Dubai: A Wonderful Surprise

One of the many surprises of our anniversary trip to Spain was our short visit in Dubai. It was an accidental surprise, a beautiful consequence of a not so pleasant incident. The sandstorms messed up all the Emirates flights to and from Dubai, hence by the time we landed in UAE -- our connecting flight was already up in the air, almost halfway to Barcelona already.

Since Emirates only has one flight to Barcelona from Dubai, we had to stay overnight for the flight the next day. Emirates sponsored our 24-hour visa and provided complimentary hotel and airport transport to all the stranded passengers, and did I mention free buffet lunch, dinner and breakfast at the hotel? Yeah! I love Emirates Airlines!!

Dubai International Airport

We arrived at the hotel a little over 4PM (local time) and grabbed the opportunity to join a four-hour city tour along with fellow stranded passengers. With so little time that we had, we were able to see how beautiful, modern and futuristic Dubai is. Here are some of the informations I've learned from our guide:

1. Dubai is home to almost 200 nationalities (almost 80% of the residents are foreigners and 20% are locals. No wonder, the airport staff are of different nationalities already. And you can see Pinoys everywhere!!)

2. Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world (During our travel by bus, I can't stop admiring their magnificent and modern infrastructures).

3. Dubai is a city of gold (And because their law is super strict, you can find gold stores lining up in one street, without a guard!)

4. Salaries are tax free!! Oh boy, I want to migrate now :)

5. The skyscrapers are really SKYSCRAPERS! Eerily super high! Their Burj Khalifa is the tallest in the world at 2,722 ft!!

The tour brought us to many tourist spots in the city, most of which, I forgot the name as I was too groggy and sleepy (almost slept halfway through the trip). We weren't able to go to the desert safari though due to our very limited time. Maybe next time. Dubai is a modern and advance city that is definitely worth a second visit :)