2023 Trips – UAE and Thailand

When I was in Italy, I walked a LOT and I really enjoyed it! So other than our walk to the store to get some supplies, it seemed to me that the Dubai Mall was fairly close and I decided (nope, did not include Andrew in this decision as he normally walks every day) that we would walk there! I looked at Google Maps and it looked like there was good path to get there so we started out. I do not like to walk with my phone in my hand for a variety of reasons – one being I am a target for some to grab it and two, I should be using both my hands on my walker. So I carry it in my travel purse and try and memorize where we are going. This sometimes works and sometimes does not. Also, you need to remember that it is a bit warm out – about 28 or 29 degrees at this point. First, we passed a National Landmark for Canada of which there are several of them in Dubai for some strange reason…

SO, I missed a right turn and we ended up walking a block too far. So we had to walk back that block and then cross the street at the light to walk back again to the busy street. Now, as I have already mentioned, in Dubai, street crossings are few and far between. So off we went, walking the opposite way of the mall to the next light. Boy are lights LONG here! I think we waited 10 minutes to cross the street only to walk back the other side of the street. The interesting thing was on the corner of this busy street was the Canadian University!

Now, I think sometimes Andrew wonders what I am getting us into – I like an adventure – that is for sure! Crossing the street here can be an adventure for sure – my tactics that I employed in Rome were not quite working as well – being the “plow” as Liz would say and causing traffic to stop as I put my walker out and start moving. It seems to be working only part of the time! Eventually we were able to cross a smaller street where the traffic was coming around a kind of blind corner and made it to the other side where there was a not that wide sidewalk (wide enough for my walker) that was basically on an off ramp that went around a building of lower end rent. Once we got around the corner though I knew we were in the clear – there was the equivalent to our Skytrain station! So we took the elevator up into the station and started walking into the mall. We walked and we walked and we walked through corridor and corridor above ground. Finally after about 3 km of walkways (which some had moving sidewalks which was cool) we made it to the mall! After all that we needed a break – no, DESERVED a break! So I had some GF gelato (they had it marked) and Andrew some iced coffee. Let’s go check out the mall and figure out where we need to go for tomorrow afternoons visit to the Burj Khalifa tower.

I THOUGHT Andrew might want to replace his “summer” shoes however he did not – so instead we just checked out the mall features. This is a HUGE, GIANT, MASSIVE mall. I cannot explain how big it is – it just went on forever and had stores that we recognized that probably is their only existence outside of the USA. There is “Fashion” row where the high end stores are and then the regular mall. In the regular mall there is an aquarium that is 3 floors high and an ice skating rink. So we went to go see the aquarium, which you can view from outside and took some pictures. To go inside was about $100 so we passed on that. We have seen many beautiful aquariums in our travels already.

Then we decided that this mall is boring (yes I said that) and on our way to find the taxi stand (it was very elusive) and looking to go outside to see the ponds / lakes at the mall to possibly see the fountain show, we ran into the Apple store and they had a balcony where you could sit and look out onto the patio area of the mall. So we did that for a while, until we realized that the fountain show was not going to happen for another hour! Off to the taxi’s we went. As it was 4pm there was a line up and so we waited and then they stopped me at the front of the line and had me wait while they brought a cab right to the curb for me. Now that was really nice of them! Back to the hotel, we decided to go to the bar on the 43rd floor of our hotel – which is a fairly well known bar in Dubai and listed in tourist books as the highest bar in a hotel. From there, we watched the sunset and I took various pictures that you see below. We also tried to have something to eat, however that did not go over very well as the cook in the restaurant thought gluten was in corn so they would not serve me any nachos. I ended up having edamame which is a good stand in however I think they went to pick it before they served it to me as it took so long!

We then retired to our room to eat left overs from our previous meals (Andrew had my stinking hot butter chicken from the Sheraton) and call it a night! Tomorrow we go up the Burj Khalifa building – tallest in the world!

Good morning French Toast! Well, we are back down in the restaurant again for our last meal at the Sheraton – today is going to be a busy day so we had better fill up! We need to pack and move hotels and then at 2pm we are being picked up to go on our Heritage Tour Safari!

