One of the ways of getting the price of a flight down is to book a long layover. Usually they’re not that fun and in countries where the airport is miles from the city centre, or, where the airport is really super boring with absolutely nothing to do, however, I scored booking an eighteen hour layover in Dubai. Eighteen hours still feels like a really long time and it’s a country that’s never really appealed to me and one that I wouldn’t just choose to visit on its own, but thought might as well make the most of a cheaper flight, a very long wait and to try tire myself out before the next eleven hour flight to Phnom Penh via Singapore.

My body currently has no idea what time it is. At home, it’s 9:30pm, in Dubai, its 12:30am and I am exhausted. I’ve been awake and exploring Dubai since 4:30am yesterday UK time, so I am absolutely hysterically knackered and have never been more excited to get back onto a plane as I reckon I’ll be asleep before take off. There was one point today where I actaully nearly fell asleep whilst sat at a table because I was so tired so from that moment, I pretty much walked around for the rest of the day in attempt to keep myself awake. I did however, make the most of my eighteen hour layover. So, let’s begin!

First stop, Dubai Mall. I left the airport and got the metro into the main city centre which literally took about half an hour but it wasn’t until I got to the city centre that I realised how warm 40° was! Gheeeeeze. I was roasting, I am not even kidding I legit walked about 2 minutes before I was sweating. It was like just hot, no air, just hot everywhere, sticky, humid, hot heat. I quickly found the mall and was so grateful for some aircon. Although, at first glance of the severy other high end designer to ever exist. I think my mouth dropped and I literally thought to myself, ‘well this isn’t like Bluewater is it.’

I was walking around a bit further and thought about FaceTiming my mum to let her know I was here okay as morning had finally broken in England and anyway my jaw dropped again and down the phone I’m like ‘mum, mum, look at this!’ and literally stood infront of me is a floor to ceiling aquarium, inside the mall! It was huge and filled with so many species of fish, and there were some divers at the bottom and I was sooo tempted to book to do it myself, the only thing that stopped me was that I didn’t have my big backpack on me with all my stuff in it!

Next was off to the Burj Khalifa! Through Emirates I’d managed to book some things to do to keep me occupied for some of my layover, this was the first. I always feel a bit weird about really tall buildings, I love them, and I love the architecture, but I think I’d always choose to look at it rather than be up it (psa I’m not scared of heights!) but because of how high it was, I just saw lots of tops of other buildings yanoe. I could see for miles over Dubai and the UAE though, which was really cool. I also still had lots of fun learning about how it was built and being at the top (almost) of the tallest building in the world is something to tick off the bucket list.

From here, I had originally planned to head to the Palm so I could see the Atlantis hotel and take some pics, and then to see the Dubai Frame, again, looks super cool. But it was honestly so hot, and I was so tired, that I actually couldn’t face getting on public transport again and doing another 20 minute journey. So I grabbed some lunch (I found a Nando’s in Dubai so of course it was my choice of restaurant!) and had a wander around some of the Souks and by now I got a whole wave of tiredness and was literally was falling asleep where I was sat, I got a coffee and was searching desperately for any form of caffeine to help me stay awake for another 10 hours or so (unreal right).

Later in the day I headed off to Sky Views Dubai to watch the sunset and this, this I really enjoyed. You know why, I got to see everything at like a normal skyline level! Also got to see the Burj at sunset and it looked stunning all twinkly. You could also see the Dubai Fountain from here too so managed to get a glimpse of that from a different point of view too. Whilst I was at Sky Views I had the chance to ride their glass slide which was off the side of the building, sounds terrifying right. But it was loads of fun. I also walked across the glass floor and looking down was slightly intimidating I’m not gonna lie!

Last stop of the day was to the Dubai Fountain to watch the show before jumping on a train back to the airport. I really enjoyed the fountain show and only wish that I had seen it in the dark as imagine it would’ve been even better than what it was. The fountains soared high with music playing to time and it really was incredible. I reckon if I wasn’t so tired I would have stuck around until the sun had fully set to see it with all the lights in the dark, but I was almost rushing to get back to the airport so I could have a snooze without the fear of missing my flight!

Back at the airport and swfitly through security, it was time to chill a little bit. I knew there was showers in the terminal and I was dead in need of some freshening up. I have never felt so grateful for a shower in my life! I genuinely felt like the water had come from the heavens above and I felt brand new after, so it was now time to find a snack and a comfy chair for a five hour wait until my next flight! It is genuinely amazing how much you can squeeze into a day (or just 18 hours). Next stop, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. See ya there, Mads x