Dubai
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
208
219
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
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Dubai,
United Arab Emirates
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Driving into the airport we pass through a checkpoint, manned by soldiers with automatic rifles and then at the entrance doors we are stopped and quizzed by a soldier, who won't let us in as we have no ticket documents (everything was done by phone yesterday and we did not receive an email confirmation). Norah explains our situation and he still says no, until a wry smile appears and he wishes us a "good morning" - it's a welcome lighter note in the seriousness that is all around us.
Check-in and the bags cannot be weighed as there is a problem with the baggage belt, so we don't know if our reshuffling worked or not. Through emigration and then a very thorough, personal security check.
The duty free has all Johnny Walker brands, so Delhi gets a JW5 rating.
The departure lounge is packed, with many people travelling to the Haj. There are limited catering outlets, so we settle for tea and croissants, as we sit opposite several armed soldiers. At 1015 we are called to board and a long queue forms as boarding cards are checked..........then checked again as we enter the aircraft boarding gantry..........then checked again as we board the plane.
The packed Boeing 777 takes forever for people to find their seats, we are near the rear in row 38 and there are ten seats abreast in most of the cabin. A novel feature amongst the dozens of entertainment channels are forward and downward looking cameras and I watch the forward looking one as we roll down the runway. Interesting.
We climb and leave smoky Delhi (and India) behind us with many memories and experiences.
The three and a half hour flight is reasonably smooth and includes a curry - well I don't want to get withdrawal symptoms do I? There is not much room in the seats and the meal service is quite slow. We are flying with 'Emirates' airlines and I had expected somewhat better than this.
Our watches are reset by an hour and a half as we land in Dubai, which feels like a galaxy away from India. The enormous, modern, marbled airport buildings give a relaxed feeling after the frenetic pace in India. Formalities are completed in a speedy and friendly way, as most of our fellow passengers are passing onwards straight through Dubai. The bags appear and we exit into the arrivals area.
I exchange our Indian money and some Chinese, which somehow was overlooked and got carried all round India. The total yield is 55 Arabic Dirhams (just under ten British pounds). Then at a nearby ATM I try my original bankcard, as we have heard from Mission Support Centre that they have received a letter confirming that it is Norah's card, which we have used the most, which has now been blocked, with no reason given. 'Transaction declined - refer to issuer', oh well, worth a try. So I then try our reserve bank card, 'Transaction declined - refer to issuer'. What!!!! I find another ATM and retry the spare (recently working OK) card, 'Transaction declined'. Noooooooooo!!!!!!!
There is no one at the tourist information desk on this Sunday afternoon and we go outside to the taxi stand. "How much to this hotel?" "Maybe 40 dirhams" comes the reply. Ok, that's close enough and we get in for the fifteen minute drive from the brand new terminal, built for Emirates airlines sole use, on smooth roads, past modern buildings, with no cows in sight, to the hotel. The fare is forty dirhams and after the tip we have ten dirhams left.
We had chosen this smart hotel, in the north part of the city, as a treat after the hectic two months tour of China and India for a chance to relax a little. Now the first job is to phone the bank and find out what the heck is happening with our money supply. The 'help desk' person checks the account and confirms that Norah's card is blocked, no - he doesn't know why and we must make another phone call to another department to 'unblock' it. Banks, don't you just love 'em? Our account has no issues, my card has no problems and he suggests trying again at another ATM. Consequently I decide not to phone the reserve bank at this time.
Hotel reception tell me there's two ATM's nearby, one in a mall and one in a petrol station. I decide the best shot is the mall, walk over and try the ATM. Both cards declined - this is definitely not looking good. Like an optimistic gambler I walk round to the petrol station and try the card. Yes - we have money! OK, go for broke, try the reserve card - it works also! So the problem is non compatible machines. I wonder what the ratio of success to fails is going to be and retire while I'm winning.
Back in the hotel we treat ourselves to wine and snacks in the club lounge and then return to our room, where Norah has a present for me, a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue label, Isn't she great! I enjoy my present whilst relaxing watching a 'Die Hard' movie and then crash out for a good night's sleep.
Monday December 1st.
