Dubai (Do Buy)
Greetings,
As I learned from my recent adventure, Dubai is all about the Do and the Buy...Dubai. The doing is mostly connected with the buying. I went to Dubai yesterday all ready to check out a couple of spots I had heard about. Once arriving I quickly learned getting around in such a place was not so easy. I learned and saw much, an understatement really. Dubai is separated by a natural creek that has been dredged and is now 12 ft deep and 60ft wide. 30 ft traditional craft from Eastern Africa, Iran, Jordan, Oman sail here to trade goods. Without visas they never leave their boats except to unload cargo on the docks. So the creek is lined with these boats doubled up often selling their goods. Taxis hop back and forth from side to side, 1 dirham per ride (40cents). The creek is crystal clear and one can imagine what this old port must have looked like. The boats reflect that time while the sky scrappers on either side show the modern impacts of Dubai. Diera is on one side the creek consisting of some amazing spice souqs and the famous gold souqs, Bur Dubai is the other with the crazy hotels and things many have heard of when hearing about Dubai.
I started off my day however on this side of Dubai taking a bus from place to place as walking is too far. This is where the Borj is located, the 7 star hotel $1700 min. per night as well as about 10 other 5 star hotels. It was crazy to see the development over here. They weren't joking when they said 25% of the worlds cranes are here! There are over 200 sky scrappers being built right now as well as roads and several malls. The longest man made harbor travels into the center 7km long where motor yachts live. Competition to get buildings up is to the extreme. The worlds tallest building is currently being built, the second Borj and to meet deadline they are completing one floor every four days. They are over 160 floors with an elevator going 40mph. The number of floors hasn't been announced as strategy to keep it the tallest for a while. Apparently, Dubai is running out of oil money in 4 years so they have taken there earnings and invested into making Dubai the craziest place ever and turning to tourism. You want shopping, pick from one of the 6 malls each with over 400 stores.
I had to check out the indoor mountain. It was laughable really, just the pure ridiculous concept of it. You access it from inside the mall, walk through the opening and the "lodge" is there, with fires going in the fire places, ticket sales resemble a typical mountains. Then there are the changing rooms where everyone gets the same one piece suit and their winter equipment. They have a quad chair lift and a t-bar. The skiers likely have not skied before judging by what I saw. There is tubing for those not skiing or ice skating. Santa’s village came to mind. The immensity of the malls was overwhelming, but definitely where everyone hangs out so I suppose to find Dubai’s culture you can turn to the malls.
Walking along the creek I stumbled upon the old outdoor souqs crammed into the back alleys seemingly untouched by the mass changes everywhere. My bargaining skills were challenged, but I think I came out okay:) I did got out on one of the dhows and ran into an American girl from DC who was in transit to Afghanistan. I noticed her right away, single woman, my age, American accent, unusual. We hit it off and went together as the sun set to the spice and gold souqs. It was really nice to have a companion there as the souqs are located in alleys with makeshift eves above to keep out the sun during the day and they get packed with people and are very easy to get lost in. Dubai is known around the world for their gold and although you are walking through small side walks and back corners the gold is clearly worth its reputation! Store after store and these souqs are some of the only places where you can bargain for gold. I had a funny incident. I was trying on some earrings from one, really expensive ones. After leaving we went into another store looked in the mirror, oops still had one of the earrings on! I went back, "missing this?". The store owner almost collapsed and needless to say was very grateful!
Did I mention Dubai is also building the first underwater mall? They also have invited prestigious schools from all over the world, middlesex, northwestern? to come and set up a branch here so their young people don't have to leave the country. It was a day of one shocker after the next and to think this is real! I was thinking, who is going to live in all these skyscraper residences? Well I guess the Borj sold out in 8 hrs of sales. It is on a totally different page than the one my brain usually operates.
The night ended with some good fortune of enlisting many a stranger to use their mobiles in order to check my bus home. The one number I had was from a woman who saw I was alone from Tawam and gave me her number since she was in Dubai. I called....long story, she gets the bus driver to turn the bus around for me and they come to pick me up, I was very grateful!
The water was beautiful, turquoise blue. Swimming next time perhaps.
All the Best,
Emily