As-salam alaikum (“peace be upon you”) from Dubai.
We arrived here exactly on schedule after a pleasant – as pleasant as Economy Travel can be – trip with Emirates. Len and I both managed to watch Amour, a film we missed when it came to Canberra. Len surprised me by choosing to watch it, and even more by enjoying it. Len also watched a couple of German movies and I, quite coincidentally, watched an inspiring documentary about Germany’s breakdance group, the Flying Steps and their Bach inspired world tour, Red Bull Flying Bach. Anyhow, we got through Dubai’s Immigration and Customs with no problems, though Len was selected from our “Nothing to Declare” exit for a random check.
Arriving at our hotel at 6.30am in the morning resulted in our being given an option: upgrade to a suite for an extra $55 per night and you can check-in now, or wait until 2pm or later for your Superior Room! It didn’t take long for us to be suckered in. We took the Suite. It will be the best accommodation of our holiday but, you know, When in Dubai …
Our main activity of the day was to do the 4-hour Dubai City Tour. This took us to:
- “The Creek”, that is, Dubai Creek whence Dubai’s success has come from its early trading days
- Dubai Museum, where we were given 30 mins to wander
- Jumeirah Mosque, which we saw only from the outside so my scarf was not required
- Burj Al Arab (the world’s most expensive hotel) and the Open Beach from which we viewed it
- the so-called “Traditional Market”, which I’d call the obligatory tour shopping stop. We shook off the vendors trailing us and bought coffee and a sandwich
- Palm Island and the Atlantis Hotel
- Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Again viewed from the outside. It costs AED150 or thereabouts to go in and up.
- Drive-throughs of other areas of the city, such as the New City, the Financial District, the Bur Dubai souk.
Our first stop at the Creek was stunning – and not just for the view which was pleasant enough. It was the heat. If we thought 33°C was hot at the airport at 5.45am, 44°C at 11am was something else. I could say something about “Mad dogs and Englishmen” but that would be too cliched, so let’s just say we were quite glad that we were only given 5-10 minutes off the bus to have a look. This was definitely a day when we didn’t mind being driven around and talked at! Except for the Museum and the Traditional Market, our stops were all 5 minutes or so. Most of the photos in the slide show below are from this tour. Our Guide was a delightful young man with a ready smile, but the combination of bus noise, his accent and microphone defects (but surely not our aging ears) meant that we missed 20% or so of what he said.
By the time we got back to our hotel – and after Len had done his Good Samaritan job of distracting our panicked claustrophobic bus companion on the shuttle back to our hotel – we were pretty tired and decided to treat ourselves to a siesta. We spend the evening pottering around the Souks – particularly the Textile Souk in Bur Dubai and the Spice Souk across the Creek in Deira. They were probably interesting but I so hate being hassled by vendors that I couldn’t bear to stop and look, particularly knowing we weren’t going to be buying. We did enjoy our AED1 abra ride across the Creek – and were fascinated by the coloured dhows lining the creek with boxes piled high on the “wharves” ready for loading. The boxes were labelled LG, Samsung and the like. Such a contradiction to see modern technology being loaded onto old wooden boats. We understand the boats come in every day from places like India, Iran and Oman.
BEST FOOD OF THE DAY: This is a bit embarrassing, but I’d say it was the room service biryani we had when we got back from our City Tour.
As a little exercise for ourselves, we’ve decided to come up with three words each, each day, to encapsulate our reaction to the day. (And no, we are not trying to emulate Tony Abbott‘s three-word slogans!). Today’s words are:
LEN: Humid, Bustle, Minarets
SUE: Hot, Yellow, Curves
You are welcome to ask for explanations …
When you comment, as we’re sure you will, we hope you’ll say back to us Wa alaikum as-salam (that is, “and upon you be peace”).
and the stills…
Interesting to hear about Dubai – we have changed planes there a few times but never stayed. I have an ex work colleague who is living there now and seems to enjoy the life, but it must involve lots of airconditioning and swimming pools! We felt Bangkok at 35 deg was hot enough in July, but over 40 would make it very challenging to enjoy touring around. Looking forward to hearing more!
Thanks Rosemary foe commenting … This is Len’s other half … I’m doing the comment moderation. The heat has certainly been interesting! And has determined how we’ve spent our days here. But, it’s been interesting.
Wa alaikum as salam (as requested – and I hope I haven’t brought down the Federal Police upon me for sending a foreign language message.)
Great photos – suites looks very lush and, in another sense of the word,as do the garden in front of the hotel..
Hope the buffet lives up to expectations.
Wa alaikum salaam.
Quite glad we’re not staying over in Dubai – also doing Emirates but straight on to London. Your stopover might prove to have been the saviour, re jet-lag, so will let you know how we fared after arriving in London at 10pm. (Not for another 2 weeks)
MZ xxxx
Thanks Marie. It has been very interesting though … I’m glad we did it … I’ve had no real jet lag … In fact, I’ve had none of the skin, “gut” upset or sleep disturbance that I usually get. Len feels a bit jet lagged though. I look forward to your report. We are flying straight back though.
Wa alaikum as-salam
Entertaining already – very good blog. Can’t wait for the rest!
Have fun
Celeste
Thanks Celeste … You and Marie have done well! We’ll do our best to keep the blog interesting!
Is “curves” because your room service biryani was delivered by bellydancers?
Ack, the plague of forced shopping (and commission-driven lunch restaurant “options”) on bus tours! But I’m glad the rest of it was worth it. I will even admit that 44C is a bit much 😉
Good try, Hannah … The curves relate to the fact that there are a lot of curves in the architecture. Many tall buildings have some sort of curve … Though some have sharp angles. Few are just straight up and down buildings. It means that while there’s a lot of high rise the overall effect isn’t brutal. There are curves elsewhere too … Arched windows, fences, and so on.
Such an interesting post. I really enjoyed your slideshow. I’ve never stopped in Dubai, we normally fly Singapore, and so stop there. We thought about Dubai this time, but the June/July temperatures were 47 or something ridiculous, so we took the cooler option of 36 in Singapore…
LOL Louise … I’d take the cooler 36 option too at that time of year because I think even around midnight then Dubai is high 30s so you can’t expect balmy evenings just slightly less dang hot!