No alarm clock and we wake up just in time for breakfast, a fabulous buffet spread with eggs, croissants and comb honey. Wonderfull.
Our original plan was to stay in Dubai for three nights and leave on Wednesday. We decided that it would be better to relax more after our Asia travels, stay for an extra couple of nights and leave Friday. I phone to change our flights, which was no problem but did incur a fifty British pounds charge from Emirates airlines. We try and contact our Athens hotel to change the dates but just cannot get through to them. In searching for more information, Norah finds a travel report that the hotel is in an unsavoury area and we decide to find a new hotel.
As it's too late to change the booking and get a refund, the original hotel costs are written off. All part of the fun!
We have a short walk round the immediate area of low rise (because it's near to the airport) modern buildings and then have an easy afternoon planning our stay in Dubai (and onwards) and catching up on sleep.
In the evening we had made arrangements to meet with Bashkar, Mini and their son, Manu, who we had met in Hong Kong and who live in Dubai. They picked us up at the hotel and we drove into the city to an Indian restaurant. As in most countries there are regional variations in cuisine and we had already eaten the northern Indian style, which is more single spice based and were now going to try southern Indian cooking. They originally came from Mumbai and we discussed our experiences and the recent terrorist attack there.
On the way to the restaurant we saw that many buildings (and cars) were lit up and decorated with the red / green / white / black of the United Arab Emirates flag and the number 37. This is because tomorrow is 'National Day', a national holiday when everyone celebrates the forming of the seven state UAE, thirty seven years ago.
The meal is delicious and has more spices in the mix than northern style but can be just as hot. After the meal Bashkar is keen to show us the city and we have a night tour, with almost everywhere lit up and flags flying all over this modern city. I keep coming back to the term 'modern' and this is because practically the whole city has been built in the last forty years, before that it was almost all desert. Oil was discovered in 1966, something I was surprised to learn, as I had the feeling that oil had been produced here for far longer than that. Nowadays oil accounts for less than 7% of Dubai's income, the rest being trading, as a duty free zone and tourism.
We returned to the hotel and were in bed before 3am, tired but having had a great introduction to the city.
Tuesday December 2nd.
Not the early start we had intended but another good breakfast. We booked a tour for tomorrow and then caught a hotel car (more expensive than a taxi) down to Deira city centre, where we took the tourist, open topped, 'city bus'. The weather was slightly breezy but a warm 24 deg. We had received an email from home that it was extremely cold (2 deg) and that snow was forecast - mmmmm, where would you rather be?
The bus tour was in two parts and we took the 'blue route' first, which left the city and went along the blue waters of the coast of the 'Gulf', where we could see the famous 'Palm' islands, built in the sea, offshore. The whole ethos of Dubai is built on superlatives - biggest, tallest, widest and this is shown in everything we passed. The new 'Burj (tower) Dubai', which, still under construction, is already the tallest building in the world at 830 metres and stands, like an enormous space rocket, towering way above everything around it. The biggest (gold plated) flag pole in the world, the (soon to be opened) biggest shopping mall in the world - which will take you two days to get round to visit every store inside it (not my idea of a good time).
The first 'Palm Jumeirah' island has now been superceeded by the 'Palm Jebel Ali', five times bigger. They are now working on the 'Palm Deira', which will be ten times bigger again and will be visible from space. The 'Burj Al Arab', graded by the UAE as the world's first seven star hotel was impressive. The business area has several, seriously high rise towers under construction at the same time and the whole state is just one big building site. It's impressive, enormous, fascinating and a technical marvel - and completely artificial. They are aiming for ten million tourists in 2010 and the traffic cannot cope now.
We drove out to the end of the Palm Jumeirah to the 'Atlantis on the Palm' hotel at the edge of the island, past all the apartments spread along the creeks which make up the palm shape. A completely new monorail system is being built to provide extra transport and relieve the seriously grid locked city streets.
We returned towards the city and got off at the 'Festival City' shopping area, where we enjoyed a light lunch, at a restaurant overlooking the marina and its display of yachts and superyachts. As we were going to catch the bus we passed a 'Marks and Spencer' (English store) and being in an extravagant mood, well Dubai is aiming to be the shopping capital of the world, we went in and after fifteen months, I bought myself some clean underwear. Outside the mall there.........er, ......mmmm,.......let me rephrase that. After travelling for fifteen months and regularly washing my underwear, I decided it was time to replace it and bought some new. Yes - that's better.
