Dubai - 23rd-25th March

Now Dubai is about as opposite as you can go, cost-wise, from Thailand and Malaysia. In hindsight, therefore, probably not a good idea to go on the way home from those two countries. I felt I was being screwed over by everyone from the moment I got off the plane! The hotel was very basic but very expensive. There were none of the complimentary extras we had gotten used to (bottles of water and free internet in the rooms, etc.) and a bottle of water from the bar in the lobby cost over R20!

Not much to disturb anyway	Once the tallest tower in the world
Size of a road into town, relative height of buildings, and construction everywhere	The raised train line with a station and in the foreground what the natural ground looks like

So our impression of the people and the general attitude towards tourists wasn’t a great one. I guess Thailand survives on the tourist trade (to a large part), whereas Dubai doesn’t need tourists, so really doesn’t care too much about welcoming them with open arms. Having said that, what they have done with the place definitely deserves marvelling. Whether you go for the glitz and glamour of 7 star hotels or islands in the sea shaped like palm trees or the earth (more later) or not, you have to be impressed by how creative they are (or at least the ex-pats that were shipped in to design and construct them) and how they literally can build anything they wish in a desert!

Hundreds of kids queuing up for a ride	The mountain in the centre containing the motor for the ski chairs
The size is quite spectacular	The most popular things were the zorbs

To Cath’s delight, our hotel was right next to the Mall of the Emirates. She could shop (albeit at ridiculous prices) to her heart’s content. And to my delight, I could leave her to do so by herself while I busied myself elsewhere.

Look at the crowds of kids lining up to zorb down the hill.	Little bobsled course which they slide down on plastic mats
Main run comes from around the corner to the left. About 400m long	My city bus tour begins... Early, hence empty bus

We spent the first afternoon and evening in the Mall having dinner in a restaurant with large plate-glass windows looking in on the indoor ski slope that the mall is famous for. It is incredible what this nation, with more money than God’s got sheep, can build in such an inhospitable and harsh climate. The ski hill is much bigger than I expected, and packed with many snow activities in addition to the ski hill. There is even a penguin enclosure.

The main run is 400m long and starts around the corner at the top. They have had Championship competitions on that hill. Free-style trick comps and the like, so they certainly make full use of whatever they build. The last two pics on the left were from our window in the restaurant overlooking the hill. One of the funniest things I saw (and sadly I was too scared to take a picture of her) was a mother in full ninja outfit in the ski park with her kids, wearing a bright orange puffer jacket over her clothes. I guess you had to be there, but it was a ridiculous sight to see her covered from head to toe in black robes, but with an orange puffer jacket over it.

Plenty of mosques in this Islamic country	Downtown – every building seems to attempt to outdo its neighbour
The lines of black water pipes where the flowers will be planted	Just along the side of the road

The following day Cath decided she was happy to just chill (read: shop) and so I headed off to catch the Hop on-Hop off bus for a tour of the city. With only one day to see everything, a tour bus made the most sense. Again, with commentary via headphones I got the skinny of the city. Dubai has one of the highest water consumptions in the world. 1 million litres of water a day is consumed in the one city!! 95% of which is desalinated seawater, so I guess they can do what they want with it.

But they have beautiful green gardens along the roadways, green park areas for picnics and playing football (if you can do anything active in the summer heat) and all the watering is controlled by computer-run sprinkler systems throughout the city. Small black pipes run everywhere through plants and under grass to ensure they get well watered. I was surprised just how cool it actually was outside (although I was reminded it wasn’t mid-summer) as I expected a desert to be hot!

Very colourful flowers requiring daily watering	And another one with palm trees
Commercial stores near the old town	Goldland – apparently the price of all gold changes every day with the global gold price

All the downtown buildings had funky designs and appeared to be designed to outdo the building next door. At night they all blinked and sparkled and shone with coloured lights, showing them off as much as possible. I don’t know about any economic problems they had a few years ago because construction appeared to be going full-steam and cranes moved tirelessly all day.

