Weird and Wonderful Dubai

After a month of potatoes, cabbage, sausage and excellent beer (and an expanding gut) I was looking forward to kabobs, shawarmas and no beer because I was not going to spend $9 on a freaking Budweiser. Well all that was a lie. Dubai was a necessary stop because this is one of only a few locations where my tourist visa will be honored by the current regime. The others are Islamabad, and Peshawar in Pakistan. Sure you could get the visa in your home country, but they might not honor it when you arrive, and that would suck. So Dubai it is. 

Old Dubai Souk

You hear so much about Dubai, and Abu Dhabi and all the impressive construction and growth however I think Dubai is trying way too hard to be something  organically special but it is just not in its DNA. Do not read into that as me being super negative about the place, it has its charms and quirks. I am staying in Old Dubai, which I love. It is well away from the high rises that make the place famous plus the food in the area is outrageously delicious and reasonably priced. The transit system is easy to figure out and that gave me the ability to explore with ease, although the heat was oppressive. The bus stops are closed shelters with Air Conditioning to give you a sense of it all, and they saved me more that once when I was not paying attention with my walking. The heat is dangerous because you don't feel it once you have been here for a few days, but dangerous it is.

Old Dubai spices

The entire place is filled with expats, mostly from poorer asian countries. Nepal, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar who fill the service industry jobs. There is a plethora of young well heeled Russian girls in and around the Dubai Mall who are quite happy hang out by the hour and can also be found at some of the more exclusive hotels. I guess that there are some well heeled expats making a living in banking and real estate but there is money here. It just belongs to the embedded locals who manage the Oil Reserves. 

Dubai has and is constructing monstrous everything, from the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, the iconic hotel the Jumeirah Burj Al Arab, the Dubai Frame, the Museum of the Future, Jumeirah Emirates Towers, the outlandish Dubai Mall, plus so many modern towers of crazy otherworldly designs. Then they charge you $50 to $100 to go up any of these buildings and look down on the expanding town (Emirate). I can view it from the plane thanks.

The Burj Khalifa, The Worlds'' Tallest Tower

There is Creekside, which I suppose can be considered isolated and away from it all. Much like the Toronto Islands, is only a very short and slow public boat ride to the Creek Metro Stop. The Metro is new and modern, fast and like all places, crowded during rush hour. Most of the people I saw in Creekside were European Expats who were walking their their dogs, jogging and exercise and appear to live these casual exclusive lives among a myriad of tall modern condos. There where food delivery bike riders line up waiting for their next call, I counted 27 of them. There were quite a few younger "locals" who might be "remote workers" or the children of wealth. It was an interesting place to hang out to get to and watch the sunset behind the skyscrapers in the distance, but it just felt like it had no soul, and to me that describes Dubai.

The contradictions are full on. The best example is in The exclusive Jarmundi and its beach zone, along with Kite Beach. Massive condos and hotels, including the Burj Al Arab, which is shaped like a sailboat and is quite awesome looking. The beaches are spotless and the water is clear and clean. Most of the beach goes are European meaning that the bathing suits are tiny and the amount of skin exposed is "as much as possible. Although this is the off season the place was not busy. I guess during the "high season" it can become madness. There are huge yachts bobbing in the harbours and high end restaurants in and among the new construction. The strip runs about 5 to 10 km, I am not exactly sure and do not feel like looking it up.

Sunset from Creekside

Now across the busy 6 lanes are Mosques. I counted 5 on my wander, so let's call it a mosque every two kms. Islam preaches temperance, modesty, and just across the street from the calls to prayer, is anything but that. Muslims kneeling to pray and scantily clad europeans prancing on the beach, some couple even holding hands!! I guess money modernizes everything.

Jumeirah Burj Al Arab

Dubai was interesting and I did what I needed to do here. I visited the landmarks, hung out at the beach, arranged my visa and did a bit of shopping. I wandered around Old Dubia along the creekside quite a bit. It had a nice feel to it, but the vendors were aggressive so be prepared for that. Like most places it is all Chinese made junk, but there were some nice spices and incense to breathe in. The "Rolex watches at a discount" were a bit much. They also love their perfumes and colognes here, but with all the sweating going on, it must be needed to mask the smell. I had to shower a couple of times a day.

One of the many Mosques along the beach strip

In the end, I find the place has no soul and only a forced spirit based on trying to be a major destination. I must really be missing something, probably on the business side, but most people I came across were asian expats who seemed happy enough with the opportunities they have been given. This really is a "rich persons playground" although it was fun enough to explore for us mere common folk.