We travelled to Dubai with our 11 year old Kidsetter for a 19 hour stop over.
Dubai’s winter was a chilly 42C outside. Scorching hot. Wow !
As Dubai was only a stop over destination, we reduced our transitting time to and fro the airport by staying at Mecure Aiport Hotel. We checked in, had a delicious buffet breakfast and needed a few hours sleep.
After our sleep we walked to the nearby train station and caught the train into Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall.
I’m very pleased to say we wore our walking shoes. This shopping mall is massive. Every single exceptional brand of product is showcased here.
You could spend days wondering around Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall and still not see everything.
Our Kidsetter was excited to visit a very well stocked lego store with some of the rarest and most difficult to find products. We met a shop assistant named Mohammed whom had a fascinating story. Only 19 years old and yet well on his way. Sadly, he’s father passed away and inherited his construction company so now Mohammed manages a construction company, trades in gold, stocks, crypto currency and works at Lego!! Such an impressive young man and great for our Kidsetter to listen and learn from his story as a role model.
Our Kidsetter found a Star Wars Snowtrooper Battle Pack set that he had desired for a long time and had saved up $75USD to buy it. He was beyond excited. He also had enough money left over to buy a Speed Champions 007 Aston Martin DB5. The picture below is not the set he bought. He would’ve loved it, but alas didn’t earn enough money to buy it. Hard lesson to learn but an important one.
I seriously under estimated the time it would take to get around and had a few things I really wanted to do but unfortunately we ran out of time. We could only view the infamous Aquarium from the outside which was still incrediable.
We landed upon Hamley’s toy store. Our Kidsetter was keen to explore (so was I!)
Our Kidsetter was instantly drawn to the fast cars and bikes. Really hoping self-driving cars are a common occurance by the time our Kidsetter reaches driving age.
We watched the famous water fountains that also created the Bellagio fountains. I loved the Arabian music the fountains danced to. We were fortunate to have an excellent viewing point. For some reason our Kidsetter has always attracted attention with Asian cultures and today was no exception. 5 Indian men asked to have their photo taken with him.
I had on my list that we would visit the top of the Burj Khalifa spire however did not anticipate we would have to stand in queue for 2 hours (time we did not have).
After 5.5 hours at the Mall we had had enough. We are not big shoppers at the best of times and this was on a scale that was unfathomable. If it was up to me, I’d have a borrowing library for everything. As I get older I reaslise you only need items for a period of time, why not pass them on to others? Now days I’m able to borrow designer dressers from Her Wardrobe and then return them to the store, they’d be dry cleaned and available for others to borrow. What a great way to enjoy fashion and reuse items. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
We recently watched a fabulous documentary called Embrace Kids and seeing this Mall highlighted just how much we are conditioned to believe ‘we are not enough’ however BUY this ‘or’ that product and it may get you closer. Clearly the marketing message works.
We headed back to our hotel for a swim and another few hours rest before taking the shuttle to the airport for our 2:35am flight.
We were looking forward to spending time in the Emirates Business Lounge. Impressive. They have a 2 x kids Mario racing car and playroom, many dining options and of course a dessert and Champagne bar.
We only scrapped the surface of Dubai and are looking forward to returning to spend at least 4 days to see all Dubai has to offer. Dubai really is the Vegas of the Middle East.
