Getting to Istanbul Airport 

I took the Havaist bus number 12 (HVIST-12) from Aksaray Metro, TL67. I have balance in my Istanbulkart enough for the travel but they don't accept payment via Istanbulkart, only cash or credit card. Commute time approximately 90 minutes.

Despite Beyazit Square station is a little closer to Sultanahmet square, but Havaist bus goes to Beyazit Square station only between 21:30 and 10:00 am since Ordu Street is closed for the vehicles during the day. 

I didn't get any plan to get any sim card or other means for internet connection in Dubai as I would only be there for a few days. However good news was there is free sim card given away at Dubai Airport. 

At passport control, the immigration officer handed back my passport along with a free Du Dubai sim card. The sim card came activated with a free 1GB that is valid for 24 hours. All one needs to do is insert the ready-to-use sim. I only activated this on my last full day in Dubai as I would be going around and might need it for navigation. 

One of the main criteria when I booked the accommodation was the distance from metro station. The one I ended up booking was in Deira, near Al-Rigga metro station. Bonus was it was really near the airport. I bought a Silver nol card, 25 AED which includes a 19 AED value. On my commute to and fro the airport, I had with me a big backpack and there were kind humans offering me their seat both times. 

The flight landed in Dubai International Airport closed to 10pm. By the time I reached Al Rigga metro, it was passed 11pm. I looked up on google maps on how to walk to the accommodation that I booked using the free wi-fi at the station. On leaving the metro station, I heard the staff made announcement on last train for the night. 

Backtracked to the day before when I was in Istanbul. I would usually let the hotel know my estimated arrival time especially if it would be outside of usual business hour. Given that my flight was due to land in Dubai at 9:50pm, I sent a message to the accommodation via the booking app. I got a default response that mention to contact the accommodation directly. I sent a whatsapp message to the accommodation. I noticed that the country code for the listed phone number wasn't in Dubai. No reply. Then I saw a poor review for the accommodation that mentioned there were no room available. Not very promising but the accommodation had billed me. I figured as plan B, I would look up some backup accommodations around the area in case there wasn't a room available for me too. 

On arrival at the location given, all I could see was a supermarket. I walked up and down the street a couple of times and I wasn't able to find the building. I walked to the nearest hotel to me at that time, Ibis Dubai Al Rigga. While the front desk didn't come across as most friendly, she very kindly offered me the hotel free wi-fi after telling me she doesn't know the place I was looking for. By this time there were a few people at the front desk with their queries. I thanked her and the doorman who also tried to help me to check the address given and walked to my plan B. 

The dodgy accommodation that I initially booked is no longer listed. I also reported it to booking.com. Excelsior Downtown Hotel was the plan B hotel.