A few days ago, I had a layover in Dubai while returning from a fun DebConf in Kosovo. The layover was a bit longer than 24 hours. I was joined by my friend Abraham Raji, who had to go to Kochi, and had a layover of around 22 hours.
Since my layover was longer than 24 hours, I needed a transit visa for boarding my Dubai to Delhi flight. For layovers less than 24 hours, the transit visa was not a requirement for boarding the next flight. Note that you just need to fill a form online to obtain a transit visa for UAE. Since my travel agent booked the flights, they took care of the transit visa on my behalf for a fee of 2,000 INR.
My flight from Tirana landed at the Terminal 2 of the Dubai airport at around 21:30 local time. Since I had a transit visa, my plan was to roam around in Dubai and return to the airport to catch my connecting flight. Therefore, I went through immigration. The officer had a lok at my visa and stamped the UAE entry stamp on my passport. Then I went through customs and came out at the Arrivals section of the airport, where I took a seat. It was around 22:00 hours local time.
The airline handed over my checked-in luggage - a heavy trolley bag - at the Dubai airport even though my connecting flight was with the same airline FlyDubai. Perhaps, it was because my layover was more than 24 hours long. The airline staff at Tirana only issued my boarding pass till Dubai. However, Abraham got his boarding passes till Kochi and he would get his luggage directly in Kochi.
I asked around but couldn’t find any cloak rooms to put my luggage. Soon Abraham joined me and I got to know he also has plans to roam around in the city.
At the airport, Abraham met a person whom he was talking in Malayalam. That person recommended that we withdraw at least 200 dirhams or AED (around 4,000 INR) in cash from ATM in order to roam around the city. Therefore, I withdrew 200 AED in cash.
Dirham notes of denominations 10, 20, 50, 100.
We planned to spend the night at the airport and roam around in the city in the morning. We didn’t book a hotel and instead planned to sleep on the benches in the arrivals. I was hungry as I didn’t have lunch in my Tirana to Dubai flight, due to the lack of lacto-ovo vegetarian options on the flight. Therefore, I took a banana from the Costa Coffee shop located next to where we were sitting for 6 AED (equivalent to 120 rupees).
Unable to sleep, we came out of the airport in search of a place to eat. It was midnight and all the shops were closed. We were suggested by someone to check whether the McDonald’s inside the departures section was open. I was not sure whether we can just go inside the departures, as this is not allowed at Indian airports, unless you are catching a flight.
We met a lot of Indians and we asked where can we go for dining. One of them claimed that a restaurant near the Al-Qiyada metro station should be open. We walked 2 kilometers to reach that metro station. However, the restaurant wasn’t open, and so we had to return with disappointment. Abraham and I made some interesting conversations on the way to pass the time. I was starving at this point.
While returning to the Arrivals, we saw a restaurant open on the way. The name of the restaurant was ‘Food Castle Express’. It was located within 1 km of the Arrivals.
A photo of the Food Castle Express restaurant where we had a filling meal.
The restaurant had Indian food with reasonable prices. It was being run by people from Kerala and seemed to be a popular place among the airport staff. To give you an idea of prices, a plate of 3 Idlis was 5.5 AED (equivalent to 110 Indian Rupees), a cup of tea was 1 AED (20 Indian Rupees), a plate of Pav Bhaji was 8 AED (around 160 Indian Rupees), while Chicken Samosa, Aloo Samosa and Cheese Samosa, were 1.5 AED per piece, and Chicken Fried Rice was 12 AED.
I took the following:
| Item | Price (AED) | Price (INR) |
|---|---|---|
| Idli (3 pcs) | 5.5 | 110 |
| 1 Tea | 1 | 20 |
| Chhole Bhature | 7.5 | 150 |
| Total | 14 | 280 |
We had this meal around 04:30 hours, and it kept me satiated literally for the whole day. Even though I was not in India, I was delighted to have Indian food. It is because we were having it after a long time because we were coming from Europe after a 3-week long stay, where every dish was bland.
A chhole bhature plate from the Food Castle Express restaurant
After having our meal, we went back to the Arrivals section to catch some sleep. Abraham took a nap on the benches, while I failed to get any. In the meanwhile, I found out that the water inside the washroom was too hot to even wash my face.
Dubai Airport had a very good Wi-Fi which was a lifesaver. I didn’t have a local SIM card, so this helped me a lot in contacting home and passing time. The Wi-Fi has free unlimited access. You just need to simply select the “DXB Free Wifi” option, and it connects without asking for a phone number or OTP.
Abraham had slept for a couple of hours on the benches and woke up by 09:00. At this time, we exited the airport and were looking for a bus to drop us at some metro station. We found out that we need a card to use the public transport (such as buses, trams, metro) in Dubai. This card is called the Nol card. In order to obtain one, we had to go to a metro station. There must be other ways to obtain that card, but we didn’t know any.
The nearest metro station was Abu Hail Metro station - 2 km walk from the airport - which we had to cover by walking. It was not exactly fun as Dubai has a hot desert climate and the temperature was around 40°C, with sand coming into our eyes. To add to his, we had a lot of luggage. The bus stops were air-conditioned and sheltered, so we took shelter in one of the them while walking towards the metro station.
A bus stop in Dubai.
At the Abu Hail metro station, we took the silver Nol card (one for each), which was 25 AED (500 INR) with 19 AED balance. We planned to go to Burj Khalifa from here.
The metro from Abu Hail to Burj Khalifa was 5 AED. It was much cheaper than taking a taxi which would have added 25 AED as the basic fare. We reached the Burj Khalifa metro station in 25 minutes, following by walking to reach there. While clicking pictures, we realized that fitting the whole Burj Khalifa in a single frame is difficult. After all, it is the tallest building in the world!
Me and Abraham with Burj Khalifa in the background
After roaming around a bit, we went to the Dubai Mall, which was walking distance from the Burj Khalifa. The strategy was to spend as much time as possible inside such buildings to avoid the onslaught by the harsh weather. Abraham had a meal in the mall, while I didn’t eat anything due to lack of vegetarian options.
Dubai Mall
We still had 14 AED left in our Nol card at this point. Further, there is no facility to return the card and get the balance refunded. Therefore,we wanted to spend that amount before leaving the city. So, we planned a tram ride which will spend almost all the card balance, cover the city and does not require walking outside of air-conditioning. To take the tram, we went to Sobha Realty Metro Station and walked towards the tram station.
The tram ride was nice. If you ride the Dubai tram, be careful to check in and check-out using the Nol card at the tram station, otherwise you could be fined. We saw the Dubai’s Marina area from the tram. The tram takes 3 AED regardless of the station you check out from. We deboarded at the same station where we took the tram.
From there, we took a metro from DMCC station and returned to Abu Hail metro station. We went to Food Castle Express. I didn’t find a good vegetarian option there, so I skipped eating there and just took a chai.
View from inside the tram
After this, we returned to the airport to catch our respective flights. We didn’t face any language problems in Dubai. English was widely spoken. Most of my conversations were in Hindi, as I met many Indians and Pakistanis who knew Hindi. In fact, Abraham was talking to people in Malayalam (which is more popular in Dubai than Hindi). Overall, people were very nice which made us feel like home.
We had a nice time in Dubai, even though it was tiring due to lack of sleep and harsh weather.