Qantas A380 Business Class DXB-LHR, Shorthaul in Europe, Dubai and Riyadh (Part II)

[yflyer]

After a week in Brussels, Rome and London (Covered in Part I), it was time to head to the Middle East, for another brief study in contrasts: A couple of days in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), followed by another two days in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

If anyone can point me to two cities in the Middle East which are more different from each other than Dubai and Riyadh, I want to hear about it.

From the perspective of air travel, not a lot of interest here, as all flights in the rest of this TR were on Emirates 777’s in 10-abreast Y, but I consider any flight on a 10-abreast 777 that I can walk away from without permanent physical or psychological trauma a success…

Dubai, as many on this forum will know, is a unique city in the Middle East where anything goes (Well almost everything). It is over-the-top, glitzy, showy, and shamelessly progressive. After going through a rough patch, financially speaking, several years ago, it seems to be booming again. From an outsider’s point of view, all you see is an airport and airline that operates on an impossible scale, and a city skyline that makes Manhattan look boring. Hugely impressive, and a place where people from everywhere have come to live and work.

But I have yet to really discover the soul of this city, and what life in this city is about beyond dollars and cents. The expats there live their own comfortable lives. One colleague remarked that while pay is good there, the city is always finding ways to entice you to spend your hard earned money, whether it is in the latest mega mall, the hottest night spot, a new car or a new boat. Taxi’s all seem to be driven by Pakistanis or Bangladeshis. Asians and Filipinos are common in the retail and service industries. As for the locals? I’ve never actually spoken to an Emirati. I seem them on the street in their distinctive Arab attire, but in my course of work or daily life, my conversations and dealings there have been entirely with foreigners.

[yflyer]

After Dubai, I headed to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia for a couple of days. A modern and wealthy city, arguably the center of gravity for the world’s oil industry, but far more conservative and rooted in their own culture and traditions than any city I have visited.

This is a city unlike any other that I have been to. They do things their own way here. Where to start? For one, if you are a woman, you need to dress conservatively. Women, even foreigners, need to cover up, and dress in black. Women are not allowed to drive cars. Alcohol is forbidden in the country. Some restaurants have separate sections for men and women.

It was widely reported in the press earlier this month that Saudi Arabia was looking for applicants to fill 8 open positions as executioners in the Kingdom. (I wonder if they have tried LinkedIn...)

On the other hand, there are skyscrapers and there are also sprawling malls. McDonalds runs a thriving business, and there are a huge number of gleaming new Land Rovers, SUV’s and large prestige cars (White is by far the most popular car colour here).

I got a sense that this country was not on a headlong sprint to emulate what the Western world counts as development and progress. The leaders of this unique country have looked to chart their own path.

That said, there are clearly multiple forces at play, pulling in different directions: the conservatives vs the progressives.

Unlike Dubai, though, in Riyadh, I spoke with, interacted with, and got to know local Saudi’s. And by getting to know them, felt I learnt more about how this country ticked in that one visit, than I did in glitzy Dubai over several visits in recent years, where I never got past the surface sheen of Dubai’s thriving tourist and commercial scene.

[yflyer]

Saudi Arabia was a country of contradictions, an acquaintance remarked. Some things were forbidden, and yet available if you knew where to go. While women are required to cover up in black in public, department stores do booming business in ladies’ lingerie.

When I asked a business associate living in Riyadh what the best time of year was to visit Riyadh…he looked at me for a moment, slightly puzzled, then asked: “Why would anyone want to come and visit?”

”Visiting for business meetings, of course!” I answered with a nervous laugh.

But surely a country so rich in history is worth a visit for non-business purposes. Up till now, travel to Saudi Arabia has been focused around business, and religious pilgrimages to Mecca and other religious sites.

There isn’t much of a tourist industry in Saudi Arabia. The country only announced the intention of issuing tourist visa’s at the end of 2013 – before that, there was no concept of a tourist visa. With most other frequently visited countries turning into tourist traps, there is something to be said for exploring a country where tourists don’t have to be wary of over-priced cookie-cutter tourist attractions. There is probably just a trickle of tourists to Riyadh right now. They have a long way to go before it becomes a must-go destination for tourists.

But what my local friends did say was: there isn’t a whole lot to do in Riyadh, compared to a place like Dubai for example, but this meant that, apart from your work, your life in Riyadh revolved around your family and your friends. My colleague’s weekends were jam packed with a busy schedule: he had activities with his family, he spent time with his friends. All his free time revolved around an extraordinarily busy social calendar.

