Long Walk in Dubai Airport

Arrived at Dubai around 12.15am on Tuesday early morning. Walked fast to the transfer desk to collect my ticket for the connecting flight to KL. Lots of flights came and thus, the long queues.

The long queue is not just at the transfer desk but at the security checkpoints before you are allowed into the departure area. Just have to have the right sense to pick the line that is moving faster than other lines. This time, I was correct.

Down at the departure area where they have big signboards to direct you to the right places in this big Dubai International Airport. My boarding gate back to KL is at 121, on the other side of the Terminal 1. Long long way to walk.

I never walk alone here as this airport has registered around 9.5m passengers just for the first quarter of the year.

Their duty free shopping area is just like a large departmental store located in the centre of the airport.

The Perfume section is where I get perfumes for my ownself. I bought myself a Davidoff Silver Shadow Private.
You can almost find anything in this duty free shopping area. You would see passengers queuing up at each payment counter.

Gate 121, Gate 121 ......... wow still long way to go and just look at the crowd. It's more like a departmental store than an airport.

Gold and Jewellery - gold stuff is much cheaper here compared to KL market. Forgotten the rate but I know it's cheaper.

Of course when you buy a big quantity, you'll see the difference.

They sell more watches here than any other departmental stores found in KL.

The middle eastern designed teapots? Aladdin's genie lamps? Lots of them and it's too big for me to bring one back.

The latest mobile phones and cameras are definitely found here. Prices for such gadgets are not cheap in Dubai. Advisable to buy it back home in KL.








This is the connecting section between Terminal 1 and the new Terminal 3 building.















This is the duty free shopping centre area for Terminal 1.

The crowd has certainly dwindled much as almost all flights would land in Terminal 3. Only certain flights will depart from Terminal 1, flights like mine.

Compared to the yesteryears when I took a picture in Sept 2006, the crowd here was madness as this place was very much smaller than the current huge Terminal 3 building.

Got into my 3.15am flight and managed to catch up with three movies by the time I reached KL, namely Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia, Eagle Eye and Max Payne. Yeah, I'm quite far back.

Oh yes, I watched Transporter 3 during the flight from Khartoum to Dubai.

Tags: Dubai International Airport, Dubai Airport Terminal 1, Dubai Airport Terminal 3, Davidoff Silver Shadow Private, Transporter 3, Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia, Eagle Eye, Max Payne

Fantastic Architecture of Dubai Airport

I arrived via Emirates Airlines at Dubai International Airport around 5.20am (Dubai time). Didn't really sleep in the plane and managed to watch three movies during the seven hours flight: Quantum of Solace, Slumdog Millionaire and Bangkok Dangerous.

At last I'm catching up with the movies.

The Dubai International Airport's Terminal 3 has been put into maximum usage already and it's really huge. The place is new and looked so clean. The interior design was nicely done and it stood out giving a first hand good impression to travellers.

This particular terminal is fully dedicated to serving only the Emirates Airlines and bearing in mind that it was built to cater for the large double decker Airbus A380 plane.

The long walk to the exit door from the customs or immigration checkpoint. Things didn't start smoothly on my arrival. Was supposed to board a bus provided by the hotel but missed it.

That was due to my stomach upset ....... had been eating too much along the way from KL itself. Digestion came too early. Never mind about the bus and went to relieve myself and found myself missing the bus.

Had to wait for another twenty minutes for the same bus (or another bus) to turn around. The Millenium Airport Hotel gave me a room on the 2nd floor but it was the end of the hotel wing. A good solid one minute walk from the lift. With my long legs and walking speed, it's considered very far. Now, good thing I relieved myself earlier. Never regretted that long wait for the bus.

By the time I got myself settled down in the room, it was already past 6am and I decided not to go anywhere in the morning and stayed in to sleep till 12 noon. Went downstairs for a good buffet lunch before joining another colleague of mine for our trip to Sudan.

Funny that the office booked the two of us into two different flights on the same morning. His flight departed at 12.30am and mine departed at 2.10am. There's only one flight to Sudan per day so we definitely will meet at this hotel. After our lunch, we hopped into our hotel bus to go to the airport for our connecting flight to Sudan, scheduled to depart at 3pm.

As we alighted from the hotel bus, I saw this ambulance that looks like one of those that I saw in the USA movies. Similar built.

Nice architecture design seen at the outside of the Dubai International Airport. Now, that's not the airport.

The main entrance of the airport with its superb curved in roof.

That part of the building is the part of the Dubai Light Rail system. This is one of the stops for people to alight at the airport.

Surprisingly, the winter is still hovering around Dubai. During the early morning, I could feel the cold air (17 degree celcius) and during noon time, you don't really feel the heat (25 degree celcius) at all as cool wind was blowing against your face.

That's the Dubai Police car, Toyota Prado!

The well covered escalator area for travellers coming from the monorail station to / from the main airport building.

