MP around the world: On the road to Pyeongchang: from Paris to Dubai

It is time to start the last trip before the end of my sabbatical holidays.

The main objective is to attend the Olympic Games in South Korea, but I took the opportunity to stop for a few days in Dubai.

The adventures start when I check in at the airport in Paris: they tell me that the flight is overbooked, and that I might have to take another one, on the following day. As the compensation is significant, and I don't have any strict reason to fly tonight, why not? Bu tI will have to wait at the boarding gate, and wait for the confirmation. Eventually, at the time when the flight was supposed to take off, they let me know that I can board, and... that I am upgraded to business class :))))
That's a nice way to start the trip, a bed will definitely be more comfortable than an economy seat.

Another surprise during the check in is that I thought I had a first flight to Abu Dhabi, and then a second one to Dubai, both of them with an Etihad number. The Etihad employee makes me realize that the second part is actually a bus ride, even though it has a "flight" number. Which makes sense, the 2 cities being only 150 km away from each other, but I didn't know that.
So after a very comfortable night and a one hour and a half trip in bus, I get to Dubai, but not at the airport, the bus goes to the Etihad "travel hall", on the other side of the city, it will take me a couple of minutes to realize where I was, how to go to the hotel, and to find an ATM in order to withdraw money and pay for the metro.

We are in February, it is 9:30amn and it is already too hot for me, I don't want to think about what it feels like in August in the middle of the afternoon...

During the afternoon, I walk a few hours in the Old Town, where I am staying. That's where you find all the small shops, the souks, the museum built in an old fort and plenty of cheap restaurants. It doesn't look at all like what you usually see on TV when they show you Dubai. I could almost be in India, as most of the shops seem to be managed by Indians, and all the restaurants offer biryanis, currys, dosas...

On the second day, it is time to visit 2 of the iconic buildings of the city.
Here is the Burj Khalifa, with its 800 meters height, and a few pictures taken from the 124th floor.
See how all the other sky scrapers seem tiny, even though they are also very high?

And then a couple of hours in the Dubai Mall. I am not a shopping addict, but there are lots of things to be seen, apart from the shops, and the temperature is nicely refreshing ;-)
Surprised to find a Tim Horton's, as I didn't know they existed outside of Canada (and there are a lot more all around Dubai).

On the third day, I get up early in order to head to the heliport of the Dubai Police Academy, for a helicopter flight I have a booked a few days ago. It seems to be extremely foggy today, not good news...

As soon as I arrive, they let me know that the flight might be delayed / cancelled, because of the fog. Once it is confirmed, I am eventually given the option either to cancel the flight and get a refund, or to come back on the following day. As I really wanted to do it, I chose to come back on Friday.
The rest of the day will be spent visiting or viewing some of the other famous buildings, starting with Madinat Jumeirah and Burj Al-Arab.

Cheering the athletes of the Dubai Tour:

The Atlantis Palm, at the end of Palm Jumeirah, is a 5km artificial island built with the shape of a palm tree. I am supposed to see it from the sky tomorrow, it is the main reason why I booked the helicopter.

I grabbed something to eat at the restaurant of Gordon Ramsay, but here is the only thing I could afford:

This is Jumeirah Beach Residence and the Marina:

And here is Friday. This afternoon, I will go back to Abu Dhabi and fly to Seoul from there.
But I get up early again to be at the heliport at 9am. "Good" surprise: I discovered yesterday evening that the metro only starts running at 10am on Fridays in Dubai, so it will be a 25km ride with a taxi to get there. As it was my last day in Dubai, I didn't have a lot of cash left, so when I realized this in the evening, at 9pm, I had to put my clothes back on, get out of the hotel, and find an ATM to withdraw some more cash.
Today the weather seems to be better, and when I get there, they confirm that the flights should be ok. Mine is supposed to be at 10am, and minute after minute the sky seems to be getting more and more cloudy. A few minutes before the flight, an employee offers me to reschedule the flight to the following days, as the visibility is not very good. No option to get a refund this time, as the problem comes from clouds, and not from fog, and I leave Dubai today so I don't really have a choice, I board the helicopter.
The whole flight can be summed up to the pilot saying:
- "In front of us, you should see Burj Khalifa, but today we can't see it"
- "On your right, the artifical islands, but you can't see them because of the clouds"
- ...
Here are the only pictures I was able to make, definitely not worth paying 200 euros...

Let's not finish the day on a negative feeling, I had lunch at a great Italian restaurant, and had a nice walk along the Creek before heading back to Abu Dhabi and heading to the next part of the trip.
And also visited the Mall of the Emirates, with its ski resort (yes, seriously!).