So while Riyadh is probably too austere a place for me to spend more than a few days in, in some ways, it sounds like they have got it right as far as life priorities were concerned. Between spending all day in a mall, isn’t it better to spend it with family and friends?

More on Riyadh later in this TR.

[yflyer]

After arriving in Dubai from London, I stayed once again at the JW Marriott Marquis, in a part of Dubai known as “Business Bay”, just a few kilometers from the Burj Khalifa.



I have previously covered this hotel here.

The hotel rooms and service are still outstanding.

I was particularly impressed with their room service. I landed close to midnight, and by the time I got to the hotel, it was almost 1am. I ordered an Arabic lentil soup, and a mojito cocktail, from room service, fully prepared for my soup to arrive lukewarm, and for my cocktail to come diluted from melted ice, and mixed together in less than expert proportions, given that this was room service, and not a cocktail mixed at the bar counter.

To my surprise, my soup arrived piping hot. My cocktail was ice cold with minimal ice melt, and perfectly mixed. Can you imagine the coordination required to deliver both these items at ideal temperatures to a hotel room at 1am in the morning? Full marks to the JW Marriott Marquis team!

On the other hand, I took the lift down to the lobby the next morning to find a cacophony of voices jabbering away. It was as noisy as a primary school during recess. There was a huge tour group staying at the JW Marriott Marquis the week I was there. The entire tour group was milling about the lobby, waiting for the buses lined up outside to take them to their day's activities. It was chaos. I've never seen this at a JW property before.

The packed, noisy lobby in the morning was the only downer for my stay at the JW, and to be fair, once I was in my room, there was no interruption, or any sense that the hotel had been invaded by hoards of tourists. Thankfully breakfast and other meals for the group were catered separately in function rooms of the hotel, and not in the JW restaurants. Everything else at the JW that week was perfect.

One one of the evenings of my trip, I decided to jog from the hotel to the Burj Khalifa and back. Dubai is not a very pedestrian friendly city, but the route from the JW to the Burj Khalifa did have some semblance of narrow pavement for a reasonably satisfying evening jog.



This route began at the JW Marriott Marquis, and first took me through the quiet streets of the Business Bay area, much of it still under construction, towards the Burj Khalifa, then right through the public spaces and water/park areas directly below the Burj Khalifa, and then right round the sprawling Emirates Mall, before heading back along the quiet street, running parallel to the Dubai Metro and Sheikh Zayed Road, back to the lobby of the JW, for a total of just over 8km.



I heard later from a colleague living in Dubai that there is now a rubberized running track along Jumeirah Beach (“Start at Kite Park”, my colleague suggested). I didn’t get to try running there this time round, but I did go there another time to snap a photo of the track.



The Burj Khalifa is a really impressive structure, both from a distance, and up close.



There is a large water feature (With evening fountain shows) at the base of the Burj, and surrounding the tower is the massive Emirates Mall.

[yflyer]

I headed to the mall a few days later to check it out. Apart from a vast array of shops and activities that would put any mall in Singapore to shame, there is a jaw-droppingly large aquarium (Not a full aquarium, just a single large tank with an enclosed tunnel) with sharks, rays and other sea life.









In another section of the mall, there was a huge dinosaur display.



This was right next to a branch of the Cheesecake Factory….



Note, these weren’t replica dinosour bones. This was the real deal! The dinosour bones were discovered in Wyoming and shipped to Dubai to be displayed in the mall.







Coincidentally, the dinosaur skeletons in the newly opened Lee Kong Chian museum in Singapore are also from Wyoming.

[yflyer]

Other features of the mall include a full size skating rink:



And a branch of iPilot – a civilian/hobbyist flight simulator outfit.



Where there was a full simulator rig (From the flight yoke, it looked to be a Boeing rather than an Airbus simulator)





As well as a simpler computer “flightsim” type simulator.



I was very tempted to try this out, but didn’t have time. It wasn't cheap either, at AED 999 (Around SGD 370) for an hour in the simulator.



Fear of flying program at AED999? Wonder if they have a program to treat fear of 10-abreast 777's...

Apart from many restaurants in the mall, there was a large, crowded food court, where Jollibee had recently opened…



Elsewhere, there was a Five Guys burger outlet as well, which was doing roaring business.