I have found the buffet at the Sheraton Dubai Creek just awesome – while I cannot eat half of the things on it, I have been taken care of really well. The diversity of the restaurant guests is testament to why people like to stay here – the buffet covers a lot of cultures and the food that they like to eat first thing in the morning. There is East Indian, Middle Eastern. European and North American items on the buffet. The only thing that is missing is Japanese/Chinese that I can see. Today I took some pictures so you can see the different offerings.

I also took some pictures of our lovely room too! It was a two room suite – there was a living room area that as we were on the corner of the building had an interesting view – there was a bar so we did not fall into the window that was jutting out from the building. The bedroom had the Juliette balcony and the LARGE washroom. Similar to Europe, we had a bidet and toilet and also a shower and bathtub along with the standard sink.

When we were ready to leave, we were going to take a taxi to the Four Points Hotel in downtown Dubai that I had booked next, however the doorman told me that we could take the hotel car instead and it would cost the same amount of money. Sounded like a plan to me! Arriving in a private vehicle to our next hotel sounded luxurious! Also, it was less stressful than waiting for a taxi and perhaps getting a driver that did not understand English. A very nice gentleman drove us to the Four Points downtown which was basically located on a major road running through downtown Dubai.

As we arrived at the Four Points about 2 hours before they were expecting us at 3pm, so we had to wait for our room. They were very hospitable and sat us in the cafe on the main floor and bought me a drink (Andrew was not thirsty) and basically kept us entertained. We were getting a bit concerned as by this time I had received an e-mail that we were now being picked up at 2:25 and it was getting close to 2pm. So I meandered back to the front desk and found that our room had just become ready. So upstairs we went and to our surprised again, we had been upgraded to a suite! Not quite as nice as the Sheraton however it was absolutely fine for our needs! We quickly unpacked and got dressed for the desert trip and were downstairs right on time to be picked up in a very nice new Land Rover. We were the first to be picked up in our group and we picked up the other 2 couples, one from Spain and the other from Sydney, Australia. The Spanish couple were staying at a hotel similar to ours in terms of quality, however the Australia couple were at a very exclusive hotel so they must have had some money! We then drove out of Dubai, to the north, for about 45 minutes until we got to the land that Heritage Tours owns and operates their tours from. The 6 of us were together the whole afternoon/evening and there were about 15 groups of 6 that were being entertained that night. When signing up for the tour we had the choice of riding a camel in the desert for an hour or taking a 1950’s Land Rover tour of the desert. As I have previously ridden a camel and did not think it would be a good fit for me these days with my back issues, we chose the Land Rover experience. So the 6 of us got into the Land Rover and off we went into the protected Dunes area, where we had to pass by a security guard at a gate first to be let in!

What an amazing experience! Driving along the roads of the dunes and seeing wildlife at the same time! Yes, there are “roads” as this is a protected area and “freewheeling” is not allowed. Neither is dune surfing in this area as some companies advertise. So we saw the two different types of gazelles – one that is native to this area and one that is not. The snow gazelles are in a protected area and under isolation – females a babies in one area and males in another area. They do have a “mixed” area too. The reason for this is that this population did get out of control in the desert and now is under protection so that does not happen again. We drover next to a very exclusive Marriott Resort named Maha – I did look at staying here but it was just a bit too many points! Then we saw the trees that in the desert one should aim for and then continued along the tracks – which then got a bit bumpy and reminded me of a Disneyland ride…

We were then taken to the falconry area where there was also supposed to be an awesome sunset and we were given Vimto (my favourite drink that Maha’s family serves me) where I had a few glasses (it is juice nothing more) and sat on cushions for the show and sunset! The man doing the falconry was excellent and told us the history of falcons and how they are caught when then arrived each year in the desert and trained by their captor. Then they use them while hunting for the next 6 months and at the end of the season they let them go so they can return to their off season home. And then repeat next year! The falcon then prepared to fly by the handler taking off its head gear, ensuring its GPS was working on its back for tracking purposes (as this is a trained bird, he did not want it flying somewhere he could not find it), and then off it went! It was beautiful watching it fly and then taking low passes back towards its handler looking for food. After several passes the falconer started swinging around in the air the “fake” food package for the falcon to catch, simulating a take down of prey. On queue the falcon caught the food package and brought it to the ground and held onto it – quite firmly! In fact the trainer was at one point dragging the falcon along while he stood on his food pack! So then he was fed – which happens once a day at the end of the show, and then we all got to take pictures with the falcon. Unfortunately the sunset was a bust that night – too many clouds in the way!

