Another free trip! I am on a role. On my first day back from Hawaii, I answered the phone to an Emirates representative notifying me that I won a trip to Dubai on behalf of Emirates for being in the top 30 sellers of Emirates flights in all of Victoria in every travel agency not just STA Travel! Stoked with my performance I packed my bags and off I was to Dubai. I'm not sure I can count how many times I have been to the United Arab Emirates in the past few years! One thing I was really excited about was being able to visit my friend Julia who has relocated to Dubai and now works for Emirates.
Landing in Dubai I was surprised to actually be greeted by Julia! We had a brief reunion and off I was taken to my own private five-star luxury room at the J.W. Marriott. Not having to share a room with anyone at all - this was not the work trip I was used to. I could find myself getting used to this lifestyle! I did feel a bit selfish having the world's biggest, softest most comfortable bed in the world all to myself and wished I had sneakily flown Naomi over to enjoy this with me.
The organisation was impeccable on this trip and you could
tell there was a lot of money and thought put into it. Being such a large group, there were many
activities to ensure we all met and interacted with each other. At the
same time we were hurriedly shown around in order to experience as much of Dubai as possible we in the very
short actioned packed three days. Meanwhile, in the very little free time that was on offer, I managed to get in some quality tours Julia, who was happy to show off the Dubai that she had come to know and love. It was such a great contrast to see it through the eyes of Julia the
expat as compared to Emirates and tourism Dubai showing us the touristic side
of the city.
atlantis palms aquarium
gold souk
The real highlight was the day we were split up into small groups and sent off with a list of clues and ran around the city in “Dubai’s amazing race”. When I first read about this activities on the itinerary I have to say I thought it would be slightly lame. Well was I wrong! I actually felt as though I was part of the real deal. So much detail was put into this and you could see this pretty much from the start after we were dropped off at Ski Dubai – the Middle East's first indoor ski resort! Running in from the humid 35 degree desert heat into the subzero chill sent shivers down my spine. We ran through like a whirlwind, climbing over ice cliffs, crawling on the ice-cold snow and tobogganing down the artificial slope. The moment we got the clue after completing the tasks we ran like mad men to the metro inside of the mall of the Emirates where the government of Dubai had put on a special metro time slot just for us on this race. The next clue - we got off at the Dubai Mall where we frantically ran around asking security and shop workers where the world's tallest building was - the burj Khalifa. I think we got some wrong directions somewhere along the line! It culminated in having to jump a fence, set off some alarms which sent a pack of black suited security in our direction, almost getting locked up, sweet talking our way out of it and thus resulting in not really being in front of the race anymore! We then decided there was a plethora of amazing sights to still visit along the way and thought, well we are not really going to win this race so why not take our time and enjoy this.
As much as I thought “Oh another trip to Dubai” I was so impressed with this trip, the organisation, Emirates and tourism Dubai. Trip well done!
ski dubai
dubai mall
burj khalifa - worlds tallest building
wild wadi water park
burl al arab
Dubai May 2013