What more can I say about its architecture design ............. more facts here. With this new Terminal 3, I can see that this airport will just win more awards.
Tags: Emirates Airlines, Dubai International Airport, Quantum of Solace, Slumdog Millionaire, Bangkok Dangerous, Dubai Light Rail, Dubai Metro Project, Millenium Airport Hotel Dubai, Dubai Police

Interesting Stuff to See in Dubai

The Dubai International Airport Terminal 3's main foyer upon entering the airport building. The floor is so shiny that you could see the notice boards being reflected clearly on the flooring.







First time seeing such a facility. If your notebook was out of battery, you could recharge at this little counter set up for you with power points.













The complexity of their lift system. Two lift carriages moved at the same time. It could easily carry up to twenty people per lift.

This is the most expensive malt whisky that I have seen in the Dubai duty free shop. The Dalmore will cost you Dhs 7,200 or US$2,000 per bottle. I'm sure there are buyers, otherwise they wouldn't have produce and sell it.

Will you?

A nice little garden set in the middle of the airport ...... the greeny feeling.

This is really a unique scene. The huge glass covering the airport building surely requires some professional cleaners to keep it clean throughout the year. And so happened, it was during my trip.

Six 'spidermans' with safety gadgets hanging all over the place to ensure the cleaners' safety.

That's my plane to Sudan. Still thinking of whether to set my feet onto it .... hehe

Almost every single departure gate was occupied.

Tags: The Dalmore, Malt Whisky, Dubai International Airport Terminal 3, Dubai

Join My Flight To Amsterdam

Always keen to travel? KLM Airlines has started a contest where you get to invite your friends to flock into the same plane. If that plane fills up really fast, that plane of yours will really fly off with you in it. Read more about it by clicking the "Join my plane" seen at the sticker below .....

Tags: Amsterdam, Holland, Europe, KLM Airlines, Fill A Plane

Top Up When You Need To Fly

How are you charged for travelling on an airplane? You will tell your travel agent or airline office that you wanted to travel from a destination to another destination and your airfare could be determined by that.

But how do they determine that airfare? A fixed rate? A rate normally charged by various travel agents or airlines?

With low cost carrier like AirAsia and Tiger Airways plying this region, you have to surf their websites to catch the deal of the day to get a low price for your travel.

An airline in South Africa will buck the trend in charging their passengers in time to come. A revolution to the air travel industry, I would say so. If not mistaken, this is the first airline to do so in the world although the airline claimed that it's the first in South Africa.

Who are they? What sort of calculation do they adopt in determining the airfare?

I'm sure everyone has heard of the top up or purchasing of prepaid call time for mobile. Well, this airline doing something similar.

Airtime Airlines, owned by Blackbird Aerospace Corporation, is going to change the face of the air travel industry by charging passengers in terms of the number of minutes they travel from one destination to another. For a start, you need to get a starter pack.

For this, they have patented the words "Pay As You Fly".

Example, Destination A to Destination B takes only 60 minutes and you'll be charged at a certain rate per minute for that particular flight. You could have bought a top up for 120 minutes earlier and by now you have used up 60 minutes. Your next destination will be a 2 hours flight. In order to fly, you would have to top up another 60 minutes.

You would have to surf their website frequently to catch the best rate per minute. It could range from 3 Rand to 9 Rand (1 Rand = US$0.11) per minute.

If my usual airline was to adopt this method, my flight from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai of 7 hours will cost me (7 hours x 60 minutes x say 9 rand) = US$416. Wow!!!!!!

This is what I call, low cost carrier. Really low! It really depends on how much they want to charge you per minute.

Unfortunately, it's only available domestically in South Africa.
Tags: Airtime Airlines, South Africa, Blackbird Aerospace Corporation, Top Up, Pay As You Fly, Low Cost Carrier

Final Leg of Fantasy Travel

My tiring eyes that hasn't really have a good rest. Left house at 9.30pm the previous night and still travelling to reach Sudan.

I should reach Khartoum by their local time of 6.30pm (11.30pm Malaysia time) and by the time I checked out of the immigration, it should be a solid 24 hours travel from KL to Khartoum.


The numerous buttons you get to play with at the armrest of my business class seat.

Out of a total of 56 business class seats, only 9 were occupied in this final leg of fantasy travel.












In this business class, these are the drinks that could order ..... FOC and unlimited ...... of course depending on your capability as well.













Not long after departing Dubai, we were served drinks again.

While enjoying the drinks, I watched the Children of Huang Shi movie starring Chow Yuen Fatt, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Marvellous movie. Talks about the time when the Japanese invaded China and two particular westerners were there to help 60 orphaned kids in escaping the tyranny of the Japanese soldiers.

This time I opted for the Taittinger Brut Reserve N.V. champagne. I find this absolutely fine and smooth. The grape taste was there but subtle.








I took the Chateau Canuet Margaux too. This is really one of those better red wines I have tasted thus far.














They do offer white wines too but didn't try.
















For starters, I ordered the seafood selection that comes with two slices of lobster meat, a king prawn and some smoked salmon.

There's the place of fresh fruits and not forgetting the garlic bread too. How generous of them.

Actually, I ordered the roast beef tenderloin for my main course but the chief steward told me that they don't have enough of that dish.

Presumably all the 9 of us ordered the same dish but impossible for the plane to have so little stock of this dish.