Then we were transported to the “camp” for dinner. They have 6 camps on their huge property. Four of them are for the Heritage Tours and two of them are for the higher end tours. As it is just entering into the tourist season only two Heritage camps and one high end one were in use tonight. The other Heritage camp was a private group. What a beautiful place! It is similar to a Bedouin camp, with areas to eat, sleep and cook. They had brought a chair for me to sit on and my walker up from where I had left it prior to getting onto the jeep at the start of the safari (no room in the jeep for it). Everyone else sat on pillows on top of tree stumps and of course, Andrew fell off of his – quite a normal occurrence for him to do something like that! They fed us a wonderful dinner of soup, salad, chicken (and other meat like camel which Andrew tried) and then fruit for desert. It was fascinating that when they brought out the salad course, which was served family or table style, they brought one of the salads in a bowl for me as there were gluten sticks in the main salad. There was also a beet salad and humus and they brought GF bread for me to have. Immediately the lady from Australia said “you serve yourself first and take enough as once we serve ourselves these dishes are contaminated”! I was SHOCKED that a member of the public that I did not know knew about cross contamination! So the rest of the table waited and I took my portions and handed the two dishes back to her and then they all dug in! That is a first for me in 40+ years of dining out with others!

There was a knife dance done and then some drum dancing performed by the men wearing Emirati type clothing, which the customers got to take part in. I just watched 🙂 As the ground in this camp was pretty solid, I was able to use my walker and I went and checked out the camels that were behind the camp where you could take a ride on them (for a fee) and used the washroom which interesting enough was accessible!

Then the shisha pipes came out and the place smelled of liquorish (I do not like that smell) and other sickly sweet flavours that they offer. Time to go! So we all got back into our jeep and the 4 in the back kindly held onto my walker for me and we were driven back to the entrance were we got back into the comfortable today’s version of the Land Rover and driven back to our hotels. It was an awesome adventure for sure!

Below are my pictures and then below that are the ones that the professional photographer took on the Heritage Tour along with the free video we received for signing up well in advance! Enjoy!

Here are the Heritage Tours pictures and video. First information on the tour that we took: Platinum Heritage Desert Safari

Here is the video of our experience: Video of our Heritage Tour Experience (there is sound on this)

Again, my body decided at about 4am that it did not want to sleep anymore!  So I waited for the sunrise again and then woke Andrew up and we went downstairs for breakfast.  I really like staying at Marriott properties as they have good awareness of Celiac Disease in general and know what is safe or not.  Usually, they stock GF products if you ask for them too!

Due to the lengthy time it took my French Toast to appear yesterday, I focused on protein and Mediterranean foods this morning.  Some of the items that I ate were veggies with hummus (excellent hummus here with sesame seed oil), some cheeses and tomatoes, fruit and yogurt and my omelette of cheese and tomatoes.  As my body still has not figured out why I am feeding it at this time of day – it is still in training – I am just trying to ensure I have enough protein so I do not run into the problems that I had in Italy where not enough protein was provided at breakfast to sustain me throughout the busy part of the day.

The Get My Guide tour company bus picked us up at 9am and we were on our way!  The bus sat about 10 people – it was not a mini van and not a huge highway bus but one sized just in the middle.  Fairly easy for me to get into.  We picked up a Spanish couple, a family from Cypress and a couple from India – so we were a very multicultural group from around the world!

