Dubai [UAE]
Top Few Things To Do In Dubai
I am afraid of heights but at the same time I am too an adrenaline junkie so I went ahead with it. I would assume that you already know that I love scuba diving. However, Skydiving was a whole new level of adrenaline rush. Honestly? I thought I was going to die during the first 3 seconds of the free fall, you can see it from the video here. I strongly recommend people to do it during the winter period of Dubai and not the summer as the sky would be clearer. I did the skydive across Palm of Dubai, the view was amazing and nothing else. It is also recommended to do the dive in the morning with the earlier slots as you will be able to have an even better experience with the sunrise.
Do not let the muslim country scare you that they will not have alcohol. Yes you will not be able to drink on the streets, however, you will be able to drink at many different places in areas such as JBR. One of my favourite places to drink would be LSB JBR. Why? They have one of the best service and tons of different food on the menu where you can choose from. The one thing I love about this place is how it transform as the night grows. It has 3 stories in total and all 3 of them will be available for food and drinks with sofas and standing tables. However, when it reaches at 12, the first floor transforms into a club with the tables removed and the dance-floor appears. I might be a common thing in other parts of the world but it was definitely a different experience I have had in Singapore.
3) Dubai Mall
Dubai Mall is the world's second biggest mall in terms of land size. Yes, it might be one of those malls with most if not all of the international brands you get to see regardless of what country you come from. However, it would be an experience to check out the mall. It felt like I could never finish it with my pair of legs. Since I am very interested in how the world of retail works, it was fascinating on how they can put so many things into a single building and how well it blends together to form a single mall.
I went to the sand dunes with tons of different activities such as dune bashing, sand boarding, quad bike trip etc. However, I did not opt for the stay over in the desert as I had work the next day. There are lots of sand dune activity providers online where you can search for online to find the one which suits your needs the most. I have always been in a tropical country and all I see is trees, mud and trees again. So when I first entered the desert it was a really new experience for me. After bashing the dunes, you will understand why there was the invention of 4WD cars in the first place.
When people talk about pool bars, you will usually think that it is for the rich. What if I told you that there are a plentiful in Dubai which is accessible to the general public. My personal favorite is the DoubleTree By Hilton Hotel Dubai located at Jumeirah Beach. Most pools have the service of bringing the drinks to you at the side of the pool, however, for DoubleTree, the bar is in the pool itself which makes the entire concept interesting for me. Pool bars is a thing in Dubai thanks to the hot weather, it is an experience which I will never forget [Everyone drinking in the pool while watching world cup].
6) Drunch
You will skip brunch after you have a taste of drunch. So what is drunch? Ever heard of getting drunk during lunch? It is believed that is how the word drunch came about. I personally attend drunches every Friday as early as 11am and it ends at about 5pm with a buffet spread of food and drinks that comes as fast as you can finish them. After I was introduced this concept, I never went back to brunch again because it is too sober and boring. If not misinformed, drunches happens on a daily basis as long as you can find a place that is providing it, I was only able to attend on Fridays due to work commitments :( Please do have it at least once in your lifetime and let me know how it changed your life
7) Burj Khalifa
World Tallest building, standing tall at 828m with 160 storeys. If this is not on your bucket list, I wonder what would be. It was an out of the experience when I went to the top of the building. Yes the tickets to the top of the building might be expensive and a lot more expensive than others where you go to the other storeys in Burj Khalifa. However, what is cheap in Dubai? And since you are already there why not just head to the top, else there is a high chance where you will come down with regrets and curiosity of how the top is like.
Travelling in Dubai
The hottest [Literally] country I have been to by far as of June 2019. Do not be fooled by what you see on your weather forecast as the actual value is not stated, if you ever rent a car you can take a look at the value to the external temperature and you will understand what I mean. Driving in Dubai was not that tough as it is a developed city and google maps is generally up to date. However, some of you might not be used to it as it is left hand drive, for drivers who love to keep to the speed limit in Singapore please DO NOT use the left most lane on the highway because you will most probably be hated, horned at and highbeamed [speed limit 140km/h].
Ease while travelling: The city was well lit, roads were well build, technology was up to date and they have ride hailing services as well such as Uber and Careem [no Grab tho]. If you were to drive, there were many perks to their parking as well such as free for the first 4 hours, you can watch a movie and walk out comfortably without worrying about the increment of parking rates [unlike SG]. Dubai was also well located as a "Home base" if you intend to do road trips in the middle east. It was well connected to Abu Dhabi, Oman and many other cities or countries.
Difficulties faced: I am a speedy so the speed limit of 140 km/h was not sufficient... The amount of speed cameras that appear in your face every Km is not helpful, adding on, they come in different shapes and size which took me awhile to learn how the speed camera actually works [Yes I incurred bills]. As I was in Dubai during the Ramadan period it was not the easiest period to be living in a Muslim country. Being a smoker did not help as I was not able to smoke in 99.99% of the public areas. Please do be reminded that wherever you go, you have to respect their religion. Most places you go during that period, you will realise that all food displays will be covered up with curtains and they will not serve food in the restaurant. Some of the restaurants still allow takeouts. However, do not worry that you will not be able to find places to eat, there are food centers where you can still sit down to have a meal. These food centers located in a shopping mall will be barricaded from the general public in a way which if you were outside you will not be able to see any food or drinks.