The next shot is of the high-end fashion/retail zone of the mall, which had it’s own distinctive décor.

[yflyer]

Here is something you don’t see in many other countries either: A Gold ATM…

[yflyer]

Before heading to Riyadh, I dined at the steakhouse at the JW Marriott Marquis, named Prime 68, as it was perched on the 68th floor of Tower A of the hotel.





From the restaurant, you had spectacular views of the city, the sea, and of the Burj Al Arab in the distance.



Bread to start…



Soup as an amuse bouche…is that a smiley drawn on top?



Steak Tartare as my starter…this was absolutely spectacular. Chunks of beef, cut up fairly coarsely, and not too finely, with condiments beautifully blended, and just enough spice and horseradish to liven up the flavour.





As I was not that hungry, I had another starter, the crab cakes, as my main course.



This was delicious as well.

I accompanied my crab cakes with a Chenin Blanc from South Africa.





I skipped dessert, but was offered a selection of petit fours, which allowed me to end the evening on a sweet note.

[yflyer]

But one cannot dine at a steakhouse (and write a TR about it…) without actually trying the steak, right?

I was so impressed with the food that evening, that the next day I headed there again for lunch. Prime 68 has a separate business lunch menu available. It is a different, simpler menu compared to dinner, although the full size (and full price!) steaks are also available should you want to indulge in one of those at lunch time.

I asked for a table with the same view as the previous evening…



The business lunch menu…



And wine list…



I began with the baby shrimp cocktail…





I chose the USDA Prime Fillet as my main…



Which came with a choice of steak knives…



…and a choice of side dish (I chose the creamed spinach)…



The steak was minimalist in presentation…



But absolutely delicious, and a perfect medium rare…



I finished with the Brooklyn Brownie, a chocolate brownie that came with salted caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream…



If are dining there, the restrooms on the 68th floor are also worth checking out. Probably some of the best restroom views in Dubai…



A very satisfying lunch…and my last meal in Dubai before heading to Riyadh that evening.

Next up, Riyadh…

To be continued…

[yflyer]

I headed to Dubai Airport for my short flight to Riyadh.

The Emirates First/Business Class check-in area in DXB was deserted when I checked in that afternoon.



There was no line at immigration or security, and I was through to the airside area of Terminal B within minutes. As my plane departed from Concourse B, I used the Emirates Lounge there. This is an older lounge, without the direct gate access of the Concourse A lounges. The lounge was under renovation, with large areas boarded up.



I sat down for a meal and several glasses of wine – my last round of drinks for the next two days.





A very nice selection of food was available in the late afternoon, consisting of both Arabic and Western selections…



…with the standout item being lamb machbous, a dish very similar to Indian lamb biryani…



…fragrant, spiced basmati rice with chunks of tender curried lamb.

[yflyer]

After eating my fill, I headed to my gate to board Emirates 77W registration A6-EBX, an 8 year old Boeing 777-300ER.



By now, I knew what to expect:

A tight 3-4-3 Y cabin. By now, I had gotten used to the slightly claustrophobic feel of the cabin.



The IFE was an older version of Emirates ICE (information, Communications Entertainment) AVOD system, with a 4:3 screen.



Legroom was fine, although there were small obstructions from the IFE boxes.



Recline was reasonable, although not far enough to completely compensate for the narrower seat width.



The profile of passengers on this flight was quite interesting.



A smattering of Westerners and Asian executives, a reasonable number of traders/businessmen with brief cases, large carry-ons who were busy swapping SIM cards in and out of phones, and a very large number of South Asian labourers and construction workers.

As I was warned that immigration queues were long, I was advised to grab a seat in the front of the Y section.



Flight time today was just under 2 hours.

[yflyer]

Even on this short sector, a full meal was served.



This comprised an Arabic starter, with dips, salad and bread, a main course consisting of chicken and rice, and a dessert.



The chicken and rice tasted fairly good.

I did not observe any alcoholic beverages served on this flight.

[yflyer]

Before long, we descended and landed at Riyadh King Khaled International Airport.

This is a very large airport, impressive in architectural terms. However, it appears that the immigration area is not geared to handle large numbers of passengers.

There are two immigration queues: One for first time visitors with new visas (Singaporeans require a visa to enter into Saudi Arabia, applied for in advance from Singapore) and another, faster queue for repeat visitors.

