifa, the tallest skyscraper in Dubai (and the world), with 160 storeys and several observation decks. We’d booked tickets to go to the observation deck on the 148 storey and this meant that we could go to the other observation deck on a lower levels. The views of Dubai and its magnificent skyline were excellent, despite the hazy skies. We completed this very long day with a walk around the lake below the Burj Khalifa and watched the beautiful water-fountain display that reacted in time with music. As we walked back to our hotel the lights began to come on. The buildings looked even more stunning with the lighting.