Dubai, UAE

 Our last short flight brought us to Dubai, one of the seven Emirates in the UAE ( United Arab Emirates). The UAE was founded in 1971 when 7 separate countries joined together to form this new country. 

It is an absolute monarchy with the titles passed down through the males of a single family called the Al Maktoum family. The present ruler is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Their estimated wealth is 18 billion dollars.

Our first impression of Dubai was the amount of traffic…like Egypt it was crazy but the cars were a lot bigger and more  expensive but instead of chaos the traffic was orderly but barely moved. Most of the day here you wait 20 minutes to get through a light and then a few meters on you wait again…lots of patience needed! 

Dubai is the most populous city in the UAE with almost 4 million people with approximately 90% of the population being foreigners who support the local economy.

Dubai is known as The City of Gold because of its’ wealth. We visited a huge Gold Souq where the gold shops go on for miles.Gold is of high quality here and comes in many shapes and sizes….

Jewelry box at the entrance of the souq…

Hundreds of gold shops…

Here you can even see gold face coverings…

And the largest gold ring in the world…

It weighs 64 kilograms and is studded with precious stones and of course in the Guiness Book of Records.

In the early days Dubai’s economy was centered on pearl diving and trading and then in 1966 oil was discovered which made the emirate very rich. However now most of the oil reserves are gone and the economy has become more diverse with Dubai being a centre for luxury tourism, finance and real estate.

Doha has so many skyscrapers but Dubai has many more…

Some of the skyscrape…there is construction taking place at every turn…

 

We stayed in a hotel on Dubai Creek which is in the downtown core and all you could see were tall buildings, a view from our balcony…

Dubai Creek runs through the city with long walkways on both sides which people use for walking, biking, etc. It is a natural saltwater creek that extends in about 14 kms from the sea and is very important to the economy of Dubai in that it supports the marine industry of transport and trade. It is very well kept and a beautiful part of the city. 

At sunset…

Because Dubai is so rich it has many landmarks such as the Burj Khalifa which is the highest building in the world at 2718 ft. We could see it from our balcony as it features a light show every evening, it is the white tower in the background…

There is a large light show every evening at the base of the building at the Dubai Fountain…

Dubai has lots of firsts including the world’s only 7 Star Hotel called Burj Al Arab which costs many tens of thousands to stay there…we didn’t!!!

Dubai also has many beaches both public and private and also natural and manmade. This was a popular public beach…

Dubai has many interesting museums as well including the Museum of the Future which is quite the building inside and out…

Inside…

The displays show what the future holds for Dubai.

Thought this note was interesting…

And of course there is always a visit to the mosque. This mosque is called The Al Farooq Omar bin Khattab Mosque which is one of the largest in the UAE. It is known as Dubai’s very own “Blue Mosque” inspired the one in Turkey.

This time we were dressed for the occasion…

Inside the mosque there are lots of stained glass and 21 domes…

Our guide, a young Muslim man from Pakistan helps us understand their religion giving us a lesson in the Five Pillars of Islam… faith, prayer, charity, fasting during Ramadan and a pilgrimage to Mecca. He was a devout Muslim who worked for 11 months in Dubai and went home for one month a year to see his family. He told us that is quite common for the foreigners who work here.

We drove through some of the neighborhoods and there were a lot of big houses. The neighborhoods where the residents live are often off limits to the foreigners…

Dubai is not all new and shiny as there is Old Dubai which is marked by the Dubai Frame, another tall structure with a viewing deck that you can see over the old and new Dubai. We didn’t get a chance to visit but I bet the views are wonderful…

My picture from the bus but a better picture from the internet… the world’s largest picture frame.

We took an Abra which is the traditional wooden boats that ferry people back and forth across the creek…

Here is Old Dubai there are no skyscrapers…

The Historical District has been recreated to show the first settlements in Dubai which were made of mud houses. It was settled in the 1800s by Persian merchants who established the area as a centre of trade located right on the Creek…

We stopped into a Michelin Star restaurant for some Arabic coffee and dates which is the traditional offering given to guests. You sip the strong coffee and eat the sweet dates…

Stopping for a rest…

Our last day in Dubai we had hoped to do some sightseeing on our own but we both woke up feeling under the weather, I think after a month of traveling we were both worn down. So we rested that day and missed out on a number of places.

One was the Dubai Mall which was in downtown Dubai close to our hotel and we had passed it a number of times. It is the largest mall in the world by area with over 1200 shops and is the size of 55 football fields. It also has over 200 places to eat, an aquarium and numerous other attractions. It sees over 100 million visitors a year…a shopper’s paradise!

One of the art installations I would have liked to have seen was the indoor waterfall…photo courtesy of the Internet…

The other place we missed seeing was the Palm Jumeriah which was a neighborhood built from reclaimed land in a series of artificial archipelagos. It is shaped like a palm tree when viewed from above. This unique island is home to some of Dubai’s top luxury resorts including the famous Atlantis.

This area is often referred to as the Crown Jewel of Dubai attracting the rich and famous from all over the world…too bad we missed it! 

Dubai has so much to see and do but it is a very expensive city to visit. Most hotels are hundreds of dollars a night, restaurants the same and all attractions are very expensive to enter. It was the most costly place we visited on this trip and we were glad to have experienced some of it. Only one more place to visit and we are on the way home…