So, this tour was going to drive us around Dubai a bit so some sights, including Jumeriah Palm and the beach area and then bring us to the souk area that we had visited on yesterday’s tour.  As Maha, my friend in Vancouver wanted a new hijab, I had done my research overnight as to what colours she wanted after seeing a variety yesterday at the souks, and I was in buying mode today!  I had selected this particular tour as the “frond” islands that Dubai had created fascinated me – they basically dredged the bottom of the sea and built up the 17 “fronds” or arms of the palm leaf as a feature for a place for people to live (very expensive place to live) or to stay as a visitor.  Originally I had wanted to stay at a Marriott hotel on Jumieriah however changed my mind due to cost and location – it is a bit of a ways out of the city and the Marriott hotel that was in the “semi affordable” price range it seemed you would be taking a lot of taxies to and from.  That is how we ended up at the Sheraton at Dubai Creek instead!  Also the Sheraton is way closer to the airport for when we arrived.

So we saw Palm Jumeirah, which is the man made island shaped like a palm frond, and also stopped at a beautiful mosque on the mainland of Dubai before going to visit the beach and taking in the view of the Burj Al Arab that is a 7 star hotel – the only hotel in the world with this ranking. It sits on its own island.  In fact you cannot just go “visit” – you have to have a reservation to go there – such as for tea or dinner or to stay overnight.  It is shaped like a sail with a helipad near the top of it.  Our tour guide actually told us a story that for a stunt, a Red  Bull pilot actually landed and took off from the helipad – took a couple of tries but he was successful with his small plane!  Some other facts are they have a selection of 17 pillow types for you to choose from for your bed, there are more than 200 uniquely decorated suites ($1000 US a night or more) with the largest being the Royal Suite at $28,ooo US a night or more , the hotel was built do that it does not cast a shadow on Jumeirah Beach nearby and the hotel has an underwater restaurant!

Now, we started driving back into downtown Dubai and heading to the souk area.  Along the way, the tour guide saw a car roar by with the license plate number of 17.  He then told us about licence numbers in Dubai – the lower the number the more prestigious you are!  The sheik of Dubai owns number 1, his son 11 and his grandson will probably take 111.  In fact to get a low numbered licence plate in Dubai you buy it!  Often the licence plates, which are a status symbol, cost more than the car that they are driving.

Eventually, we found ourselves back at the textile souk getting on an abra and guess what?  Again I had to go down the stairs and up again to get to the spice and then the gold (which we did not bother visiting) souks.  However this time I was a lady on a mission!  It is hijab shopping time!  The tour guide recommended a shop to me and introduced me to the owner/employee (not which) and they had WAY more colours than the photo that I had sent Maha the night before – peach and pink!  What to do?  Luckily Maha was awake and suggested that the pink one would be best.  I also bought some tea and saffron at this store and a “sock” (forgot actual word) that goes under the hijab for Maha – it is pink too!  The man was really nice and gave me an extra black sock and some stuffed dates as a gift!  Perhaps I should have negotiated down the price and that is why I got the gifts – I just hate negotiating!  I feel that I am robbing someone of their income.  I do not pay extravagant prices however!

The bus then took us back to the hotel where we then decided to hang out at the pool for the balance of the afternoon.  This hotel, while I was not in an accessible room, did show that it kept accessibility in mind.  That was until it came to accessing the pool area.  That was one STEEP ramp that I had to go down!  I am glad they had anti-slip stickers on it as if it was wet that would be dangerous!  After the sun set, we went back up to the room and decided to go to the Sheraton Lounge which Elite members of Marriott are able to visit or if you are staying in a certain (expensive) room type.  This lounge advertises that between 6 and 8pm they have complementary appetizers.  Lets just insert the word “gluten” before appetizers and that was the reality that we found!   Compared to the lounges in the USA and Canada though, they provided free alcohol during this period of time which was very nice – the lounge was also VERY full!

I was able to eat the veggie sticks and the humus and that was very good, however on the buffet were other things like chicken pot stickers, mashed potatoes (had gluten on top of them) and an assortment of other finger foods that were not Lynda friendly!  Then one of the waiters recognized me and went and got the chef who came to the table and offered to make me a salad with chicken slices on it.  Oh my, what customer service!  Azul, the chef, did an amazing job preparing my salad and when he brought it to me, he asked if I wanted French Toast tomorrow morning again!  I said that would be awesome and so he said he would make it so!  Amazing service.

