The journey over

On the plane 

My first Dubai friend

The top 5 books in Dubai today

Heathrow

The plane starts filling up with everyone jostling bags, pillows and travelling paraphernalia. But the seat between me and my new friend Rachel is empty. We hold our breath, the last few stragglers arrive and then the captain announces to close the doors.  We raise our arms in the air and cheer as we have an empty seat between us! The only empty seat on the whole plane.

Its 15 hours to Dubai as we approach its dark, there is a coastline, lots of oil tankers and big lines of lights going straight out into the water, maybe they are oil pipelines? Now lots of big areas of dark empty spaces and then pockets of lights. Towns in amongst desert? Then long, straight highways packed with cars all leading to Dubai, its 12:30pm at night. Where are all these people going? My first impression of Dubai is it looks like Las Vegas, all the coloured lights on the big buildings glowing in the dark. On the way out of Dubai we see a massive building twinkling in the dark, assume this is Burj Khalifa. Can I now say I have been to the Middle East if I spend 25 minutes in the airport terminal?

The plane settles down for the final leg to London. I crash out till we are over Romania and 2 hours out from London. After landing we whiz through customs and bag check and then into the welcoming arms of my London family.