Dubai has been a dream destination of mine for several years now. Luckily for me, one of my close friends from college lives in Dubai so post graduation, I had a reason to go. My mom also really wanted to go so we decided to take a trip together. We would go to Dubai together and my mom would leave to return home and watch my dog (lucky me!), while I traveled on to India to see my best friend.
We arrived in Dubai on Dec 4 after a horrible flight experience. Emirates is NOT all that its cracked up to be! My mom sat next to a lady who almost threw up on her and on top of that, the flight attendants were rude and unhelpful. Emirates, we probably won't fly with you again.
Anyway, after landing in Dubai, we checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Taj hotel in Business Bay. We had a gorgeous view of Burj Khalifa right outside our window! We were both exhausted so that was it for Day 1. The next day we had our city tour of Dubai. We used Planet Tours, which was recommended by the Taj hotel but honestly, these tours were NOT good and I do not recommend at all. The tour guide barely told us anything about the city, and we spent the majority of the time just trapped inside the van. We also had a day trip to Abu Dhabi where we saw the beautiful white mosque. It was spectacular and probably my favorite part of our trip! I spent some time with my friend, Sameera, and we went out to a bar and did some shopping. It was so nice to see her after almost a year!
Overall, I really liked Dubai but there was not much to do other than shopping. After that I traveled on to Mumbai, India, where my best friend, Anushka, was waiting for me at the airport. It was so surreal for me to be in India and I had to keep reminding myself that it was real! I traveled to India in 6th grade. That was the last time I went and after that I never thought I would go back. After all, I didn't really have a reason to go. But, after meeting Anushka in college and becoming best friends, I figured I needed to go. She had come to visit my hometown with me over Thanksgiving, so I also wanted to see her home and meet all of her friends.
India is a tough place for foreigners to travel to due to the lack of sanitation and nonpotable water. You have to be super careful with everything that you eat and take extra caution to make sure it is not contaminated with unfiltered water. I came prepared, knowing that I would probably get sick from the food, even though I was staying with my relatives who made sure I was only eating home cooked food. Good thing I did, because I got sick and we had to cancel our trip to Jaipur. Regardless, Anushka and I had a good time hanging out. Honestly, the point of the trip was to see her and meet her friends, and we accomplished both so I think it was a pretty successful trip (minus getting sick and canceling Jaipur).
I am so happy to be back home. Both these places were awesome experiences but there's nothing like coming back to your home after 2 weeks away :)
Kindly, Kaveri
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