I got a solid 4 hours of sleep which was awesome!  We had forgotten to close the dark curtains so when the sun was up so was I!  It was a beautiful sunrise this morning!  Andrew was still sleeping so I puttered around in the living room, took some pictures of the sunrise and got organized for the day – needed to optimize my knapsack and purse for the Walking Tour today.  I just realized what I have forgotten at home – my sunscreen!  Will have to deal with that fairly soon as it is pretty hot and sunny here and I do not want to get burnt!  I am not that worried though as I have built up a bit of a base from my travels earlier this year.  I am hungry!  Time to check out breakfast!  More important – time for Andrew to get up!

The breakfast at the Sheraton Dubai Creek is free for all guests of the hotel.  There is an AMAZING buffet provided that covers many different cultures and what they would want to eat for breakfast.  There was a Middle Eastern, European, cereal bar, omelette bar, hot breakfast area and cold food plates provided.  We sat outside as it was beginning to be a very nice and warm day!  When inside looking at the various parts of the buffet, I must have looked lost or something as one of the waiters wanted to help me.  I said that I was just looking and wanted to know what on the buffet was gluten free.  WELL, did that put them into ACTION!  I will call the chef right away madam!  Sure enough the chef came very promptly and walked me through the buffet and told me various items were GF, including the corn flakes (they looked like Schar ones), the omelette bar and various items on the hot and cold areas.  So I ordered an omelette and got myself a bowl of corn flakes and dressed it up with lots of goodies like nuts and seeds!  Just then the chef appeared and said he was wrong and the corn flakes have barley and he took my bowl away!  Instead he said he would prepare me French Toast!  I was all for that!

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast on the patio of the restaurant, which is next to the pool.  There are some free range cats in the area that come to visit, however the servers tell them to get lost!  Andrew had finished breakfast and his IV of coffee and I was still waiting on my French Toast.  The waiter was very apologetic and told me that it had to come from a special kitchen.  After about 20 minutes it arrived and it was SO GOOD!  That made my day!

I then looked up on Google Maps where the closest drug and grocery store would be.  We needed sun screen and I needed a couple of things that I had now realized I had also forgotten, along with my standard need of Coke Zero.  We found one that looked not too far away so off we went to check it out.  First, there are large roads in Dubai and the hotel was on one of them.  They either have overpasses or traffic lights that are spaced quite a distance apart.  So we had to walk to the left a distance to only cross the street and walk to the right, back to basically a road perpendicular to the hotel on the other side of the street.  We were told that jay walking was illegal and we did not see that many people doing it.  The first grocery type store that we found did not look appropriate for what we were looking for so we kept going.  The temperature at this point was just over 30 degrees Celsius.  We found what I would call an Arabic Dollar store, although the items were not in dollar increments, which seemed to fit the bill!  I was able to purchase my hair ties, suntan lotion and Coke Zero all in the one store.  It definitely was a cultural experience as my mother would say – very narrow aisles and dollar store type quality for many of the goods.  Some people were buying a TON of stuff there!  We sure stuck out like sore thumbs – me with my walker and blonde/grey hair and Andrew just in general.  I do not think they normally see many visitors.

We then walked back to the hotel and had a snappy nap before taking a taxi to the meeting point of our tour which was across Dubai Creek from where we were staying.  I had picked this particular tour as it ends up back on the Sheraton side of the creek.

We met our tour guide “Mouse” and the other 10 people on our tour – it was a small tour group on purpose, and we started walking through the “old Dubai” neighbourhood.  It looked very authentic as you can see below however it is less than 10 years old!  It was just build to look like the buildings originally did on Dubai Creek.  The buildings are actually part of a Hilton hotel and house different rooms throughout them on the 2^nd level.  Then we crossed a large street and in that area the houses are actually older and have the original “features” of the Emirate homes such as the two doors – men going in the front one which is quite large and women going in the back door (which we did not see an example of).  Also, these homes were build with what looks to be a bell tower type structure on top and the houses are actually quite close together.  The “bell tower” is their form of air conditioning – it forces the air downwards and therefore out of the home below and the close proximity of the houses are to create wind tunnel type features to keep the air moving. 

