Dubai - Day 2

We woke up to a balmy, overcast 65 degrees F and enjoyed a quiet breakfast on our verandah. We ventured into the cruise terminal at 08:00 AM to meet our guide Lissie—originally from Waterford, Ireland, but who has lived in Dubai for 29 years (a temporary detour on her relocation to Australia). She told us about the quaint town by the sea, she first came to live in, that has exploded into a najor port metropolis expanding at a rate of 10-15% per year in building and population with massive traffic jams to match. She also mentioned how the native Dubai population has decreased to 25% with the large influx of Indians, Pakistanis, Saudis, Iranians, Brits, Americans and other Europeans making up the rest.

We drove along the shore front road past beautiful homes and modern strip malls to the beach overlooking Burj-al-Arab and Jumeriah Beach Hotels. The Burj is the only 7 star hotel in the world. All rooms are oceanfront suites with butler service. It looks like a giant billowing sail, and some creative photography made it look like we were touching the top of the mast.

From there we headed out towards the camel race track, which is a 10 km. oval and the average camel can run it in 8 min. The spectator stands are designed in 3 separate sections. The shiek and his VIPs sit in the center. The native Dubai/Arab population sit on the right side and ex-pats sit on the left. There is no official gambling allowed by Islamic law, so they usually race for a prize like a high end SUV. (I wonder if there is any other kind of “secret wagering” going on behind closed doors!!) We enjoyed watching the trainers bringing the camels back and forth across the road from the pens to the track for early morning work-out. We also got to see the electric jockeys perched on top of the camel’s hump, which operates a switch whip in a mechanical fashion. The human camel jockeys were banned in Dubai about 1 year ago, due to civil rights accusations that young Sudanese boys were being sold off by their families to wealthy Dubai families for the purpose of camel racing. The Saudis invented the electric jockey, but Dubai perfected it, so the camel wouldn’t always be hit in the same place, resulting in injury. We got a kick out of the “camel crossing” signs posted on the road—something we don’t see everyday.

From there we drove on the main highway into the city center where we got a great view of the Dubai city skyline with the soon to be world’s tallest tower being built at 130 stories with a foundation that will allow them to add additional stories as needed, in order to maintain “world’s tallest” status. We also saw the famous Emirates Towers pictured on most Dubai advertisements. The other interesting building we saw was the 600 foot long indoor ski track. It looked like something out of Star Wars. A large concrete and glass tube in the sky, suspended on what looked like a telescope stand. Our guide Lissie told us about the engineering problems they had due to temperature extremes. Summers in Dubai can exceed 135 degrees F and the inside of the ski building is 25 degrees F, so the concrete and glass sections kept cracking due to the differences in between extremes. They’ve since compartmentalized the structure, so they can replace sections when necessary. She said you must make reservations at least 2 weeks in advance in the summer time, because all of the Saudis go there during their summer vacation.

Lissie also showed us the area where they will be building DubaiLand, which will be like the Disney World of the middle east including a Formula I racetrack, theme parks, hotels, resorts, golf courses and a Tiger Woods golf academy.

Our next stop was Bastikaya, the only well-preserved old section of Dubai. It is a handful of renovated old houses with the center courtyard and wind towers to keep the homes cool in summertime. One house has been turned into an Islamic Institute to teach foreigners about the fundamentals of Islam so they can better understand the culture. The other homes were turned into art galleries featuring paintings, sculptures and jewelry designed by local Dubai artists. We picked up a couple of “tongue and cheek” hand-painted dish towels with recipes on it for “camel a la mode”.

After that, Lissie negotiated aggressively with an abra (water taxi) driver for a fare to take the 5 of us across to the spice and gold souk markets. It cost 40 dirham (approx. 10 USD) for the 10 minute ride. The abra is a flat rowboat with a rectangular wooden bench in the middle, covered in carpet for passengers to sit on. There is a car seat bolted to the center with a hole in the floor where the motor and rudder controls are located. Our driver had difficulty in starting the engine and when he did, he forgot that he was still tied up to the dock as we tried to pull away. It was quite the comedy of errors. We puttered across and up the creek and were entertained further as he kept striking the guideposts on the pier in an attempt to park us dockside. He provided laughs for us, as well as the commuters on the scheduled abra crossing in another boat. Thank god he couldn’t go very fast.

We spent a quick 30 minutes strolling through the souk where they sold just about everything the locals would need plus souvenir shops and 18 - 24 kt. gold shops where jewelry was sold by weight. The prices here for simply designed gold jewelry seemed more expensive compared to Macy’s sales prices, so I passed on the opportunity. The more elaborate middle eastern design pieces are the attraction here, if you’re into that sort of thing. They offer unique pieces that you wouldn’t easily find stateside.

From there we split into 2 taxi cabs to get us uptown for the dhow Dubai Creek cruises. We felt like we were contestants in the “Amazing Race” in an attempt to negotiate the traffic and get there in time. As we exited the cab, we stopped to take some photos with one of the painted camel figures we noticed around the city. This is a project similar to the painted cow exhibition we had in NYC a few years ago.

We boarded a Dubai Tours dhow - a basic wooden boat with a canvas sail and outboard motor. We climbed a rickety staircase ladder to sit on the upper deck atop floor cushions with a low table between us. We were happy to enjoy a cold Heineken as we sailed along the creek with a taped English commentary about the creek’s history. Lissie also provided us with some other detailed info along the way. Over the years, the creek has been dredged to lengthen and widen it as a port of entry from the Arabian Sea into the Dubai town center. It was interesting to see all of the wooden dhows lined up 3 across at the pier side, stocking up with all manner of items: spices, textiles, electronics and even motor vehicles. Most of these dhows come from Iran and Yemen, and have participated in the Dubai trade route since the late 13th century.

The dhow cruise lasted an hour and ended just in time, as a light drizzle began to fall. This is very unusual weather for Dubai this time of year, but Lissie said the last few years have been bringing cooler and wetter winters. We laughed when we noticed a sign posted on the lower level of the dhow as we disembarked that said; “In case of emergency - JUMP !! I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t see that sign as we were getting on the ship.

We watched Lissie again negotiate a price for the abra to take us back across the creek to pick up the car. We had a quick ride back to the ship, thanks to little traffic, and did some last minute shopping in the duty free shop. We also saw the model for the new Dubai World Passenger Ship Terminal scheduled to open next year to accommodate more cruise ships making stops in Dubai. It will be a large glass domed structure with modern facilities and a very large duty free shop.

We sat on our balcony to watch sail away and were amused by our captain’s pacing back and forth on the bridge balcony, waiting impatiently for the harbor pilot to show up. We were supposed to get underway at 2:00 pm, but they were still fueling the ship. The harbor pilot ran aboard at 2:15 pm, the gangway was immediately pulled in, the fuel hose disconnected and our engines engaged. It was too bad that it was such a cloudy, hazy day, because we sailed up the coast past the Burj al Arab and Jumeirah Beach resorts, before turning around and heading south back towards the Hormuz Straight.

Our team placed third in team trivia today, bringing us to a total of 20 Oceania points. I think we can turn the points in for 1 T-Shirt between us. Enjoyed a quick dinner os sushi at Tapas Terrace and an enrichment lecture on world democracy with Dr. Dieter. Then it was some karaoke and 70’s dancing with the cruise staff before bedtime.

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