* Spent Day 67 in Singapore as a stopover from Vietnam before our flight to Dubai
* Took in the sites in Dubai on May 14 and May 17 (overnight trip to Oman on intervening days), including the Jumeirah Mosque, Dubai Museum, Spice and Gold Souks (markets), the Berj Khalifa (tallest building in the world), and of course the malls!
* Stayed at the Baity Hotel Apartments near the Al Karama metro stop; staff was super friendly and the apartments were huge and decent (although our first one was a smoking apartment and smelled accordingly); would recommend as a cheaper option in Dubai (an expensive city), a slightly more expensive one that looked a bit nicer was Belvedere Court next door
* Took in the sites in Dubai on May 14 and May 17 (overnight trip to Oman on intervening days), including the Jumeirah Mosque, Dubai Museum, Spice and Gold Souks (markets), the Berj Khalifa (tallest building in the world), and of course the malls!
* Stayed at the Baity Hotel Apartments near the Al Karama metro stop; staff was super friendly and the apartments were huge and decent (although our first one was a smoking apartment and smelled accordingly); would recommend as a cheaper option in Dubai (an expensive city), a slightly more expensive one that looked a bit nicer was Belvedere Court next door
The Good:
* Old Town is a great picture of what Dubai used to be like before its great expansion
* The Berj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at 828 meters is beautiful and impressive
* The Jumeirah Mosque is open to Westerners with a guided tour at 10AM that does a wonderful job of explaining the customs of Islam
* The malls! OK, I’m from New Jersey so I know my malls, and these are some good ones. We went skiing at one of them….in the dessert!
* Old Town is a great picture of what Dubai used to be like before its great expansion
* The Berj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at 828 meters is beautiful and impressive
* The Jumeirah Mosque is open to Westerners with a guided tour at 10AM that does a wonderful job of explaining the customs of Islam
* The malls! OK, I’m from New Jersey so I know my malls, and these are some good ones. We went skiing at one of them….in the dessert!
The Bad:
* Dubai is not a walkable city; even using the metro (subway which is actually a monorail), getting to the various attractions requires a lot of walking, or some are not accessible at all by public transportation which means you need a cab (take this with a grain of salt, as I’m sure some of this would be mitigated if we had a command of the bus system)
* Dubai is not a walkable city; even using the metro (subway which is actually a monorail), getting to the various attractions requires a lot of walking, or some are not accessible at all by public transportation which means you need a cab (take this with a grain of salt, as I’m sure some of this would be mitigated if we had a command of the bus system)
Bold. Entrepreneurial. Limitless. These are just some of the words and feelings that come to mind during a visit to Dubai. The city, set on the bank of the Arabian Gulf (aka the Persian Gulf) is a testament to what man can accomplish with vision, creativity, and (seemingly) unlimited financial resources. From the many beautiful mosques that pepper the flat dessert landscape, to the old part of Dubai that is the custodian of its Bedouin roots, to the array of buildings and malls that have been built during the city’s modern expansion, Dubai is a city of contrasts that makes it a must-see destination in the Middle East.
Our first day was spent on the cultural side, first visiting the Jumeirah Mosque, which is one of the few mosques that is open to the (Western, non-Muslim) public. Every day at 10AM there is a guided tour of the mosque, which is very good and takes the time to explain Islam (in a very basic way) and some of the customs Muslims adhere to during their prayer time. Here are some pictures of the mosque and our tour guide (a British woman living in Dubai who may or may not be Elvis):
After the museum we crossed the river on an abra (ferry) to visit the Spice Souk (market) and the Gold Souk. The Gold Souk, in particular, is amazing – gold is everywhere! And it’s sold by weight, with prices posted at various kiosks within the souk based on where the market is:
After our trip to Oman, our second day in Dubai was spent exploring its modern side. First, was a trip up to the observation deck of the Berj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. The building is 828 meters tall, but the observation deck is only 400 meters high (which is still really high!). It takes a high speed elevator traveling at ~10m/s about 45 seconds to get to the deck. Finished in 2010, the building is truly beautiful and a fascinating case study into turning a bold vision into a design, engineering, and construction reality. Here are the best of my pictures of the building and from the observation deck:
The building is next door to the Dubai Mall, which (in addition to hundreds of retailers you know very well and love to shop at) boasts a water fountain that does shows twice an hour (think Bellagio fountain in Vegas) and an aquarium that has all kinds of fish including big sharks!
The other mall we went to was the Mall of the Emirates. Why? Because you can go skiing there. No joke.
Of course, in a mall, you take the escalator to the slopes…just like in Vail!
And here is us on the “mountain”. It’s actually quite funny. The room feels like a meat locker, the chair lift goes really really slowly to the top, and the difficulty is like any green square (or bunny hill!) at any real mountain. But here we are, enjoying the sheer absurdity of skiing in the middle of the dessert.
After that, we headed to the Palm Jumierah, which is a man-made island made in the shape of a palm. You need to take a monorail out to the end, where there is an Atlantis Hotel. There isn’t much to see here if you’re not staying at the hotel, but you do see the gulf. I also got a good picture of the Burj Al Arab, a building made in the shape of a sailboat.
And that was that. Being a real estate person, I really enjoyed Dubai and think it is worth seeing if you’re ever in the area! We finished our stay late at night, two nomads traveling in the desert...
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