We were then invited into a house to have some Arabic coffee – this was a strange experience for me – I had to lift my walker up and then down 2 stairs to get in and then down 3 stairs to the sunken living rooms where we all gathered.  Leaving, up the 3 stairs out of the living room and around the corner we went and down a ramp to exit!  Why they could not have brought us in that way is beyond me….

Now we walked to the Now we walked to the nearby textile souk area and we had a break to do whatever we wanted.  This was our first day in Dubai so I was not into shopping so instead I decided to have my favourite drink (Coke Zero) and watch the abra traffic on Dubai Creek.  An abra is a flat-bottomed boat that is used to transport people around the creek – sort of like the Granville Island Ferries but not as cute!  They do have a top on them though!

Once the group re-convened, we walked to an abra so that we could cross Dubai Creek ourselves and go to the Spice and Gold Souks before the end of the tour.  Crossing the Dubai Creek was fun – we passed by some very interesting ornately carved boats – we were not sure at that point if they were sea going ships however they seemed to be carrying a lot of goods and offloading them on the shore.  The crossing took about 5 minutes and we were back on the side of Dubai Creek where our hotel was now.  Slight problem though.  To cross the street, you have to go down about 30 stairs, along a corridor and then up 30 stairs again!  That was not in the plan when I selected this walking tour!  The tour guide will not let me cross the road (there are barriers where we are preventing it) farther down as he says it is against the law and there are no lights with cross walks to walk to either!  Well, down and back up I went!  The stairs were not that high and I took it slowly.  What was a bit of extra pain when my body was already REALLY confused as to what day and time it was?  Well it was worth it – the Spice Souk was very interesting!  The smells were fascinating!

We were first taken into a small store (you know how these tours work – a friend of a friend’s store) where they talked about different teas. We sampled or smelled several which were lovely – except for the one that was like Halls Menthol! Then we moved onto saffron. I was not aware that saffron, which is very expensive, sometimes is “extended” by mixing it with sunflower stamens and obviously reduce the quality.  How do you tell?  The sunflower saffron mix when dropped in a glass of water will sink to the bottom of the glass where real saffron will float on the top of the water and start dying the water yellow/orange from the top.

After the stop at the store, we were given “shopping time” where we walked around the Grand Souk which contains several souks starting with the herb and spice souk. Wow are the vendors in the souk aggressive!  They will say anything to try and get your attention!  I found that the best way to walk around was to wear sunglasses so they could not see where I was looking…  The spice souk then leads into the utensil souk which leads to the gold souk!  At the entrance to the gold souk there was a huge ring at the entrance that is listed in the Guness World as the largest gold ring in the world.

After experiencing all this bling and smells along with harassment, we were ready to return to the hotel!  With both of us getting tired, we decided to take a taxi instead of walking about 3 km back in the heat.  It was a good decision!  The taxi driver drove us down next to the Dubai River and explained that the ships that we ships that we saw with the ornate carvings on them are ocean going and are coming from Iran with various goods.    

Back at the hotel, we both had a nap and then ordered room service for dinner – I ordered Butter Chicken and rice and Andrew ordered a wrap.  I FORGOT the spice wimp that I am to order ZERO heat on the Butter Chicken so it was a sit and sweat situation for dinner!  Early to bed as tomorrow we need to be up early for the Tour of Dubai we are taking at 9am!

Well we made it to the Maple Leaf Lounge!  We got to the airport as planned about 6pm, got checked in, said good bye to our luggage and hoped to see it again in Dubai!  We went through D or International Security (bad decision on my part) and all my bags were searched due to various items such as my laptop, cords, etc that seemed “interesting” to the CATSA security agents.  Note to self:  If one has a NEXUS card or YVR security badge, go through the C or Fast Track Domestic Security as they do not require shoes off, laptops out as you are a Trusted Traveler.  Then walk to the D gates!  It will save you time in the end!

I was impressed that the Maple Leaf lounge was not bursting at the seams – the last time I was in the International one as we were flying to Delhi, there were not many places to sit.  I also applaud the Maple Leaf lounge now for showing allergens on their food – only issue was the only GF food were nacho chips for lunch of dinner!  They do have an omelet that is GF for breakfast, but that did not help at 8pm when I was hungry! 

