We decided to head to the Expo grounds at around 3:15 PM although the daytime temperatures are sort of perfect now. We knew that getting to the fairgrounds on the Metro would take about an hour. The whole area is near Jebal Ali but not near the coast. The Metro train runs right to the entrance in around one hour from the BurJuman Station and at a cost of Dh 7.50 (US$ 2.05). This put us at the Dubai Expo at least an hour and a half before sunset, so we could get a grasp of the well-designed layout.
As darkness arrived, we quickly were able to gain access to some of the popular pavilions because it is only the second day of the workweek. Saudi Arabia had an impressive display of the varied geography of the country. It seems as though they're now opening up to tourism and are now proudly showing some of their pre-Islamic past, including cities seemingly as impressive as Petra in Jordan and the famous ancient cities of Yemen.
Thailand was interesting even with the obvious nod to its royalty. They also frequently put on dance performances in front of their pavilion. We did want to rush back to see the Chinese drone show which launches from the roof of their building.
Now the distances were beginning to become obvious to us. We had only hit two of the three main districts of the park. We started in Opportunity and crossed over to Mobility.
We knew that a great many things lie in store in the Sustainability District. However, it was getting late at 8:30 PM and we chose to head back to the Metro station. Moreover, we could feel that we'd walked the 10 kilometers that my activity tracker reported.
As the Dubai Expo is the end of the line, we had no trouble getting seats for the one-hour ride back to our apartment hotel near the BurJuman Mall.
We'd not even stopped to eat, so we were a little hungry when back in the neighbourhood, and thirsty too. We came out of the Metro on the other side of the intersection and bought 'special shwarmas' at a takeaway restaurant we'd used before. Due to orders and waiting for the chicken to cook, we were there for at least 20 minutes although it seemed like hours!
We came back and ate and showered and went to bed later than on most nights. By that I mean it was at least 11:15 PM. I guess we no longer paint the town red, not that we ever really did.
We look forward to going back to the Expo at least a few more times because we aren't scheduled to depart to Sri Lanka until the early morning hours of December 16th.