Dubai, UAE - a city of contrasts

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18/19^thApril Dubai, UAE



We had planned to do a city tour in the afternoon but it was the World Voyage Gala Dinner that evening (early). The dinner was at the Madinet Jumeirah in Dubai (next to the Burj Al Arab) and was for all world travellers about 500 of us.



Dubai, another fastest growing city (so the blurb says), a real city of contrasts. Its evolution from a collection of Bedouin settlements around Dubai creek to a city of skyscrapers, Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world.



Dubai is the second largest of the Emirates, but unlike the others is not over dependent on oil revenue. After the pearl industry collapsed, gold became a dominant influence (legal & illegal) with some countries. It has a huge re-export trade, a flourishing trade particularly with the Russians and tourism plays a big part in the cities wealth.



So we got our first glimpse of the city from our coach trip to the hotel for dinner, the buildings are just stunning architecture (if you like that sort of thing) but it is all fairly predictable after a while.



That really determined our choice of trip the following day. The options were a shuttle bus from the ship to the shopping mall, an open top bus round the city (100deg F), Dubai (The Golden City) more shopping, Delightful Dubai or Panoramic Dubai (even more shopping).



We decided after a leisurely breakfast to stay on board.



Dubai will be like Abu Dhabi, Penang & Kuala Lumpur, a good stop over on a long haul flight.



This was the end of the fifth leg of the Cruise, another change of passengers, over a 1000 new faces and some new crew members.



The final leg of the cruise – only 19 days to go but as I am writing this, there are only 18 nights left!!



Next stop – one of the BIG ones – Petra, Jordan

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