First time flying Emirates and not too bad, we had the pleasure of an A380 taking us from Sydney to Dubai. It amazes me every time I see those planes, I do not know how they can fly they are massive. The funniest thing was Johns face when he looked out of the window and saw that the plane had already taken off, it sounds like an exaggeration – I assure you this is no embellishment of fact to make a tale. The plane is so quiet and we were downstairs and front of plane (economy) and you wouldn’t know that the plane was at full thrust. John seriously was shocked to see that we had taken off.
John didn’t get much sleep, with the help of Jude’s suggested drugs – I managed to sleep a good 6 – 8 hours. Needless to say that we were pretty shattered when we arrived in Dubai, for those that haven’t been to Dubai Airport it is a long thin airport – which means that there are long walks from gates to passport control and baggage – so long in fact that it was about a 10 minute train ride from the gate we arrived at to the passport control. In 2015 78 million passengers went through Dubai Airport, Heathrow had 75 million in all 4 terminals. It is nearly twice the size of Heathrow, spacious, clean, white, sparkly and has just about everything you want in it. But I would rather fly into Sydney anyday, luggage arrives when you do – I guess if it takes 10 mins by train to passport control and baggage claim it takes the baggage longer. We took the opportunity to get our steps up by walking around this large terminal whilst we waited for our bags.
John had organised a car to pick us up, so that was all very easy. I have been working myself up about the 44°c heat (that’s 111°F for Pat) when i walked out of the terminal building – I thought this is okay. We turned left to walk to the car which was parked about 12 cars away and the further we walked the hotter it got – this was 6am in the morning and the temperature was 35°c. Wow it felt hot after our Sydney winter, we were in the air-conditioned car and off to the hotel as quick as we could.
John has been responsible for organising every detail of the holiday, so I had no idea of what to expect as he had done all the research. Dubai was hazy, apparently its not pollution just the heat causing the haze and dust. You cannot believe how many tall buildings there are, and so many different shapes and sizes – your eyes do not seem to know what to focus on.
Even though we arrived at the hotel at 7am, they had organised an early check in so we were shown to our room which was fantastic – well done Johnny Boy. We thought we would have a couple of hours sleep and set the alarm for 9am, in no time we were pushing zeds and struggled to get up at 9. Part of our hotel deal is club access which is a similar to the club lounges in other hotels in Aus but this one has breakfast from 7 – 11, then light lunch from 12 to 2pm then high team from 2pm – 4:30 pm then Hors d’Oeuvres from 5pm to 8pm then Chocolates from 8pm to 10pm and eat and drink as much as you like and it is all included. It really works and is a good idea – we tried out the breakfast after our snooze which was simply delicious after the airline food. Trying to stay awake we then went for an explore around the resort, boy it is hot – by the time we came back to the room we needed another shower. The bed in the room was so inviting, we had a golf tee off time at 3pm, the temptation was too great – we thought we would go to sleep for a few hours before slogging it out on the golf course.
Some photos of the hotel and resort grounds (taken from the hotel’s website as they look much better than mine!)
We then travelled about 30 mins to what is call the Sports City, which is where the Els Course is. It is within a gated community and surrounded by some very very nice houses. When we arrived we were greeted by the friendliest of staff who took our clubs and then you are ushered into the air conditioning and everything, I mean everything is sorted out for you. Golf includes free water, as much of it as you like, ice towels, range balls (if you can be bothered). I cannot rate the welcoming experience high enough – you have to be there to experience it. You know the saying mad dogs and englishmen, well this was the mad girl (careful – I know what you are thinking) and an englishmen. We had the course to ourselves, it is so hot that the tyres of the buggies squeak – seriously it is like you are dragging a herd of cats that are in serious pain. You do get used to after a while or you are so focussed on keeping hydrated that you don’t care about anything else.
The course itself is like a Palm Springs desert course, sand and green grass. The greens had been cored and when they are like this to make the game easier the club install 8 inch cups instead of the normal 4.25 inch cups. This was weird, when you are putting a 3 footer and the cup is 8 inches it freaks you out. Here are some photos of the cups..
John was playing so well, I was about to achieve my first goal of the holiday – do something that you have never done before and that was get beaten by your husband off the stick. I had to do something so I got heat stroke… I was feeling terrible, I wanted to vomit – I was so full I couldn’t drink anymore water – it was the water table of my body was at my throat. I wanted to faint, so we stopped after 8 holes to go into the club house where we stayed for the next hour or so. The staff were amazing bringing my iced towels, for those that don’t know I get very red faced and I look like shit when I am hot. I had poured so much water over my head that my top was drenched with looked like sweat but it wasn’t – still you couldn’t help but feel sorry for me. After a few hours I was okay to go and have another go, it was much cooler by now and there was a lovely breeze. Unfortunately for John the long break had interrupted his excellent form and I managed to beat him in the gross stakes. I played off the mens tees to be social, the course wasn’t that difficult if you can play bunker shots – saying that, the scores weren’t that great even with massive cups.
I managed to get the energy to video only two shots of Johns, the first – he chipped in and the second he hit this most amazing shot from a desert wasteland onto the green and sunk the putt. And this is why I lost the match….
The proshop at the Els club was to die for, Cockers, Shugzee and Jen would have had a great day shopping in there. There was an amazing girls section for Jen with the tiniest of clothes and what a great selection.
The Els Clubhouse was buzzing when we ventured in after our round which was at about 6:30pm, party music was playing quite loudly as if they were expecting a crowd. The bar was filling up with patrons that we assumed were local residents out for a Monday night dinner.
Over all a good day with some serious challenges.
Total steps 10,439 (most of which were done whilst I had to walk back to the room a few times as I had forgotten things for golf).
Shaz Thompson
Mad about golf, enthusiastic about life, totally in love with my husband and just having fun.
Sharon Thompson 
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