We made our way to the flight at Gate 71, and I showed Andrew the “sights” while we walked there such as where I sit when volunteering in International, where the aquarium is etc.  The next test is boarding and how Air Canada will do considering I am now wearing my sunflower lanyard which was part of the problem (not wearing it) when in Toronto.  As a sidebar note, Air Canada has just this past week been in front of the Federal Government for some poor treatment of People with Disabilities and has come out with a statement on how they are going to do better and be more respectful.  Time to see what will happen!

I saw the gate doors were open, so that means they were about to start boarding.  So I went up to the gate agent next to the scanner for boarding cards and mentioned that I needed to pre-board not only due to my walker, but also due to high anxiety and that I need the area to be quiet so I can get onto the plane.  I had previously spoken to this same agent when I checked in so it was not news to her.  She told me to wait, they were yet to start boarding.  Yet, on the scanner machine to the left, another gate agent was already scanning a line up of people who looked to be pre-boarding – there was one person with a visible disability using a cane, no sunflower lanyards being displayed and about 10 other family members with them getting on at the same time.  So I asked the agent next to me what was going on and she said that they will be holding the boarding after this party and to hang on.  Yet they did not – there was a constant stream of people boarding at this point.  None of them were from the Business Class line either.  Finally, they stopped boarding and told me to proceed.  Well, that lasted about 5 seconds and there were more people behind me so Andrew and I stopped and waited until the “traffic cleared”  I then put earplugs in my ears and was able after a few minutes to go down the jetway and onto the plane.

I do appreciate that the flight attendants are there to help you however when they see someone with ear plugs in and their accompanying person saying to leave me alone, I really wish they would respect that.  It takes an incredible amount of focus to keep my anxiety at bay until I feel comfortable to board the plane and interference is not productive.  It also frustrates the person travelling with me as the flight attendants are clearly ignoring the advice on how best to help me.

I had asked that my walker fly in the plane in one of the closets.  The ability to do this was also confirmed recently with the government talks.  Took a bit of convincing however they obliged and in the front closet it remained for the flight!

Fast forward now!  We are off into the clouds and dinner is served!  Oh joy!  Mushroom chicken AGAIN!  I just had 4 of these last month and here we go again – perhaps breakfast will be better!  So after being fed and burped (just kidding on that part) we both settled down for some well earned sleep.  Well, someone slept – I did not!  I probably should not have consumed that Coke Zero!  Movie time!  I rummaged through several movies and then settled on Sleepless in Seattle – a good classic movie!  Who knows – perhaps it will put me to sleep!  Nope.  Moved on to You’ve Got Mail!  Okay, now that the cabin is DARK I am going to try and sleep!  I think I slept for about an hour and I was back watching movies AGAIN!  While I do not believe in drinking coffee or tea on a plane due to the water supply issues, drastic measures had to be taken so I drank some tea and I think that worked as I have no idea what movie I watched next!  Three hours later that was a great nap!  Time to knit!  I had LOTS of things with me to entertain me for this flight!  So as I had purchased internet for this flight I tried to connect but it would not work.  No idea why.  The flight attendant finally told me – because we flew so high up over Canada the internet actually does not last very long and then will not be available for the rest of the flight.  Oh darn!  So now I cannot finish my Italy blog!  Time to do something else!  Next movie!  As I have just come back from Italy, I decided on Mama Mia (I know that it is set in Greece).  Well, that did the trick!  Watched the first one and remember starting the sequel but did not remember watching it….  Sleep at last!

Andrew managed to sleep for about 8 hours which was awesome for him as I have never seen him sleep on a plane like this!  It was funny as he did start watching a movie and he fell asleep so the flight attendant turned off his TV for him.  It seemed that they did that for everyone who fell asleep with their TV’s on as the cabin was REALLY dark at one point and only I had on my seat light (which on the Dreamliner in Business is just over your shoulder so not obnoxious to other passengers).  Also, as we were on a Dreamliner the windows went dark too – not that it mattered as I do not think the sun came out during our flight at all!

