Introduction
Why India? Travelling to India started out as a secondary objective to trying out Air India First Class, but I soon realized that India was much more than an arrival point. It turned out to be the most luxurious, clean, delightful, and incredible place that I had ever been. The trip was to consist of 7 nights in India, with one night in Dubai en route.
In preparation for travelling to India, I began watching every Netflix and Youtube video that I could find on the subject, particularly the historical and food related videos. I started off watching Ghandi, which I hadn’t seen since it was in the theaters. I then drilled down into more history, with one of the most fascinating documentaries, that I have seen; Michael Wood’s The Story of India. That just whet my appetite for the history of India, so I drilled down to watch more videos on the history of the British East India Company, partition, Hinduism, Indian food, and many, many more related subjects, including even traveller’s personal video diaries on Youtube. This was very exciting preparation and by the time that I finally stepped onto Indian soil, I felt that I could appreciate the country even more by understanding its fascinating history and origins.
Although learning of the history and culture of India did instill in me a general appreciation for the country, I did feel a certain apprehensiveness about the trip because people who had been there or had known someone who had been there, uniformly suggested that I “brace myself” for a “shocking display of humanity”, and especially poverty and decrepit conditions. My concerns led me to get a couple painful shots at a travel clinic, and to purchase a cornucopia of various products ranging from hand sanitizer to hang from my belt, about 80 pills of anti-diarrhea medication, motion sickness tablets, probiotic tablets, Travelan, toilet seat covers, face masks, antibacterial creams, bandages, and even brought a dozen straws so that I would not have to drink out of any bottles directly. The anticipatory preparations did not end there, I brought emergency rain ponchos, special mosquito repellant, a toll of toilet paper, and various other kinds of powders and sprays. Let’s just say I was treating this expedition with the utmost precaution. As you will shortly read however, with the exception of the merely prudent shots, probiotics, and Travelan, none of this would turn out to be necessary!
Travelling along with me would be my dad who like me, had never been to India and had similar expectations. This trip occurred at the end of September, 2014, and thanks to Musken on the Luxury Forum for the inspiration to finally post this report.
Part I – Toronto to Dubai on Emirates First Class, a380
I had flown EK F on an a380 several times previously, but if there was one mode of travel that I felt that my father would enjoy, it would be EK F, so I arranged for two seats non-stop YYZ-DXB using Alaska Airmiles. In fact, the ticket was actually through to Hyderabad, with a stopover in Dubai. Why Hyderabad? Well, it was the only flight to India ex-DXB that was on the 777 with proper EK F suites and which had a decent departure and arrival time. My dad took to EK F immediately, enjoying the Dom Perignon and partaking in the hilarity of being presented with a bag of goodies including great pajamas and a leather toiletry kit.
He really got a kick out of the dates they served and the Business Class bar area before enjoying his first suite aboard an airplane. When walking out from having his first shower aboard an airplane, he was thrilled!
We both concluded that really, there was no better way to fly. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip without any faults whatsoever. We enjoyed their incredibly extensive menu including caviar and blinis, but we both did our best not to over indulge, as we had reserved a seafood buffet at the Atlantis in Dubai for two hours after our scheduled arrival.
After an easy entrance through immigration, our Emirates chauffeur took to the hotel that we had booked for the first night. Since we were arriving late and going right to dinner, followed by sleep, and then leaving early to tour Dubai, we didn’t feel that we needed a spectacular hotel for the first night. Using SPG points I booked the Sheraton Mall of the Emirates. After checking in to what was a modern and comfortable room, we took a taxi right to the Atlantis on the Palm, for our scheduled seafood buffet dinner.
At the Atlantis Dubai, we saw a massive Dale Chihuli sculpture:
Unfortunately however, the seafood buffet turned out to be quite lacklustre and disappointing, with only mediocre selection and relatively poor quality. In fact the lobster was inedible it was so rubbery and tough. It was then on to briefly see the Mall of the Emirates, which was conveniently attached to the hotel. Traffic however, was absolutely brutal. For such a short distance it took us nearly 50 minutes to get back from Atlantis to the Mall of the Emirates.
We headed to bed for the night and woke up this view from the hotel:
Breakfast which we paid for in advance at the time of booking, was great in the main restaurant, and nearly equally as good in the club lounge. Had I known we would be given access to the club lounge, I would not have purchased the breakfast package.
This was a perfect hotel for basically a night’s sleep and breakfast and I would have no hesitation in staying again for an overnight stopover. We bought tickets for the BigBus Tour (hop on hop off), which I have done previously in Dubai and in other cities. It was a convenient way of getting around and getting a basic tour. We caught the bus at the Mall of the Emirates, which was as mentioned, connected to our hotel.
We visited the Dubai Mall, which I think is the better mall, amongst other attractions. We really wizzed through things, as we wanted to get back to our hotel to check out, and to check into the Burj al Arab for our second night.
We even saw an ice hockey rink there, which was funny for Canadians to see in Dubai, and stopped by Shake Shack for a cheeseburger with bacon-style beef. Was not a great burger. We didn’t want to have a large lunch though since we were going to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, which is kind of a treat for Canadians who have no Cheesecake Factory.
After our whirlwind bus tour of Dubai, we took a taxi to the Burj al Arab, and were quickly checked in. We were upgraded to an even larger, mammoth suite. Many thanks to FT member DavidO, for booking this for us and for booking our hotels in India. His service is simply as good as it gets.
We were shown the suite by our butler. It was just HUGE. And gaudy. And exactly as it appears in the pictures.