Eventually the chief steward offered this dish taken from the first class cabin .......... good exchange? It was finely cut beef, so tender, in veal jus that has pastas too. I didn't even leave a single bit of the gravy on the plate.

After the main course, my stomach has a bit of space left but when I saw their dessert, the stomach opened up. It was a marvellous cheese cake with some dried mamoul dates strewn over it. How can I resist it? To top it off, I must have a cup of tea with milk / sugar.
Tags: Taittinger Brut Reserve N.V., Chateau Canuet Margaux, Cheesecake, Mamoul Dates, Children of Huang Shi

New Terminal 3 of Dubai Airport

An airport limo was supposed to pick me up from the hotel back to the Dubai International Airport. I thought the limo would wait for me but it didn't. The hotel staff did tell me when I check in earlier that the limo would be fetching me around 12.30pm. I only came down at 12.45pm.

Ended up having to take a taxi to the airport and the hotel staff hailed me a taxi. Then I realised I don't have UAE Dirhams. As I was told that the taxi fare would be 20 Dirhams, I found only 18 Dirhams in my wallet. Forced to change my US Dollars into Dirhams.

The taxi driver was really cunning. The hotel staff told me that I need to pay 20 Dirhams for the short journey but upon arrival, the driver said it was supposed to be 30 Dirhams.

So be it. If he thinks by earning another 10 Dirham would make him rich, let him continue to dream like that. And this fellow almost missed the drop off point for Business class passengers. Even though I have told him earlier, he almost wanted to go straight to the normal public entrance. Not that I hard up for making a grand entrance at the Business class area but the crowd there is much lesser and would be faster in going through the immigration checks too.

Another long walk back to the departure area of the airport. Really really big airport. As I was walking in, I just realised that I still do not know which boarding gate is it for my flight to Sudan.

Walked back to the check in counter and was told gate 222. My my ........... how many boarding gates do they have.

Even their lifts are super duper huge.






Dubai Airport is famous for their duty free shopping. How duty free also, you have to fork out money to buy whatever you wanted.

The Business class lounge in Dubai Airport is really spacious till I can't capture the whole area in one shot. It has a few rest areas and through my estimate, it could easily fit in more than 300 people at one go.

Of course, this shot was taken near the food counter. Lots of people were eating away just like me. In terms of quantity maybe not like me.

They have computer workstations for people like me to update FB and blog hehehe. Not only washroom was provided but shower areas too.

With 35 minutes to go, I went to my boarding gate no. 222. Saw the whereabout of the boarding gate prior entering the lounge ........ you know la, just in case it was my bad day in missing the major part of my travel ........ which is the airplane.






Upon entering the boarding gate, one has to walk really really far just to go into my airplane. You need to go down to a waiting area by escalator and then all the way passed the yellow coloured seats to enter another door to access the ramp to the airplane. Too huge.










You can't see me taking such picture at Khartoum airport due to security reasons ......... your camera will be confiscated if caught doing so, in which case, your friend here was almost the victim.

Yeah, beat that!

Awwwwww my airplane is already here ....... here I come Sudan. Khartoum, the capital city, is considered my hometown. This is the next city or town after Kuala Lumpur that I have spent most of my time.

Related post - Transit Time in Dubai
Tags: Dubai, Terminal 3 Dubai Airport, Dubai International Airport, Khartoum

Transit Time in Dubai

Arrival at the newly opened Terminal 3 of the Dubai International Airport. It was really huge and empty. Empty because planes were staggered throughout the terminal and this terminal serves Emirates Airlines only.












A really long long walk to the immigration counters.















After clearing the immigration counters, you'll be passing by fourteen baggage areas. It was really a long walk again ........... long way down the hall. It took me ten minutes from the airplane to the exit.

Since I was in Business class, they do provide a limousine to your transit hotel. All the limos were Volvos.

Was allocated the Al Sondos Suites by Le Meridien. This was an all suites 5 star luxury hotel and was provided the Executive Suite.

A small area for entertaining your guests with a huge 32 inch LCD TV.

They have a tiny area for kitchen too with a hood, hot steel plates and the fridge was hidden in the tall cabinet.









The king size bed was soft and comfortable ..... only for one night ......















During breakfast, when you ordered tea, it was served in this teapot with strainer. Solid tea, definitely not a lipton tea brand.














The restaurant for the breakfast was designed in olden english style and food served was emmmmm ..... great!

The scenery from my sixth floor window. I'll be walking over to the Deira City Centre mall at the right hand side of the picture. A huge shopping centre indeed, probably the size of Mid Valley in Kuala Lumpur.

Lots of road construction that was on-going. The morning sun was still bearable.










My hotel taken from across the road.
















As it was still early, around 10.30am, the mall was quite empty. Saw quite a number of shops offering good discounts but my hand carry bag was already full.













As I was walking in the mall, I noticed a tall building located far far away and I was sure it was the current world's tallest building - the Burj Dubai. Certainly not one of those lamp posts.
Tags: Dubai, Transit In Dubai, Terminal 3 Dubai Airport, Dubai International Airport, Emirates Airlines, Al Sondos Suites, Le Meridien, Deira City Centre, Burj Dubai