It's not the first time I come to Dubai, I've been here before. Though Dubai will always have that sense of perfection anywhere you go, this time I've decided to pamper myself with the real Big Life of this city. Why not try those 7 star services we've all heard of? After all, my birthday is around the corner.
Living in Luanda gets you some perks as an expat. Meaning, I'm not a guy with no country, but expat became an expression used internationally for those, like me, who start working and therefore living abroad. I don't really like it, but got used to. One of those perks is the number of trips, per year, you get from the company you work for, to go back home and spend some time there. Wether on holidays or for work, you usually negotiate it on your contract. This is one of those.
Well, to travel from Angola to Portugal (where I'm from), there are many possibilities and many airliners to choose from. Most of the times, the expats prefer direct flights. Yes, so do I. Still, sometimes I decide to take advantage of these trips and go around the world. Then, if I have the time, I do a pit stop for two or three days somewhere. That's how I came to Dubai.
21Nov2014
I got the 6h30pm flight from Emirates. It's a 7 hour trip from Luanda. Not much to tell about it unless that in my personal opinion, this airliner is definitely one of the best. The service works! Nice flight attendants, good food, great planes, and so on. I particularly enjoy the multimedia system, where you have access to the front and bellow cameras of the plane, allowing you to see the runway on take-off and landing. Precious if you ask me.
No sleep, two small bottles of red wine and two Jamesons later, it touched down. I got to Terminal 3 on Dubai's International Airport.
Being a Portuguese citizen, my passing the customs was really quick due to some special gates at the airport for some nationalities. Strangely enough and not very common, my luggage was one of the first to come out. All was good and stayed that way.
As I've decided to try the best of Dubai, there was a man standing outside, holding a paper with my name on it. I've addressed him with a smile and received two hundred thousand thanks in return. He grabbed all my luggages and kindly asked me to follow him. I did as much as notjing. And two or three minutes later he signed a light blue Lexus which stopped right in front of me. It was my personal transfer, driver included.
Hani was his name and not only that man knows his way around the city, as he took time to sort of entertain me along the way with explanations about each place we passed. He even asked me questions about myself after noticing I was also very talkative and curious.
It was still night time, despite the time difference between the two countries (3 hours), and I got to the hotel at the break of dawn.
I'm staying at the
Sofitel Dubai The Palm Resort and Spa. A five star hotel on the Palm Jumeirah, one of those man made artificial islands with the shape of a palm tree.
If you ask me, anywhere else in the world this hotel should have at least seven stars...but this is Dubai and the sky is the limit.
Obviously, the moment my driver stopped in front of the main entrance, three men approached and suddenly I felt like a VIP. One of them opened my door and greeted me with a long welcome and a strong smile. The other opened the luggage and took all my bags out. The third one grabbed everything and asked me to follow him, which I did of course.
The lobby is amazing, a sort of polynesian palace with very tall and enormous ceilings. Everything made of marble, wood and stone. At reception the courtesy is infinite. Everybody greats you with a great smile and make sure you're not just left there, even if the counter is full. There's always someone to talk to you and to stay with you, giving you instructions or making small talk, until it's your turn to be invited to check-in.
All seemed perfect. Yeah. But I couldn't forget the time (6 o'clock am) and, to my deception, my room wasn't still available. Bummer!
They fell off in excuses, granting me the first place on the waiting list...so they said.
This could go wrong, I gather, had I not been born with the capacity to look ahead and find solutions even where they basically don't exist. I wasn't just going to stay there, waiting. So, I asked if they would offer me breakfast. Guess what, they did. So, there I went through those big corridors on my way to chill in front of the beach with an nice continental breakfast. What a view.
The food was amazing. I had a personal waiter for anything I wanted. There were birds singing everywhere, with colors I had never seen before. Sounds of waterfalls, calm music to sustain the environment. A must. All you could expect to pamper someone who was awake for nearly 24h in need of a bath and with no room...
After breakfast I went on a walk around the resort. Five swimming pools of different shapes and sizes, beaches on both side of the hotel, restaurants, bars, the Spa, private villas and so on. At each corner, a new surprise. But I'm not here to describe the entire place, only to tell my story.
Two well spent hours later, my room wasn't yet ready. I got to be honest, I didn't expect that in Paradise. So, I called my driver to come and pick me up, I was going shopping!
While Hani took his time to arrive, I got a small tan by the swimming pool with a complementary fresh bottle of water from the chocolate lounge (yes, they have one).
It took me 2 hours to buy all I wanted at the Dubai Mall, next to the Burg Khalifa (tallest building in the world). Found everything really quickly and then had lunch at the Mall.
Around 12am the hotel called me to inform that my room was waiting for me and my luggages were already there.
I can't really describe the room they "gave" me. Hope the pictures can give you an idea. I just got to say I love it. Period!
Freshened up, my pampering continued. Time to visit the Spa. I usually get a massage every time there's a Spa around, but this time the hairdresser caugtht my eye. A mixture of old barber chairs and new Irish Pub sceneries. Cool, and my hair needed attention (one of the disadvantages of being single).
For two hours my hair and face had the attention of two girls and a man. While he cut my hair, they shaved my 36 hour long beard, put a special cream on my skin and hair, washed it, dried it, and so on and so on. Result? The afternoon was gone and I visually had lost 10 years. That was the general opinion anyway.
While writing these words, I had dinner by the swimming pool. I was basically followed by "my" waiter when he saw me passing by with the laptop. He made sure I stood comfortable and didn't leave my sight. Well, I thought, why don't I just ask him to bring me dinner instead of walking to the restaurant on the other side of the pool? And you know what? She did!
My room must have been thought by a king. It's simply perfect. The bed seems like a cloud, and I love clouds. It got me sleeping for eleven straight hours .
As for the next day? I took my time to get acquainted with the beach and the hot water pool. That and nothing else. I was just there to relax. And, Oh, I did.
