Dubai
Trip Start
Aug 06, 2007
1
18
20
Trip End
Nov 17, 2007
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Of all the places we have visited in the past 3 months, this is the only place where it really was like being on another planet.
Dubai is home to the worlds only 7 star hotel (Burj Al Arab) and the largest building in the world (the Burj Dubai). We saw both and took a ridiculously expensive 2 hour tour in the hotel. The minimum cost to stay in the Burj Al Arab is now over $1,600 dollars US per night. For about $200 (for 2 people) you can GO INTO the hotel and have a tour. Can you imagine paying that much just to see the hotel? We knew it would cost this much and we budgeted for it, but still. Was it worth it???? Probably not, but I am still glad we did it. The hotel was just the definition of pure, complete and total excess like nothing I could have imagined
Dubai public Beach
. They give you dates or figs when you walk into the hotel....Jeff and I are still talking about these dates a few weeks later. It was the best thing I have had in my whole life. I never imagined a FIG could taste like that. I used to think I hated figs. Now I know I just need to eat them in Dubai.It was totally unlike any place I could have ever imagined seeing. United Arab Emirates is nestled above Oman and Saudi Arabia and on the the Persian Gulf, and is basically a futuristic, modern city built out of nothing but sand and desert. Everywhere you look you see modern and otherworld like skyscrapers, the stunning architecture of the many mosques all around, and men dressed in their traditional white sheet pajama (for a lack of better word) type outfit with the red and white striped head sheets wrapped with a black coil on their heads, and women (who were very few in number since in Islam, according to Sharia law are not supposed to be seen in public without a male relative to accompany her) dressed in the full black covering Hijab or "burka" type outfit, with everything covered except the face or in some cases just a slit for the eyes (called a niqab I think).
Since there were mosques pretty much everywhere, we were able to hear the Adhan call to prayer horn many times throughout the day and the singing of the Iman in the evening during the final prayer of the day from the mosques
United Arab Emirates
. They have loudspeakers on the top of all mosques so you can hear the signing all over the city. It was very interesting to hear this singing - quite surreal. It really made you realize you were in an Islamic place.We were lucky to visit Dubai during "the cold season". Cold season is a very relative term since it was 36 and 37 degrees Celsius during our visit, which was nearly unbearable. I cannot even fathom how people survive in the summer when the temperature averages 48 degrees! It really was quite horrific, that desert sun.
What I found very interesting was to watch the men interact with each other. As conservative as Islam is about men and women interacting in public with each other, it is the extreme opposite view in terms of men with each other. Everywhere you look, men will be strolling the streets hand in hand, will kiss and hug each other warmly in public when greeting each other. Very much affection is displayed between men, as the bonds between men seem to be very strong here. It is just common place to be able to be affectionate with your fellow brothers/men, completely opposite to the way many north american men relate to each other in public, where holding hands with your buddy in public would be completely out of the question
The "world" island
. The buildings and architecture was a perfect blend of East Meets West. Amazing traditional Islamic designs met with futuristic model of unique modern skyscrapers.
Dubai is a world of planes and cranes. A plane can be seen at virtually any moment in the sky either landing or leaving Dubai. Also cranes are absolutely everywhere as Dubai builds more and more buildings at unbelievable speed. Dubai is the fastest growing city in the Islamic world they say (in terms of wealth, commerce and building growth - not population) and I can believe that. You can see the wealth ooze from Dubai...I have never seen so much luxury. Remember this is the city where they built the "Palm" and the "World" islands...man made islands in the shape of the earth and palm trees.
We had some wonderful food in Dubai. Jeff and I both love middle eastern fare and really enjoyed the shwarma, lamb kabobs, hummus, baba ganoush and so on. Since you can not drink alcohol in Dubai, they make up for it by offering the best selection of juices a person could fathom. I have never eaten so well and enjoyed fresh, exotic juices before. For me, Dubai was the best place on our trip for food
Burj Al Arab hotel from beach
.Even better than the food was the traditional Arabic/Moroccan tea. This takes a while to make but is always presented on a silver platter (literally) with little glass and gold or silver rimmed cups and it a piping hot, strong green tea with mint. It is hard to describe. I hope to find some tea like this again in Canada. It is the best tea I have ever had.
All in all, Dubai was fascinating. The most different place I have ever been. I am glad we went there but in some ways was glad we were only there for 5 days as the heat was suffocating and it was the most expensive place on our whole trip. We could not afford to stay there one more day!
Comments
Dubai
GOD AMI- YOU TWO ARE SO MY HEROES !! I WOULD LOVE TO VISIT DUBAI ONE DAY !!! $100 FOR 2 DRINKS!! LMAO !! BUT I HAVE CHECKED AND IT IS EXPENSIVE OVER THERE... ARE YOU WIPED OUT NOW FROM ALL OF THE TRAVELLING ??
Our 14 weeks of travel
Hey Anna - glad you are enjoying the blog. I miss our chats at Aon. We are indeed wiped out from the travelling - both physically and financially but it sure has been a great trip. If we had more money we would keep going for a few more months. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to do this trip. I will remember it forever. I hope you are doing ok. Miss you and really miss Bermuda.
I've ever heard about that traveling to middle-east area was a little bit dangerous. But no matter what risks will have, there's still a heaven in it!
I really appreciate your travel journal. It's quite amazing! BTW, did you go to "The World" ? It's man-made islands. I saw the pic below the article. Thanks for your amazing travel sharing :D.