We were taken past Dubai Mall, another spectacular mall with a footprint of 50 full-sized football fields. I didn’t have the time to get off the bus to check it out but heard it has an indoor Olympic-sized ice rink and a sea-water fish tank with sharks, with viewing windows from floor to roof about 6m high and around 25m long. Everything is just built so big!

Wafi Mall parkade entrance	One of the entrances to the mall
In the most random recesses are carved hieroglyphs	The waterwheel of clay pots

An impressive mall I took pictures of the outside of was Wafi Mall which has an obvious Egyptian theme. But then again, not just a sphinx and a couple of statues, EVERYTHING is covered in hieroglyphics and massive. There was even a waterwheel in the centre of the turning circle with clay pots to catch the water.

Cargo ship being loaded with anything from food sacks to brand new fridges	Similar to the boat we went on
Massive buildings and 5-star hotels all along the river’s edge	Apparently all the big yachts are moored out at palm tree island

Down at the water’s edge of “The Creek” – a massive, wide river through the centre of the city - we saw lines of wooden cargo boats which apparently can travel as far as Asia (maybe not the one in the pic, but certainly all over the Middle East). Here we transferred to a river cruise on a wooden dhow towards the river mouth and back.

Eish! Gotta be a big risk on wooden boats	Numerous mosques and Arabic architecture
The old town where more bartering and haggling can be done. Water taxis in foreground shuttle locals across the Creek all day	Mermaid on the bow of our boat

Carrying on with the bus tour we drove down to the beachfront and up towards Palmtree Island which I was very keen to see. There are so many mosques, naturally not open to the public, but apparently one of the controlling Sheikhs believes that foreigners should be allowed to see to understand the religion (he has an expression along those lines) and so he has allowed a certain mosque to be open to the public, but only by prior arrangement.

Main entrance to the old town market	Independence flag. You can’t see how big it is here. The flagpole is 120m high!
So much of mosques	Only one is open to public and I think its this one

We ended up at one of the popular swimming beaches with impressively white sand where a jetski competition was in full swing. Still, the women in full ninja suits on the beach! I didn’t realise that the UAE is very different to Saudi Arabia in terms of women’s rights. We chatted to an ex-pat guy who explained that women are encouraged to work and have the same jobs as the men. Their custom is to wear the ninja gear so they do, but they aren’t forced to at all. A few local women don’t wear them but they are very few. Apparently most women when they go overseas will change on the plane into western clothes and then change back when returning to the UAE, but they’re not required to by law.

At the beach	Quite a popular spot it seems. This was a weekend
Jetski competition being filmed for TV	World Islands next to Palm Island (there’re actually two Palm Islands now)

We drove past where they are building “World Islands” which is the latest thing (Palm Island is sooo last year!) Naturally a picture of that would be a bit tricky, so I’ve stolen an aerial shot off the internet. Essentially these will be privately owned (one of only two or three areas where people are allowed to buy their land outright) islands in a complex for the very rich and very famous. Islands prices range from USD30mill to USD300mill. Its just mind-blowing.

Next was the famous Burj Al Arab, the self-appointed 7-star hotel in the shape of the sail on a dhow. Tiger Woods has driven a golf ball off the 211m high helipad at the top of the hotel, and Roger Federer and Andre Agassi played tennis on a grass court built on the helipad for a promotional event.

The Burj Al Arab – 7 star hotel (R20 000 per room per night)	Federer and Agassi on the helipad in 2005

While it was an interesting tour, and worth the money, particularly if one has more time than I did, sadly it was a somewhat lackadaisical tour bus with many pointless delays and long stops at junctions, so I ended up having to get off and catch a taxi home to be ready in time for our evening trip. I ended up missing the Palm Island, which was one of the spots I was most keen to see. Traffic was particularly crazy because it was their weekend (their holy day is Friday, not Sunday, so they take Friday and Saturday off as weekend).

