Since we only had one day to see all of Dubai, we decided to take a Big Bus hop off and on tour of the city. It’s actually two tours in one. One route (red) circles the city and the other (blue) goes along the coast to Jumeira Beach and beyond. We did both --- for 9 hours and were really glad we did. We probably saw almost everything that’s possible to see in one day. The most interesting parts were the Burj al Arab (sail) hotel, which we only saw from the outside, and driving to the end of the Jumeira palm and visiting the newest hotel Atlantis at the very tip of the palm. The hotel has recreated an underwater world and you can see it via huge aquarium windows along halls and gathering areas. All around and along the route we saw incredible opulence and glitz. Of course the tours bus stops at every shopping mall (and there are many of them). We only got off at the mall of the Emirates to see the Ski Dubai indoor skiing slopes. Amazing. People were actually skiing and sledding when there must have been at least 95 degrees outside.
In the city, we saw the old souk, the oldest part of the city with houses that had the first air conditioning – the wind towers and the Dubai museum, which turned out to be very visual and interesting. After the bus tour, we also took a one hour boat tour on the Dubai creek. It happened to be at sunset and as we got close to the mouth of the creek, a dozen muezzins started their calls for the evening prayer. It was an incredible experience.
Apart from all the interesting visual aspects of Dubai, we didn’t find it either friendly or particularly pleasant. The heat is one reason, but people are definitely a more important cause. They were rude, insensitive, dishonest. We were not sorry to leave. Al found an interesting statistic in the Dubai phone book – Dubai has one million male residents and only 300,000 female residents. That would explain why we saw so few women…
In the city, we saw the old souk, the oldest part of the city with houses that had the first air conditioning – the wind towers and the Dubai museum, which turned out to be very visual and interesting. After the bus tour, we also took a one hour boat tour on the Dubai creek. It happened to be at sunset and as we got close to the mouth of the creek, a dozen muezzins started their calls for the evening prayer. It was an incredible experience.
Apart from all the interesting visual aspects of Dubai, we didn’t find it either friendly or particularly pleasant. The heat is one reason, but people are definitely a more important cause. They were rude, insensitive, dishonest. We were not sorry to leave. Al found an interesting statistic in the Dubai phone book – Dubai has one million male residents and only 300,000 female residents. That would explain why we saw so few women…
No comments:
Post a Comment