Plane sailing

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Melissa Sleiman gets airborne to check on Dubai's progress on the ground.

I'm about to miss my plane when I arrive at the Seawings office, precisely at take-off time. No worries, though. The employee behind the counter immediately initiates an operation to stop the pilot from taking off by yelling through her walkie-talkie.

As she snatches my passport from my hand, some of her colleagues come running through the door.

"We need the fast golf cart!," calls one of them frantically. We run around and then hop on a small vehicle. I hold onto a metal bar and nearly burst out laughing - I feel like a grandma racing along in an invalid's vehicle. The image of the Jebel Ali Hotel fades into the distance as we drive towards a strip of beach.

We pass luxury yachts docked in a small marina and the grass fields of the golf course. The fresh air of the sea surrounds me, but there is little time to admire nature and its scenery.

The golf cart comes to a screeching halt. I run across the pier where two lifeguards are waiting with open arms to lift me on the seaplane. I can nearly hear the Die Another Day James Bond tune in my head as I hop on.

Around six people are waiting for me in the aircraft. The seat behind the pilot is empty and I hit my head as I rush towards it. The seaplane is tiny, but not cramped. Through the windows I can see a spectacular view of the sea as the plane glides through the water, leaving a foamy trail behind it.

The plane takes off and the pilot shouts to the passengers that we can see Palm Jebel Ali to our left. I can vaguely see the shape of it. To the right, boats float around large, sandy areas in the sea.

Construction will start there soon, my excited co-passengers point out. We fly over stacks of concrete bricks and industrial plants.

Moments later we approach the cityscape and get a view of Dubai Marina. I spot a greeny-blue lake, which I'm seeing for the first time as I usually only get a view of the buildings next to it.

I wonder if the boats are able to catch any sunlight like this - they are as small as flies from what I can see, and towers surround the water from all sides.

Next, the plane passes Sheikh Zayed Road, on which the traffic looks surprisingly organised from up in the air. No honking, no cutting, no bumper sticking with these toy cars. The maze of slip streets and highways looks a lot less complicated than it does when driving on them.

And then the moment comes that we've all been waiting for. We fly over Palm Jumeirah, starting at the stem of it and then moving upwards. "I can see Atlantis," screeches my neighbour as the castle looms up in the distance, through the cloudy skies.

The villa-garden-swimming pool combination repeated throughout the Palm looks a bit silly to me, but I'm amazed at the accuracy of the dredging and construction.

The shape of the area closely resembles the model in the Nakheel office. The sandy islands of The World, on the other hand, don't look anything like the world map yet. Still, it's interesting to see how they are being created.

We fly past the Burj Al Arab - another great photo opportunity. I figure it'll be a lot more impressive to my family to send them a photo of the icon of Dubai taken from a plane rather than an ordinary postcard. I'm in Dubai, the place where anything is possible, after all. The looming Burj Dubai is equally impressive.

As we circle around the city, I'm surprised to see quite a number of parks and neighbourhoods spread across it. Who knew there's so much greenery in Dubai? The Meadows and The Greens almost look like miniature golf courses.

We fly back over the sea after about half an hour of being airborne. I start to feel nauseous. But that feeling quickly passes as we descend into the sea near the Jebel Ali Hotel again. Two speedboats approach and the tanned boys on it direct the plane towards its dock.

The passengers are a bit disappointed that the trip is over. My neighbour films the pilot when he's about to leave. His lady friend, who is sitting behind him, sulks as she didn't see the landing into the water. "Don't worry, honey," he says to her. "I've got it all on video." I wonder, though, if that will be enough to capture the magic of being up in the air. www.seawings.ae

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