Our trip to Seychelles began with an express train ride to Shanghai, where we stayed overnight for an early morning flight on Emirates Airline to Dubai the following day.  We booked a room at the Shanghai Ramada Airport, which is located less than 5 minutes from the terminal. Nonetheless, we discovered the next morning that getting to the terminal still may not be easy.  The hotel offers shuttle rides to the terminal for the guests.  The first shuttle of the day is the 4:15AM shuttle, but the next one is not until 5am.  In between, we found that it was almost impossible to get a ride over to the terminal.

We had planned to catch the 4:15AM shuttle for our 6:15AM flight, but were a few minutes late.   We thought to take a taxi to the terminal, but there was no taxi around and the hotel staff couldn’t get any taxi to the hotel.  Then around 4:40AM a big Ramada bus showed up and we got on board, thinking it was the airport shuttle.  But just as the bus got ready to leave about 4:45AM we found out that this was a private chartered bus to take a group to the terminal.  The group lead was nice enough to let us go with them, although they were going to a different terminal than the one we had to go (they were going to Japan).  We were ready for a mad dash across the terminals, but the bus driver was kind enough to decide to take us to our terminal after dropping off the group.

We might have made it taking the 5AM shuttle as our flight seemed to be one of the few international flights at our terminal at that hour.   The wait to get through security turned out to be fairly slow.  There were like 15 people ahead of us in our line, and we ended up waiting about 15 minutes.  However, there were less than 10 people still behind us by the time we got through.   We might have been the one of the last passenger to board, but probably could have made it.

This is the first time either one of us has flown Emirates Airline.  Overall, we have to agree the service and plane amenities are on par with some of the best airlines in the world.   It has one of the bigger individual video screens offered in the economy class that I’ve seen.  The entertaining offering was also quite big, from movies and TV shows to games.   The content does skew a bit more toward British and European.  The entertainment amenities turned out to be a good companion to James on the ride through the nine plus hours of flight.  Despite having to get up very early, with the flight being during ‘daytime’, he was only able to doze off for a couple of short naps during the entire flight.  Jessica, on the other hand, had no trouble sleeping most of the way there.

We landed in Dubai just past noon local time.  When we got to the customs area, we tried to figure out how to get a temporary/short term visa for Jessica so we can visit the city during our 14 hour layover there at the desert metropolis. (With a US passport, James needed no visa.)  When we inquired the Emirates information desk, they were nice enough to offer to sponsor a free 24-hour temporary visa for her plus a room at an airport hotel for us.  Getting the visa required getting a eye scan for Jessica, which had a long line.  Fortunately, the airport had a decent WiFi connection, and we were able to connect up our iPads during the wait.

By the time we got out of Immigration and Customs, it was almost 2PM.  After taking the shuttle to the hotel and checking in to drop off our hand carry bags, we picked up a few toiletry items (since we had put most of our stuff in the checked baggage-we realized that for future trips we should keep a change of cloth and some things with us if a long layover is expected), and then we tried to figure out where we should go.  As we got to the front lobby, there was a shuttle bus ready to head out to a nearby mall by the hotel door, so we jumped on to start our tour of the city.

This mall is not unlike most malls in the US, but there were a heavy dose of British and European store presence there, such as Boots and Coots.  Looking for a place for a quick bite, we settled on Paul’s, a French chain restaurant.  Given it was past 3PM, we thought we should just a have small bite, but the tuna sandwich James ordered was half of a full size baguette in length, and Jessica’s seafood platter was also quite big.  Thus, even though we didn’t quite finish all the food, we end up stuffing ourselves more than we planned.   After taking some cityscape pictures outside of the mall, we took the subway toward the Burj Al Arab hotel, the fame 7-star hotel.

As the train broke from underground and onto an elevated platform, we got a good view of the city’s landscape.  Yes, the city is built on a desert plain.  Looking out through the train’s window, we can see modern skyscrapers and the traditional mosques and palaces stretch across the land, with the endless desert in the background.  We were preparing for hot weather, but the temperature in January turned out to be fairly mild.  It was only in the mid-20’s C during the day when we were there.  (It can be quite cool at night, as one can expect in a desert.  The forecast night temperature was is in the low teens.)

Burj Al Arab has a gate out front where only guests are allowed through.  Another way to get in is to have a reservation at one of the hotel restaurant.  We were almost ready to book a non-refundable reservation within an hour (the only slot available) at the buffet restaurant when it was mentioned that there is a dress code and tennis shoes are not allowed at the restaurant (definitely not your Vegas buffet shops).  James was wearing tennis shoes.  Foiled in our attempt to get in there (although at nearly $100 per person for the buffet, and not being hungry at that time, James may have been less forlorn about it than Jessica), we took a bunch of pictures of the hotel around the gate area, along with a throng of other people.    We then decided to head over to its sister hotel next door: Jurmeriah Beach Hotel.   There is a nice beach area at the back of the hotel facing the Persian Gulf.  After strolling around on the ground a bit, we decided to just get some drink at the outside café located next to the back entrance of the hotel, which offered a perfect view of Burj Al Arab up close as well as the water.

While enjoying our tea and fruit, we went over our agenda and other paperwork just to make sure things are in order, and we also looked over the pictures we had taken.  We also discussed where else we can go.  We thought of going to the Dubai Mall, in the downtown area, but ultimately decide to head back for the hotel for some rest.  As dusk was beginning to settle in, we took a taxi back to the hotel for a quick a nap before heading back to the airport.

We arrived at the airport just before midnight.   After going through immigration, we headed for the fame airport shops.  Like Hong Kong and London, it has a number of the brand and duty free shops.  James was more browsing to see what to get on the way back.  Jessica was shopping for the present.  She picked up a few things.

We boarded around 2AM to begin our final four plus hour leg to Seychelles.  James slept through the first couple hours, but awoke for the last couple of hours, enough to catch the sunrise at 30,000 feet.  Watching the sky slowly turn from dark to light over the endless horizon during sunrise can be a very inspirational sight to behold, even if one’s mind is not totally conscious.