When I looked for tickets to Cape town almost all flights had a stop in Dubai or Doha, always around 6 hours which is a worthless time since its to long to just sit and wait but its to short to leave the airport. I dig deeper and after a while I got tickets which gives me 10 hour stop in Dubai on my way down and only 2 hours on my way back home. That is perfect since it will give me at least some time to explore Dubai city on my way down and since I’m landing in the middle of the night the temperature should be OK. It was a good plan, it didn’t work out well but it was a good plan.
We arrived according to schedule and even that they scared me that I wouldn’t be allowed into the country because of my Israeli stamps in my passport both passport control and custom went without any problem. I don’t think he actually looked at my picture during passport control and he seemed most bothered with the issue to find a blank paper to stamp. There was no problem finding the metro, understand how it works or finding which station I should get off at either but as soon as I left the metro station I was struck with an enormous heat and a humidity who could kill.
I realize directly that this will bad but I give it an try but just after an block or two I must confess I’m defeated and I’m melting away, I sit down at an coffee house and while the other people were drinking tea and smoking hookahs I ordered a barrel of water. They looked kind a suspicious at me but come on, I am a swede, I’m not made for conditions like this. Drinking my water I started to think over my options and finally I decided to take the tram around Palm Jumeirah (you know the island the made looking like a palm). Using the tram I will see but without melting, win! I looked at google maps where the closest tram station is and walked over there and then I finally finds it, I just missed the last train and the tram is closed for the night.
With a pretty bitter taste in my mouth I decide to stop the first taxi I see and head back to the airport, my driver who came from Pakistan shone like the sun then I told him I’ve been to Kashmir and as a bonus for me he drove so I could see the impressive Burj Al Arab (hotel that looks like a sail) and Burj Khalifa (worlds tallest house) together with some classic big city skyline. Taxi here is cheap, really cheap and even if I tipped him plenty I didn’t pay more than what it cost to order a taxi in Sweden. And yes, it feels like a failure to not seen more of the city but I spent a couple of hours in the city at least and now I will spend the rest in an air conditioned lounge…and maybe take a shower.