I had a seat right at the front of the Y cabin, however, I had earlier handed my jacket to an Emirates cabin crew member, who had not yet returned it to me after the flight had arrived at the gate. This meant that I had to stand by the entrance for several minutes, while half the plane full of passengers went by me, while the cabin crew located my jacket. And worst of all, it turned out that the jacket was in a cupboard right next to us all along, which another cabin crew member by the door had not deemed necessary to check when I first asked for my jacket…

By the time I entered the crowded immigration hall, there was a snaking queue to the processing counters. While the repeat visitor queue moved at a decent pace, the new visa queue took an exceptionally long time for each passport holder. Each new visitor had fingerprints taken, and a photo taken. Other airports use Logitech PC cameras to take pictures of faces. This airport had a Canon EOS DSLR on a monopod at each immigration booth. To cut a long story short, I spent 2 hours and 45 minutes in the queue. Apart from my colleague’s advice of sitting in front of the plane, I would also advise heading to the bathroom before entering the queue.

After immigration, I entered the baggage claim area, where the bags must have been circling the baggage conveyor belts for two hours. There were piles of bags from multiple flights everywhere. After such a long delay, the baggage displays did not even show my flight number anymore. I walked up and down three different belts, and rows of luggage strewn on the ground before locating my luggage.

When I exited the baggage claim into the arrivals area, I could not locate my hotel car pick-up. He had left after waiting for 2 and a half hours, thinking I was a no-show.

I called the hotel, the DoubleTree Hilton Riyadh, and they agreed to send the car back to the airport to pick me up. That would take 25 minutes. I took the opportunity, while waiting for the car, to pick up a takeaway dinner a Lebanese food outlet in the arrival area. I picked up a shawarma, hummus and tabbouleh. A bit much for one person, but by that point I was starving. I may have been late, and I may have been tired, but I at least I would not be hungry!

[yflyer]

The DoubleTree Hilton Riyadh is a very new hotel, just opened from April 2015. It is 20 minutes from the Airport, 15 minutes from Kingdom Tower, and 30 minutes from the Riyadh City Centre.



It is a low-rise property, with sleek stylish décor in the public areas, and as would be expected in a new property, stylishly decorated rooms, which are moderate in size.







A distinctive feature of the DoubleTree chain is that they give you a warm chocolate chip cookie upon check-in.



The cookie tasted good, but I was actually more intrigued by the complimentary Arabic coffee available in the lobby, a very lightly brewed, unsweetened coffee, served in ornate small cups, accompanied by dates.





My room was warmly decorated, and very comfortable.







My colleagues staying in the same hotel remarked that the rooms here were much nicer than many of the other hotels in Riyadh that they had stayed in. For one, the rooms were much newer.

Some rooms have good views of the city outside. My room had a window which faced an inside courtyard, which was not an issue for me as this was a short stay, although if I were staying longer, I would have preferred a room with an outside view.



There were separate gyms for men and women.



I had actually wanted to head outside (in the heat) for an early morning jog, before the temperatures climbed into the 40’s, but I bumped into my colleague, on his way to the gym.

“Where are you headed?” he asked.

“Outside for a run!” I replied.

“Errr…you better head to the gym. Over here, men aren’t allowed to go outside in shorts or sleeveless shirts/tank tops.”

Wow…now that I did not expect. So I spent 30 minutes on the treadmill instead.

I doubt I would have gotten into serious trouble if I had really headed outside for a run, but why take a risk?

[yflyer]

I headed into the city for meetings.

It was hot while we were there, with temperatures up to 43 degrees during the day.







Riyadh is a very flat, dry place, as you would expect in the Middle East. However, there were major high-rise developments, including the iconic Kingdom Tower.





I was also told the old part of Riyadh was a bustling, busy area as well, but I did not get to see that part of the city on my trip.

Also punctuating the drab, brown landscape were many examples of impressive and beautiful architecture, whether it was mosques, universities or commercial buildings.

I spent a couple of days in Riyadh at business meetings, and also spent time with colleagues and business associates over lunch and dinner.

Saudi Arabia is a dry country, where alcohol is forbidden, but in place of that was a very wide and refreshing selection of fruit juices and coolers. One, called “Saudi Champagne” was sparking water, mixed with apple juice, with mint and slices of fruit added. This was very refreshing, and a nice accompaniment to meals.



I am sure a couple of dry days also had other benefits to health, mind and body. I felt really good as the trip drew to a close.