Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Mumbai to Dubai—we were in for a culture shock. Talk about a rags to riches story—it is a 21st century phenomenon with no end in sight. Skyscrapers, Sheiks, mosques and malls make up this city of oil riches. Glitz, glamour, and 7 star hotels are located in what was nothing but sand dunes 30 years ago. It is one of the seven emirates (Kingdoms) that make up the United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf. Dubai is the most populous and second largest after Abu Dhabi located only 50 miles away. All the positives aside, Dubai will run out of oil reserves within 20 years and has diversified into major real estate projects, tourism and sports venues to become a world business hub. Construction on a huge scale has turned Dubai into the fastest growing city in the world. It’s unusual in that its population is comprised 90% of expatriates none of which can become permanent residents. They were brought here from India and other Asian nations to do the hard work . Most of the UAE nationals work for the government in guaranteed cushy jobs. The nationals also receive free education, housing, healthcare and pay no taxes—not bad. However, Dubai is also located in one of the world’s most unstable regions—the Persian Gulf. The Captain was quite concerned about our transit through the Straight of Hormuz on our way to the Persian Gulf. He had notified nearby Navy ships of our transit and had security personnel on outer decks with the fire hoses charged as a method of defense. There were no incidents and we docked on time at noon on Saturday.

Marie and I opted for an overview shore excursion to get acquainted with the city before venturing out on our own. From here we retraced our steps to the many Souks (markets) including the Spice Souk, Gold Souk and Old Dubai Souk. We also braved an Arabian meal for dinner and agreed that we like Italian much better. On Sunday we went back to town and walked the old waterfront section, visited the Souks and then headed for the waterfront hotels by taxi. We spent a good part of the afternoon at the famous Madinat Jumeirah hotel which is the size of a small city and includes its own creek with water taxis (Abras), a large Arabian Souk and a beautiful white sand beach on the Persian Gulf. It’s connected to the Burj Al Arab Hotel which is the one that looks like a Sail and is the only 7 star hotel in the world. Also located on the waterfront is the Palm Islands development which has been created by mining sand from the deep sea and locating the islands offshore in the Gulf. The development includes the new Atlantis Hotel and many small islands with every type of residence possible. It’s connected to the mainland by a private tunnel. Not to be outdone is the newest development called “The World.” This is a series of islands in the Gulf each in the shape of a specific country with most countries in the world being represented. You can buy a country for yourself. Rod Stewart reportedly bought England for $78 Million. I’m thinking maybe I can get a better deal on Somalia.

Dubai is like no other city in the world. The emiratis are very proud of their wealth and don’t hide the fact that going for another guiness record with the tallest building, most expensive hotel or highest standard of living is a goal of Sheikh Mohammed. He’s not bashful about press coverage and is moving his city/state toward a technology driven Emirate. Although we would not choose to fly thousands of miles to spend our beach vacation here, many Europeans do so all the time. We enjoyed our two days and are looking forward to our visit to Muscat, Oman in two days time. We would expect Muscat to be more down to earth and much like it was hundreds of years ago.

New Dubai and the Architecture

Old Dubai and the People

The Markets