How Can I Possibly Describe Dubai?

09 Nov How Can I Possibly Describe Dubai?

• A city and a state (Emirate) of the United Arab Emirates;
• The second largest Emirate (4114 km²), with the largest population (the majority of whom are expatriates) – source Wikipedia;
• A land of extreme heat, with an average high of 41°C and maximum of 49° C ;
• Home to the tallest and most remarkable buildings – Burj Khalifa, Cayan (Infinity) Tower and Burj Al Arab are examples;
• With an appetite for the most enterprising of development projects – The Palms and the World Islands built on reclaimed land;
• A liberal Muslim country offering the right to religious freedom, but not necessarily freedom of speech;
• With somewhat unusual and at times confusing policies on alcohol acquisition and consumption.
• etc., etc., etc., …….

If that doesn’t do it for you, perhaps the photos and stories of our meanderings around Dubai might help.

After holidaying here for only five days I certainly do not claim to understand this city or the country it belongs to.

Arrival in Dubai: early Thursday 29th September 2016

Our base was the Marina View Hotel appartments, which had no view of the Dubai Marina. Not to be confused with the Marina Hotel appartments, which had a beautiful, front row view of the Dubai Marina. Nevertheless the Marina View Hotel had the advantage of being almost half the price.

We decide to stay in this area because our friend Andrew (afternoon host on radio Dubai 92 and our Dubai guide) lives there. However, he thought we were staying at the Marina Hotel, next to his appartment building. We thought the Marina View Hotel was next door to his appartment building, but is actually 5 minutes walk (or 10 minutes drive) south.

Are you confused yet? Initially we were and so was Andrew.

The Dubai Marina is a district of Dubai (approx 21 km south of downtown Dubai), as well as the name of a large, three kilometer long artificial canal.

At 12 noon, day one, I walked alongside a small section of the Marina. The temperature was around 37 degrees with very high humidity. I lasted about an hour walking in this heat.

The Cayan (Infinity) Tower twists 90 degrees to the left as it rises to its 73rd floor. Unfortunately the perspective of this photo makes it look a lot smaller than the Marina Hotel (estimated to be only 20 floors).

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Friday morning Maggie and I walked along the Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) development, which is between the sea and the Dubai Marina.

Not sure if these ladies were interested in a camel ride or a chat with the handler?

What a wonderful idea I thought, peddling a tea cart from one location to the next. And then I realised…there’s no way to steer this contraption…or see where you’re going! Ahhhh…what does it matter…it looks good…and it’s got a hand brake.

The alternating red and white squares painted on the stairs have some meaning. We saw this pattern at various Islamic sites during our holiday. One of our guides in Spain did offer an explanation, but I can’t remember it. Wikipedia suggests it is more of an Islamic decorative style in which red bricks where originally alternated with white stone.

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Friday afternoon Andrew and his friend Dani, drove us to the Dubai Mall (the largest in the world), which is next to the Burj Khalifa (the tallest in the world – 160 floors).

Sorry about cutting off the top of the Burj, but I considered it more important to take a good photo of Andrew and Dani.

In case you don’t know, a souk is an Arab market place. Andrew shouted us an afternoon snack at this souk. The food was very tasty and the beer wasn’t bad either. Thanks Andrew!

On Monday afternoon (day before we left) Maggie and I caught the train from the Dubai Marina to this part of Dubai (approx 50 min ride). We’d made a 5pm booking for cocktails and canapes at the Atmosphere Lounge, on the 143rd floor of the Burj Khalifa.

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On Friday evening we were invited to a dinner party with Andrew and a group of his friends in the Jumeirah 1 housing estate (just west of Burj Khalifa). Our host, Kelly created a wonderful dinner, and after I revealed my last name as Dewar she gave us a bottle of 18-year-old Dewar’s Scotch. Thank you Kelly for being such a wonderful host and for your generous gift.

Another highlight was dinner with Andrew at Madinat Jumeirah Resort and Souk (“Aladdin’s Cave” as Andrew named it) on Sunday night. I was so excitied about going to this place I forgot to take my camera. To compensate I have “borrowed” the following shot from the EDSA website, to give you some idea of how amazing “Aladdin’s Cave” is. But you really need to go there to appreciate it.

The low light photos I took with my phone were totally unusable, but with that same phone Andrew managed to capture this shot of Maggie and me.

How come that old bloke gets to stand next to the beautiful young chick?

There was also our monorail ride out to Atlantis Hotel Resort (at western end of Palm #1)

But wait, there’s more. Andrew took us on a guided tour through old Dubai.

If you allow a seller to place a silk scarf around your neck you’ve bought it. Well almost.

What an amazing wheel house on this late-model “cruiser”!

Visiting Dubai was so much more enjoyable and certainly easier with Andrew (Harry) Harrison’s company, knowledge, guidance and driving skills. So again, a big thank you Andrew. I hope we can repay the favour some day. Thanks also goes to Daryl and Susan Harrison (Andrew’s parents) for their helpful advice on Dubai, prior to our departure from Australia.

We departed Dubai Tuesday 4th October on a flight to Venice and boarded the MV Aegean Odyssey for a 28 day cruise from Italy to Spain.

Was Venice everything we expected it to be? Tune in to the next exhilarating episode of “Alistairstravel” to find out…. Well okay, it might not be exhilerating, but it could at least be worth looking at?