Project Five O: Watching the World Go (Du)bai

It's 1:30 am here in Dubai (10:30 pm London time) and with another two hours until our connecting flight to Cochin in India, what better way to while away the time than with a quick blog post?

So eagerly have I been waiting for this holiday that I can't quite believe it's finally arrived even though we are already six tenths of the way to Kerala. The wi-fi connection here isn't great so I may have to finish abruptly but I'll see what I can get down.

Come Fly with Me!

We left a wet and windy Heathrow behind at just before 3:00 pm and have arrived in Dubai, which looked rather like Las Vegas on Sea as we completed our neon-lit descent, where the temperature is 29 degrees centigrade notwithstanding it's the middle of the night. Not that you would know it in the shiny, cavernous and air-conditioned departure lounge we now find ourselves in.

The flight on one of Emirates' enormous A380 Airbuses was as comfortable as it gets in Economy, with the refreshment and entertainments on offer showing just how far the in-flight possibilities have come since I took my first ever flight from Gatwick to Munich with Dan Air (remember them?) nearly thirty years ago.

Even a choice of main course!

The meal was not quite as scrumptious as it sounds on the menu, but it wasn't half bad, although I passed on the sticky toffee pudding, and 'chocolates' is somewhat misleading in view of the postage stamp sized square on offer.

The range of possibilities within the on-board entertainment system was staggering, and included games, music and a wide range of movies that could be paused and resumed Sky+ style. It was even possible to make phone calls and send and receive texts, although this was not cheap, but tempting nevertheless if only to show off.