This is a strange flight though – we left at 9:30pm and we arrive 2 days later at 00:20 in the early morning.  So really, you fall asleep on the plane but don’t want to sleep TOO much as when you get to Dubai, it is night time again!  Very different from flying to NZ/AU where the flights leave in the evening and arrive 2 days later in the morning at about 6 or 7am.  On those flights I have found I have had ZERO jet lag.  We shall see what happens in Dubai as in order to get on the right schedule I have planned a walking tour for 2pm the afternoon we arrive!

Now it is breakfast time – or dinner?  We are being fed another meal!  Oh no, I can smell it coming – mushroom chicken repeat!  Really Air Canada?  You cannot figure out a different GF meal on a 2 meal flight?  You did it on the Rome flight which was dinner and then breakfast….  Oh well I would rather be safe than sorry!

Then I watched a French movie whose name I forgot – something about a summer home and poof!  It was time to land!  I could not believe that the 15 hours went by so fast and we were about to land in Dubai!  The flight attendants confirmed my wheelchair order with me (good) and very soon we were on the ground.  We only circled once it looks like! 

I was amazed by the path that we took to get here – from Vancouver up and over the top of Greenland – higher than I have ever flown and then sliced down over eastern Europe being careful of what countries we flew over and then down over the Middle East to Dubai.  See the pictures of the flight map below.

I was greeted by a gentleman with a blue wheelchair similar to the ones we have at YVR.  It had a feature that we do not have or use at YVR though – a seatbelt!  I wondered if this was going to be a wild ride or it was just for safety purposes – hoping for the latter and it was!  We did not have to wait for my walker as it rode in the cabin and was ready to go when we deplaned.  As Andrew pushed my walker we merged into the heavy traffic (at almost 1am) walking to Immigration.  All of a sudden I had a 2^nd escort with a man announcing to move aside so that the wheelchair could pass.  I thought that was a bit much but whatever turns your crank!  It made Andrew have to walk double speed to keep up though!  And along we rolled, and rolled and rolled – holy smokes is this a BIG airport!  My escort then told me that Air Canada’s gate is at once end of the terminal and the Immigration, Customs and luggage is at the other end AND 2 Emirates 380 flights had just landed – one from the USA and one from England.  So now that makes sense for the traffic encountered!

It is a beautiful airport – mainly glass and like YVR we walked along a corridor in the ceiling until we got to some massive elevators to take us down to the Immigration Hall.  Once in the Hall there were massive line ups to speak to an agent however my escort took us to the side, where the wheelchair and sunflower sign is and pushed me right up to an agent – who was wearing Emirates male clothing (white robe and black rope holding the scarf on his head.  We each had our picture taken and then we were off to find our luggage!  Already on the carousel Andrew picked it up, and we then went through “nothing to declare” at customs and we had arrived!  Out into the airport I was pushed and low and behold there was a HUGE Starbucks!  Around the Starbucks we went and to the taxi line so we could get to our hotel.  Wait – the taxi line is to the left and my escort went to the right!  I then suggested that I did not need a wheelchair cab, thinking that was where he was going, and he replied that I did not have to wait in line for a taxi – we take a different route to get one.  Okay, go with the flow!  Out the door and down ONE of the 4 lines of waiting taxis we went until one was available.  He helped me into the car while Andrew dealt with the luggage and my walker and we were on our way to the Sheraton Dubai Creek to stay!

They were awaiting our arrival and what a beautiful hotel the Sheraton is!  You get out of the taxi and walk into an atrium that is at least 10 floors high and there are two double high escalators going up to the reception desk area.  There also is an elevator for those who need to take one like me.  I know sometimes I am forced to ride an escalator, however those were a BIT intimidating with their height and in the open for me to get caught!

We were upgraded to a corner suite with a Juliette balcony, which was awesome, from the regular hotel room that I had booked (only type of room you can book on points).  While being fairly high in the Marriott Bonvoy Rewards Program does allow for free upgrades, usually when you arrive about 2am you get what you are given, and upgrades are not always available. 

I DO remember taking my medication and finding my PJ’s however as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light!  All I knew was that breakfast started at 6am and I was not going to be eating mushroom chicken at that time!