There’s nothing more frustrating than booking flights somewhere and then hearing about how you friend got them for $300 cheaper the other day.
Or suddenly you see ‘Cheap as chips’ flights on the television and hear about a great holiday deal on the radio from an Airline to the very destination you’d just booked!
Unfortunately I can’t help with luck, but I may be able to give you some useful advice on where to look for flights and how to scoop up the best deals. Continue reading
Emirates
Day 76 & 77 – Dubai to Singapore
The night before I left Dubai, the hotel said they’d extend my check out until 2pm so I could have a sleep in.
They probably knew how much I loved to sleep as whenever house keeping would come I’d always ask them to come back later haha 😴
So I took advantage of this and slept until about 11am. Then it was up to have a shower, wash my hair and pack all my crap into my bag. Luckily enough I’d only really bought clothes in Dubai so I just rolled them up really tight and shoved them into my suitcase/backpack thing.
When it came to 1pm I checked out and left all my bags downstairs in the storage area.
My flight wasn’t until that night so I passed time by going to the mall and spending what little money I had left.
It’s annoying having a night flight when you’re staying at a hotel or hostel. They always get you to check out in the morning which is fine, and you can usually leave your bags with them. I just always feel I can’t do much during the day because I have to be somewhere at a certain time and it all becomes too stressful to do anything.
I ended up going to the airport really early. I think I arrived before 6pm for my 9.30pm flight. 😑 keen!
I caught a taxi as I just had too much stuff to carry. The train is much quicker and cheaper though. Even though taxis in Dubai are actually really cheap, think my rode cost me like $25 NZD to the airport from my hotel so it wasn’t bad.
When I got to the airport, I got a trolley and loaded up all my stuff. I’d checked in online already so just had to drop my bags off and grab my boarding pass.
I was hoping there’d be lots of stuff in duty free as it was Dubai airport after all but there wasnt!
This always seems to happen to me, I always try and save my money for duty free and end up getting there and not liking any of the stores.
They had all your usual stuff like the perfume counters, they had a mac counter, all the alcohol and the same chocolates you see everywhere.
I don’t know what I was hoping for really. Maybe another Victoria secrets store or something that sold all the clothes.
I did grab myself a frozen yoghurt to pass the time and sat down to write a blog.
It wasn’t until just before my flight I realised that I hadn’t packed any face moisturiser of a face mask for my flight!
Especially as it was a 7 hour over-night flight I knew my skin was going to be drier than the Dubai desert. The ex-beauty therapist in me freaked out and quickly went in search of a hydrating face mask.
I ended up going to Khiels and getting this baby for $44 USD
I was lucky I had USD dollars in my wallet too!
Quite a bargain considering how big the tub is.
I boarded the flight just after 9pm and was gutted it was an older Emirates airplane. Just because I hadn’t charged my tablet the night before and my phone was running out of battery. Usually the planes have a USB port but this one didn’t 😦 they just had a plug and mine wouldn’t fit! It was like a European point which was weird for a middle eastern airline.
Anyways, the flight attendant got me an adapter to put my chargers in but it kept falling out the whole flight. The guy next to me kept laughing at me when I tried holding it in haha.
For 7 hours the flight went really quick. We had dinner and then I went to wash all my make up off and put my new face mask on.
People think it’s weird to do that on a plane but it’s honestly the best thing for your skin. Think how dry and dehydrated your skin gets at 35,000 feet! I feel like my face turns into a prune.
The mask probably wasn’t the best thing for sleeping (Even though it’s an overnight mask) It’s actually quite sticky.
I semi-snoozed through the flight and before I knew it they were waking us up for breakfast. I just had fallen asleep a bit coz I remember feeling grumpy having to wake up haha.
The breakfast was average. Nothing worse than bread that is cold and butter that is even colder coz it’s been fridge. Very hard to spread solid butter onto a cold croissant 😳
First world problems I know!!
I got to Singapore in the morning and the airport was pretty quiet so customs etc. was quick.
I got an airport shuttle for $9 to my hostel which was like half an hour away.
the NZ Dollar and Singapore Dollar are pretty much the same so it’s much easier figuring out how much money I’m spending over here.
