Habibi, come to Dubai…

Okay so let me start this blog post with an apology.

For the longest time I've said I don’t want to go to Dubai… ‘it’s not my vibe, it’s not my scene, I know I won’t enjoy it’

Well, I enjoyed it, so let me apologise and eat my words. 

I always see posts on TikTok saying don’t judge Dubai until you go. 

And they do always say, at least try everything once. (Just maybe not meth!)

So anyways, I’m back again with another blog post and at this point, my blog has become my travel diary, but it seems like whenever I travel, I get inspired to write. So hey, welcome back.

If you’ve read my other blog posts, by now you know, once we get to May, off season begins and me and my boyfriend debate over a location for our summer vacay! 

Last year we decided on the Dominican Republic, we needed one of those rest and recharge kind of holidays, considering the season went into playoffs and didn’t finish until the end of May, downtime was needed. Plus we both wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been before. 

This year my boyfriend suggested Dubai and I was unsure. I’d had an idea in my head of what Dubai would be like and I just wasn’t feeling it. I assumed it was super small, party vibes and not much else. 

However, my boyfriend has family and friends over there, plus friends of ours were holidaying at the same time, and we wanted a mix of chill and vibes, so habibi, we went to Dubai.

Note to self, next time we go to Dubai, do not travel in a thick tracksuit, because hopping off the plane into the 42° heat had me feeling like Sunday roast being stuffed into the oven. 

Since I assumed Dubai was a party place, we opted to stay pretty far down the East Crescent of the Palm. Now as you’ve gathered, I realised it’s not what I thought and although our hotel was unreal, it took us at least 20 minutes in an Uber to even get off the Palm. Next time, we’re staying closer, for sure!

I feel like we didn’t stop the whole time we were there. I’m not a massive drinker, but for some reason, on holiday, hangovers don’t exist, so I'm pretty sure that for 90% of the holiday I was drunk. 

I met some of Courts friends, hung out with Courts sister, we crashed a random birthday party, ​we explored, ate good food, ate some not so good food, played padel… (of course Court played golf) went to a rooftop pool and had the best day on a yacht — Alexa play Drake Spin Bout U. 

I loved our last vacay, but I have to say that Dubai topped it. Since we can only go away during off season, it was nice to see how much we’ve grown since our last holiday. I think one thing I’ve realised over the last year, is that with my boyfriend, I can be completely myself. For example, if you know me, you know ‘The Holiday’ is my favourite movie and I love Cameron Diaz. There is a scene in the movie where she dances around to the iconic song ‘Mr Brightside’… my Mum always says that scene reminds her of me. 

Anyway, at the birthday party we crashed, with only us and a couple of friends on the dance floor, that song came on and I had my Cameron Diaz moment, with my boyfriend screaming along to the song in the background, (gun fingers and all). If I didn’t realise it before, I realised it then, I love him even more, for letting me just be me. Love heart glasses included.

Anyway, enough of the cheesiness, I know he reads these blogs, so I’m sure his head will be so big he won’t fit through the door when he gets home. 

I do think holidays are not only a great time to rest, recharge and have fun, but also to reflect and spend a moment being grateful for what you have and who you have around you. This holiday felt like that. 

In terms of restaurants, we had an unreal steak at Nobu - definitely recommend, we had an amazing Sunday lunch at Duck Hook and Koko Bay do some good edamame - our fave.

However, we were slightly disappointed with Shimmers. If you’re not familiar it's a beach restaurant down by the baby Burj (as I call it). Location is unreal, the food is Greek, so we booked a late table for 10pm. I’m not sure if it was just the time of day, because our friends had a great experience the day before during the sunset sitting, but they ran out of chicken souvlaki and considering the menu was small already, it didn’t leave much choice. They also ran out of rum and the food was a little undercooked…I mean the calamari was still giving ocean. 

But on the brightside (see what I did there) we got some cute pictures down by the beach, courtesy of Courts sister and her new camera. 

I feel like Dubai is one of those places where there's never enough time to do everything you want to do, but it does give us the opportunity to go back and enjoy it again. We sadly missed Courts sisters DJ set - if you’re in Dubai and you want a good night with GOOD music, she’s your girl - @whitley_ruchea We also want to ride bikes on Kite Beach, ride quads in the desert when the sand isn’t like flaming lava, and I want to actually see the big Burj up close, the tourist in me is screaming for it. 

So, with that, I can conclude I did really enjoy Dubai, I might even stretch to say I'd happily live there (I know, full 180 from me) but it was clean, the people were nice, the weather was chefs kiss and it’s also kid friendly, you know future considerations and all that. 

I read this quote recently that said ’someone asked me, what's your favourite place?… I replied, I don’t have a favourite place, I have my favourite people, and whenever I'm with my favourite people, that place becomes my favourite’… and I guess that sums up Dubai perfectly. 

Until next time x