Friday, September 3, 2010

A big Souk 3 September


After a last cuppa on Kaiserstrasse, we checked out of our Frankfurt hostel and took a taxi to the airport. Those bike bags were just not getting any lighter, and carrying two of them to the railway station, plus all the other stuff, just seemed like very hard work. Hence we got to the airport about 10 hours before our flight. We loaded all the stuff onto one trolley, it is quite a pile, and George can only just see over the top. We now look just like the other people with too much baggage; we usually chuckle at their overload.


The airport official spotted us lurking near the Emirates check-in counter, which was open and seemed miraculously devoid of other passengers, and directed us to the end of the que..... some 100m down the concourse! Can't que straight out of the Emirates counter as this would block traffic. Half an hour later we got to the front of the que and were told that check-in for the evening flight would commence in about 7 hours. The nice man was able to confirm that bikes were OK, and that the baggage allowance per person was 30kg in the hold and 7kg hand luggage.

We found a bulky goods scale and asked if we could weigh our luggage. My bike turned out to be 22kg, and George's 23kg! Much heavier than we thought. After some pondering we realised that the bicycles we'd been covetting on the internet were 17kg, but we'd ended up buying a completely different brand. Add the weight of the bike bags, the paniers, cardboard packaging, and tools, and no wonder those bags felt so heavy. Luckily the total of all hold luggage is still less than 60kg combined.

Trolley scooters at Frankfurt airport
How to while away 7 hours. A cuppa and some Apfelkucken (apple cake) sprung to mind, so we took the large glass elevator (capabable of holding moderate sized airport vehicles) one level up. We were encouraged to go by the waiter after lingering an hour or so and not ordering anything additional. Further upward progress seemed stymied by escalaters so back to the ground floor for a spot of reading and marveling at the chaps with the remote control airport scooters rounding all the trolleys up. They can string together a line of 50m or more of trolleys which they steer by pushing the front most trolley around while the controlling the scooter at the back to provide the grunt to push the whole lot along. Quite an art, especially around corners!
Our trolley in pole position


We claimed seats near the front of the Emirates check-in counter two hours before time and defended this spot from all interlopers. Thus we managed to get our trolley in pole position when a German Frau arrived to organise the next que. She asked everybody lurking in the vicinity which Emirates counter they were waiting for and then placed them just so in the appropriate que (wheels lined up with a crack in the pavement). Even passengers that didn't want to que just yet were efficiently organised and sent with their trolley to the end of the line. It was funny watching people's faces when the German Frau honed in on hopeful passengers eyeing the empty Emirates check-in lines and pointed to the end of the real que 100m or more away. We must have looked just like that earlier too.

Six hours of flying has brought us to Dubai. It took 20 min to taxi from the runway to the assigned berth. Another 20 min to be brought to the terminal by bus, and about 15 min to get through passport control. Once around the baggage carouselle rounded up all our stuff. We've left the bikes at the airport left luggage depo to save us from lugging them into town and back. Our hotel overlooks the Port Rashid dry docks which holds ships easily the size of the Wellington - Picton ferries. We popped into the New Gold Souk (Souk = market) just behind the hotel (only 500m) to see what was on offer. A four story airconditioned building, the size of one or our city blocks, with lots of little stalls selling jewerly and gold. Three-quarters were vacant and the rest wouldn't open until 10 am.

Dubai skyline seen from the motorway
All I can say about Dubai is that it is vast. A twelve lane highway (six lanes each way) runs through the middle of the city with skyscrapers clustered around. Each skyscraper or block of buildings is more ornate than the next. We wanted to go to a Dubai Mall, not realising that there are heaps of them. We picked the Mall of the Emirates as it was near Ski Dubai and the Burj Al Arab (that very expensive hotel that looks like a sail). This Mall is 4 levels of hugeness, it is fully possible to get completely lost, the whole thing is airconditioned and top to toe fitted out in every colour of marble imaginable. You can easily walk a marathon and only visit each shop once. All the big expensive brands are there, as well as a range of shops sporting more traditional goods such as burka's, silk carpets and those amazing lights we saw in Frankfurt.
The Mall of the Emirates



The Mall of the Emirates








My new best friends - what else can I take on as hand luggage?



The Ski field can be viewed from one end of the Mall. Not a very large ski field but impressive non-the-less given that it is more than +40 C outside and -3 C inside. We were wanting to walk from the Mall to the Burj Al Arab, but were stymied by the distance, and the number of roads sporting armco between us and the target. The taxi also had to take a spiraling route to get there. By the way, taxis in both Frankfurt and here in Dubai are beige. In Frankfurt they were mostly BMWs and Mercedes, here they are Toyotas and Hyundais.
Ski field inside the Mall of the Emirates



This is as close as you are allowed to get to the Burj Al Arab without a reservation

It is Ramadan at the moment - so that means that you are not allowed to consume food, drink or smoke between 4 am and sunset (7:30 pm). It is also Friday which is another holy day. As a result the shops in the Mall were only open from 10 am to 1 pm (yes only 3 hours), very few people are about, and none of the cafes or restaurants, including McDonalds, are open until 7:30 tonight! The Dubai metro, which snakes above the main road, will only run from 14:25 to about 17:00 today, but as a special treat Wild Wadi (a Dubai style hydro park) will open from 12:00 to 17:00 on Fridays and Saturdays only during the Ramadan; people were queing up. Us naive, and rather hungry tourists, bought food from the supermarket (which is nearly the size of the Porirua shopping mall) to take back to the hotel, where we are eating it in private. It still seems ironic that you can buy food but you are not allowed to eat it during the day.

Main aisle of the supermarket in the Mall of the Emirates

We went for a walk this afternoon, in search of the Dubai Creek and the old fort. On the little tourists maps it doesn't look that far. However, it turns out that the maps show neighbourhood blocks and not city blocks. An hour and a half after we set off we finally tracked the creek down. Temperatures must be up around 43 C, and about 37 C in the shade, so were rather glowing after our little walk. Although all the shops in the shopping malls are shut, many of actual malls are open and there are quite a few people sitting around inside. We think that locals hang out in the malls because the airconditioning is on.
It might be around 42C but that doesn't stop Indian workers from playing cricket



One of the many boats on the Dubai Creek

The calls to payer, from the many mosques, are rather beautiful and we've heard a couple now, but didn't see a rush to the temple. Guess people are praying at home. Caught a Taxi back to the hotel, which was wonderful because all cars are aircondintioned here. We've just had a lovely curry dinner and tested the temperature outside again. Instant and solid fogging up of my spectacles, still warm then!

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