That evening Cath and I had booked a ‘Dinner in the Desert’ trip. And that’s a trip that both of us would recommend whole-heartedly to anyone spending a night in Dubai! It was fantastic! We were fetched just after 4pm and driven in a 4x4 Landcruiser for about 45mins into the desert. Incidentally, all the roads between towns through the desert as well as to compounds many miles from Dubai are tarred and have street lights. That blew my mind from the air seeing lines of lights extending forever! And every bulb working too!

Anyway, we drove for a while, met up with a group of 5 other Landcruisers with other tourists and ended up in a small oasis in the sand with cushions and desert awning, surrounded by date palms, for a falcon show. The guy actually turned out to be South African and runs the falcon company with a bunch of other SAns and has lived there for a number of years. He explained how his Peregrine is only really loyal to the food and stays as long as he keeps feeding it, but hunters in the desert have used birds like that to hunt for centuries. He got the bird flying around, dive bombing a piece of meat on a rope to illustrate how they work. They exercise the birds by keeping the “prey” just out of the bird’s reach for about 10mins while they circle to catch it. Finally he let the bird catch the prey and rewarded her with a piece of fresh meat.

Sand blowing across the road	Properly in the desert
Oasis of palms	The Peregrine taking flight
High speed dive bomb – nearly got it	Still panting slightly from the exertion – another photo bomber ruining the background

After the bird show we continued into the dunes on one of the most awesome rides of my life. Cath’s squealing in the back got quieter and quieter as she clung on to the roof handle. They threw the Landcruisers up the sides of dunes, along the top, dropping them steeply down the other side. It was crazy! The spray from the sand being kicked up by the tyres, the number of times we so nearly rolled over, zig-zagging all over the place… If you get car sick easily, keep your eyes up and try to see what’s coming! I started feeling a little green towards the end – it went on for about 30mins – but I loved it!

Off we went, chasing the cars in front	Zig-zagging all over the place
I missed the steepest bits because I couldn’t focus the camera while I got thrown around	Further and further into the desert
Brief photo stop at sunset	White Oryx now protected from hunting

We ended up at a larger oasis where a traditional table and cushions had been set up for us. Some people rode camels for a while, others had a few drinks and others still bought coloured sand bottles from a guy who made them in front of you on a small table.

Muzzled camels – to stop them spitting?	Very brave guy ran around our feet looking for food
The eating area all laid out on carpets and cushions	Loving the last evening of the trip

We had a bird about the size of a Hadeda (Ibis) run around our feet. Apparently a common prey of the falcons and was nearly hunted to extinction since its a ground bird and easy to catch. Now most of the area is essentially protected from all hunting – and no-one steps out of line in this country! Wish we could have some sort of government exchange program for a few years…

Coloured sand in bottle artist doing his thing	Belly dancer doing hers
Lights from another, larger camp a few miles away	Fuel lamps illuminating our dinner camp

After dinner, which consisted of a number of small plates of traditional foods, and an interesting chat to a company of Germans at our table who produce hardware and software for vehicle tracking logistics, we were treated to a belly dancer before being driven back to our hotel for the last night of our trip.

The desert tour people, Arabian Adventures, were fantastic. They really just wanted you to have a good time, which stood out against the other trips we'd been on in Thailand where they seemed less interested in you once you’d paid and were on the tour. These drivers engaged with us, even if their English wasn’t great. No-one harassed us for extras we had to pay for (you could ride the camels if you wanted to and the sand guy could make you a glass bottle of coloured sand if you wanted him to) and once they had said what else they could offer they left it at that. We felt no pressure to do any of it, which we constantly felt in Thailand.

Again I think (after our initial impressions of the place) that I could live in a place like Dubai for a while. There is plenty to do, so long as you’re earning a ton of money because everything costs a fortune!

And so ended our trip…