Outside the mall there was a display of old cars, mostly American but we spotted an E type Jaguar and a customized, hot rod, big wheels Rolls Royce. Really, sometimes money and respect do not go together!
Transferring to the 'red line bus' we passed along the 'Deira Creek', the original trading port, which is a sheltered inlet running in from the Gulf. The initial trade expanded, after they declared Dubai a duty free zone and they then built the second largest deep water port in the world outside the creek, where we saw the 'QE2' cruise liner, bought for 100 million US dollars, being converted into a floating hotel.
It was now dusk and we got off the bus to visit the 'Gold Souk (market)', the biggest in the world. There are over 400 gold and jewellery shops in this area and it's a ladies heaven. I have never seen so much gold in my life. Every store was filled with so much gold it was mind boggling, from plain bracelets and bangles to very ornate, scrolled necklaces and head bands. With the recent financial craziness in the world, where people were putting their money into gold (driving the price up) and the fact that there were cruise ships in town (we had learnt long ago that the shop prices are always raised whenever cruise passengers are in port), Norah analysed that there were no bargains to be had and chose not to buy. Is that relief or what??
We tried to return to the hotel by taxi but all the drivers "did not know this hotel". This turned out to be taxi speak for "It's not far enough away and I can't be bothered going there!" Eventually we flagged one down who would go and after a quick supper we had another early(ish) night.
Wednesday December 3rd.
Another lie in (I could get used to this) and after breakfast we wanted to go down to the Creek again for a boat ride. Outside the hotel we could see it had been raining - here? Dubai? Surely not. Our bus ticket covered this but we just couldn't get a taxi, they were all full or didn't (want to) stop. Eventually one stopped and we joined the maddeningly slow (now mid morning) crawl into the centre. We showed the driver the boat location on a map and he finally got where he said it was and dropped us off. We walked along the long line of boats, many of them loading goods and after ten minutes found our jetty point - just as our boat sailed off. Aardvarks!!!
We continued to walk along the Creek, watching the boats and activities and then took another (hotel) taxi, which charge nearly four times the cost of a street taxi, back to our hotel, where we had a light lunch before the afternoon's activities.
"You're going to do WHAT !!!!! "........................Part 16
OK, United Arab Emirates, what have they got? No, apart from the oil! SAND.
All the construction site digging revealed nothing but sand (yes, I wondered about the 830 metre high Burj Dubai as well) and as we were surrounded by it, we had decided to go out on a (tourist) Desert Safari.
The Toyota 4 x 4 picked us up at 2.30pm and we drove through the city, picking up a Jason and Jennie, who live in Malta and then headed south for thirty kms until we reached the edge of the desert, named the 'Empty Quarter'. Turning off the road, the 4 x 4 deflated his tyres, joined a convoy of another couple of trucks and we raced into the desert. It was a combination of roller coaster and stormy sea, as we charged up slopes, flopped over the top and down the other side before climbing another slope, racing along the edge at a crazily tilted angle and then whirling around a sand dune valley. The whole ride went on for nearly thirty minutes, whizzing along the fabulously shaped, wind sculpted dunes and leaving us breathless, giddy and a little sea sick.
We stopped on the top of a dune facing a 250 metre slope, where lunatics in quad bikes, jeeps and horrendously powered dune buggies were hurling themselves at this sixty degree slope and spinning round at the top (or as far as they could get) before they toppled over below the rocky topped ridge.
At an easier pace we rejoined a road that ran through the desert, with its low, limited patchy scrub and not far along the road passed a herd of ten camels, all on their own and making their independent way back home in the gathering dusk. We had seen the cows do this in India and I had already started to question the 'dumb animals' label.
Soon we drove into low dunes and entered an Arab encampment, with an entrance path of burning torches, as the glowing red sun disappeared behind gathering clouds. A line of sitting camels was waiting and I couldn't resist. I hopped on to the last in the line and he pitched forward as he stood up back legs first. Off we rolled in a short stepped, pitching motion that took a little getting used to, round in a 200 metre course and then back to the start and he sat down again. An interesting ride and it would be a hard choice between the camel and the 4 x 4 for a long desert trip. Ok, maybe the 4 x 4 - it's got a seat belt!