As I arrived at my hostel before 10am, check in wasn’t until 3pm so I dropped my bags off and asked if I could have a shower.
I was feeling all yuck from my flight so it was good to freshen up.
I then went off for a walk.
It was so humid outside I didn’t actually last terribly long.
I tried to find something to eat but nothing interested me too much.
If you know me, you’ll know I don’t like Asian food apart from Thai and Indianfood hahaha! I know, crazy! Why am I in Singapore then you ask? Where there is an abundance of Asian food? I don’t actually know. Because it was a stop off on my way home really 😄
When I got back to my hostel it was about 2pm but my room was ready so they showed me up to it and I settled in.
I was so extremely tired I had a lie down on my bunk and ended up falling asleep like 3 times.
Eventually I dragged myself out of bed as I didn’t want to sleep in case I didn’t sleep that night.
I think I ended up going down to Bugis Junction (the closest mall to where I am) and had a look around there.
I came across this Korean skin Care brand called Innisfree and smelt all their products.
I walked away with some samples to try before I bought anything so I was excited to use them that night.
When i got back to the hostel i used one of the volcanic face masks on my skin to try and clear it up a bit.
My skin has broken out majorly ever since I went to Dubai and come to Singapore. I think it’s from all the flying I’ve been doing and sleeping in all the air conditioned rooms. 😣
I hate it!!! Thank god girls can wear make up.
It was safe to say I had a very good sleep that night after barely sleeping for the past 24 hours!
Day 73 – Dubai
Wow what a day!
I’m currently writing this while I wait for my bagel at this place called The Bagel Bar in the Dubai Mall.
This morning I set my alarm for 8.05am. Mainly because I didn’t want to spend money on breakfast and it was already included in my hotel price. And also I was thinking of taking the hotel shuttle to the beach for the morning.
Neither of these things ended up happening haha.
I snoozed my alarm as I was so tired (may have had to do with the late shopping last night)
And then fell back to sleep until nearly 9.30am. Woops.
Breakfast finished at 10am so unless I just went down in my pj’s then it wasn’t happening for me.
I turned my air con off when I went to sleep so I woke up all sweaty and in desperate need of a shower.
I washed my hair and put on a respectable long-ish skirt. (Long at the back anyways) and popped on a scarf thing I used as a shawl.
In Dubai it’s respectable to cover up your knees and shoulders but not everyone does it. Especially if you’re a foreigner and you’re just visiting. I like to think Dubai locals are understanding as it’s so freakin hot I couldn’t even wear pants if I wanted to!
Once that selfie was taken, I went across the road to The Mall Of The Emirates and had a frozen yogurt for breakfast with granola and strawberries.
(That was the only healthy thing I had today btw)
Then went outside to enquire about a sightseeing bus.
As my phone doesn’t have data here (apart from in certain stores and the hotel I’m staying in) It’s hard to get around without my Google maps.
Usually I’d take the metro or something around Dubai to explore but I figured I’d never done a hop on-hop off bus tour before so I’d do one in Dubai. Plus it’d be too stressful without my fave Google buddy to try and navigate myself😦
I bought a 48 hour ticket so it expires midday on Sunday (which is fine as I have a desert drive thing at 3pm on that day)
The ticket cost about $95 NZD which isn’t too bad I guess with the exchange rate.
My first stop I went to was Dubai Mall. Which I know sounds a bit lame as I just came from a mall.
But I just wanted to have a quick look to see how big it really was and figure out how much time I’d need there later.
Well “being quick” turned into 2 hours. My sightseeing ticket included The Aquarium at The Dubai Mall so I went and checked that out while I was there.
I thought it would be bigger than what it was (like more to see) but it was still interesting to look at if you like the Sea life.
I’m not a big fan of marine life. Unless it’s a cute dolphin or some baby penguins so I didn’t spend a lot of time at The Aquarium. However, there were some penguins I took photos of! 😙
When I was finished looking at all the seafood, I went across from The Aquarium to the very large and colourful candy store!
I was going to buy my brother some caramel popcorn but I knew it would just end up getting all crushed in my bag so I decided against it. I actually left the store with nothing which is a first for me!
