The plan was simple. Bangkok airport, A380 number one to Dubai, change to the second A380 to head back to Heathrow.

Like most plans, there was a slight flaw. We were delayed landing in Dubai by about a hour. This was because of a sandstorm reducing visibility. Actually landing in it was a different experience. The captain announced it would have to be done by the automated landing system (so a computer) with them trying a visual check a few hundred feet from the ground. I only knew we landed when the wheels hit the ground, there was no other indication. This delay meant our 1 hour 15 minute connection time had been wiped out, and it was no surprise to see the gate for the next flight showing as closed when we checked the departures board. Many flights and people were in the same boat. After a lot of waiting we were given flights for the next day, a hotel and an unexpected night in Dubai. This was a new experience, but was obviously very common to the airline. We turned up to the hotel thinking we would have a job exchanging the voucher etc, to find that the hotel had the Emirates logo on the outside walls of the hotel (built for this very purpose). There was a queue of people waiting to check in (that seemed to be constant throughout our stay). The hotel wasn't too great, and the wardrobe smelt of fish (?!) so that was a bit disappointing but the food actually wasn't too bad, and at dinner a guy (Joel) we spoke to in the queue whilst waiting to get new flights at the airport came over and asked if we wanted to get a taxi into town to see a bit of Dubai.

We decided against a taxi and took the metro system into the heart of Dubai, the system was much the same as Bangkok, Hong Kong etc so was easy to navigate. We got out close to the Burj Khalifa (currently the tallest building in the world) and spent the next hour trying to get closer to it (but we kept getting further away as we navigated the road system). We also got to see the water fountain show which rivals the Bellagio display in Las Vegas. Speaking with Joel was good, as he had just come back from a month in Hong Kong and so there was plenty of common ground (he also lives in Oxford so knew Swindon). The delay had worked out in our favour!

Bowls of rice; 66

Flights; 15

Hours travelled; 128