Next we had photo ops in traditional Arab dress (my outfit didn't look as good as yours did John!), then henna skin paintings, where Norah declined as she was still waiting for the Indian wedding henna to fade away and they wouldn't do me, as I was 'too hairy' (not often someone says that about me!)
Then the meal began with salads, breads, vegetable dips, cheeses, meats, curries, lamb and chicken, all eaten sitting out in the desert air with a quarter moon and a few stars shining above us. It was easy to see how the nomadic, desert life could be quite appealing - I bet they don't miss 'Coronation Street' (a British tv soap series).
The highlight show was, of course, belly dancing, where a very pretty young lady bounced, wiggled and shimmied round the platform. I was quite enthralled by her bright red dress and the amazing patterns made by her tassles. As I said, the desert can be very attractive!
It's now time for another confession! Another form of Arab relaxation, maybe to calm your nerves after the belly dancing, is the 'hookah' water pipe. Sat comfortably on pillows, I puffed on the long pipe that went into the sealed, bottle shaped vessel with a water bowl at the bottom, which had burning tobacco on the top of the vertical, open spout. There was no bitter sensation, as with tobacco but a very smooth and relaxing taste, as you drew the tobacco smoke through the fruit flavoured water and leisurely puffed it out. I think I might get myself one of these, especially if it comes with a young lady belly dancer!
Evening over and we set off back towards town, part of it through the sand dunes, something that should not be overdone after a big meal. On the way back it started to rain heavily, something we had been told was unusual for this time of year. Everywhere we have travelled, people have told us that the weather is changing from its normal patterns. The lights of the city grew brighter (and taller) and the city streets were awash with great lakes and puddles. There is no drainage system, as it hardly ever rains in Dubai. All water is desalinated which, although it's drinkable, has a strange taste and we stayed with bottled water.
It was after 10pm when we arrived back at the hotel, a quick, hot drink and then bed.
Thursday December 4th.
Another relaxed start and late morning, although we're still feeling tired. We want to buy a present for Manu and walk to a nearby mall but there are no book shops. We ask and the idea of a shop that sells books seems strange here. Deciding to try another mall in the city we go out onto the street and play the 'taxi game' again. It takes nearly twenty minutes before one stops and we grind through the city streets to the 'City Centre mall', one of the giant shopping edifices. We locate a book store, with a good selection, buy our books and return back outside to where the taxi dropped us off at the entrance.
The 'taxi game' follows and not one stops. A shopping centre employee with a 'can I help you' tee shirt watches us and says nothing. After over twenty minutes efforts, Norah asks him what is happening and he tells her that taxis are not permitted to pick up here but only round the other side of the mall. Now he tells us! We walk through the mall and join an enormous taxi queue, where after half an hour (yes, lots of people shop here) we get a taxi (slowly) back to the hotel, with many of the roads still having great pools of water across them.
Arriving back after 1pm and we're due to meet Bashkar, Mini and Manu at 1 for an afternoon out, we rush to the room and get our things. Fortunately they are delayed in the usual heavy traffic and we join them as it starts to rain. Bashkar drives us by another route, down past the waterfront and into a small, garden square, where we stop for a delicious, Indian lunch.
After lunch we drive through the city and along the Gulf waterfront, stopping off at a beach for a walk along the sandy, clean blue water's edge and then continue for more city sights. One of the intriguing sites on the streets are the bus stops, they are all enclosed and air conditioned so that the waiting workers (everyone else has several cars) are comfortable. I wonder if GM buses would consider that one? The traffic is busy, as many workers are stopping for the weekend (Friday is the holy day here) and more are on holiday after the National Day yesterday.
We arrive back at the hotel gone 7pm and after a final coffee with our new friends, we say goodbye. Thank you for spending time and showing us your city Bashkar, Mini and Manu, it made our stay here more enjoyable.
The rest of the evening is spent packing, ready for the flight tomorrow.