This year I did 8 months without candy and I actually don’t feel like it as much as I always used to. 🍬🍭 so that’s a great thing!
I decided to get some lunch so headed upstairs to the food court.
And wow was i spoilt for choice! I can never make up my mind about anything because I’m scared I’ll get one thing and then end up wishing I got something else so this was hard for me 😯
Anything you could probably ever imagine wanting to eat was avaliable at the food court. And to think they still had a whole other level of restaurants in the mall was just crazy!
I ended up getting a Thai curry as I hadn’t had one in awhile.
I should have gotten something else though because myself and like 5 other people waited ages for our meal. I was standing there as 2 other people pretty much yelled at the counter worker because they’d been waiting for over half an hour for their meals.
Eventually I got my food and it wasn’t even worth the wait. 😧
Even though it does look pretty good in that picture, there just wasn’t enough flavour and spice for me.
I didn’t want it to get too late so I hopped on the next Sightseeing bus and headed off to see some more places. We passed Union House which is where the documents were created and signed which created the Arab’s world’s historic federation of the states (The UAE).
Then we passed the Jumeirah Mosque which is the only Mosque in Dubai open to the public. And one of the most photographed in the world.
I didn’t actually stop here, I think I assumed since it was a Friday it would be closed (as Friday in Dubai is like our Sunday)
We then went through Kite Surf Beach, Suqeim Public Beach and Burj Al Arab which is one of the most luxurious hotels in the world.
When you think of Dubai you usually think of this building.
Unfortunately I didn’t get the beeest picture of it because the sky wasn’t super clear but I tried!
The next stop I got off at was one of the many Souks Dubai has. A Souk is a traditional market where gold, jewellery, spices, textiles, womens garments etc… are sold.
It was nice to walk around the Souk I went to because it was kind of inside a small mall type area and it was nice and air conditioned! Haha.
Can I just say also, the amount of people that shop in Dubai is insane. There’s literally so many people coming to and from malls in their fancy cars and hoards of shopping bags. Do people not work??
I checked out Atlantis At The Palm after the Souk. It’s basically this amazing resort where I would absolutely love to stay at!!
I’ve looked into it before and it’s so bloody expensive I can’t believe I was even allowed to enter it without being told off for breathing in rich people’s oxygen.
It was the first resort to be built on The Palm back in 2008 and has 1,539 nautically Atlantis themed rooms. It also has two accommodation wings, also referred to as The Royal Towers which are both linked together by the Royal Bridge Suite. (That’s where you want to stay if you ever stay there! Haha)
It also has the Aquaventure water park and a beach called Nasimi Beach which frequently has concerts and other events. 😍
I checked out the mall downstairs when I was there but couldn’t really afford anything so left and waited for the next Sightseeing bus.
I ended my journey back at The Dubai Mall (the one 15 minutes from my hotel) as I wanted to watch The Fountain Show.
The Fountain Show started at 6pm and goes every half hour after that. It’s the world’s largest choreographed fountain system set on the 30-acre manmade Burj Khalifa Lake which is right outside the Dubai Mall downstairs. It was built at USD $218 million and made by the same company that did the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas.
I didn’t actually get to see the fountains until about 7pm coz it took me forever to find them going through that great big mall. Plus I got distracted in Victoria Secrets along the way….
Eventually I saw them and it was really pretty to watch. Very very crowded though so I’d defiantly get there a bit earlier to be up the front if you ever went. Personally I didn’t want to stand outside in the heat so happily watched it from behind hundreds of people haha. The perks of travelling solo, doing whatever you want.
Update: I finished writing this blog when I got to my hotel
Once I finished my bagel that I was eating at the start of this blog, I decided it was probably time to head home so grabbed a taxi about 11pm.
Thank god I had some cash with me because the ATM wouldn’t accept my card when I tried to get money out. I think it’s because the magnetic strip had come off and it only had the chip so the ATM’s wouldn’t let it go into the machine. It that makes sense…
Anyways, cabs here don’t do card so I just had the right amount to take me back to my hotel!
(These were not the fountains by the way, these were other small fountains outside the front entrance)
When I got back, I went and got some ice-cream after putting all my bags down in my room. What a day of shopping I’ve had!
Xx
ThePassportPrincess 
