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Published: August 8th 2007
GOLD! Unearthing Ibn Battuta’s Stash in Dubai
Sleep is overrated anyway Before I start, let me say that there is no place in the world like Dubai. The goal of this city is to have it all: the biggest, baddest, largest, tallest, funnest, costliest, and any other superlative you can think of. It will have the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai, in a matter of years—it is predicted that this building will top the Taipei 101 in Taiwan (509 meters) by more than 200 meters. It has the world’s only 7-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab (although to be accurate, they appointed themselves a 7-star hotel but their real rating is 5-star luxury). The plan is to build the world’s largest mall, the world’s largest Disney Theme Park and Resort. They are building one of the most expensive airports ever. Of all the cranes on planet earth, Dubai has 1/4 to 1/3. Development is everywhere you look. At the end of the day, they have coin. They’re willing to spend that coin. And they want your coin. Wonderland. Never Never Land. Las Vegas on steroids. This place has, or will have, it all.
Jet lag has the best
View from Deira
Taking off from DBX, view from Sheraton Deiraof me. I arise at 5am and start my day. A stroll around Deira—the old city—up to the roof of the hotel for pictures, time to get an early pulse. This area is not the tourist center. Many locals are here and it’s apparent. I see mothers walking children to the bus stop. In fact, this time of day has a large female presence. I say this because a couple of hours from now, hardly a woman will be visible on the streets. I pass by many internet cafés, grocery stores, mosques, and restaurants. Of the five or so morning canteens that I pass by, there is not a single woman inside—Meli thought I was exaggerating when I said there were no females in the eateries, just men. Buses going to the “International School” or the “English School” are bountiful. I make my way back to the hotel and roam around. The pool is on the roof and provides some decent shots of the city. The morning desert haze has not burnt off, so downtown is not visible with my camera. I manage to get a shot or two of the airport and planes taking off. That’s the best I
can do for now.
Meli the mute? By 7am, I am back in the room, finding Meli bright eyed and bushy tailed. I give her the report on the neighborhood and after she gets ready we both brave the old city. We follow the same route I did and land in a South Indian place for breakfast. The atmosphere is slightly uncomfortable, either because we are foreigners or because Meli is the only woman in the restaurant. Confirming my suspicions, the waiter hardly makes eye contact with Meli and basically ignores her. He asks what I am having and I order the fish curry. Seeing that he is about to walk away without taking her order, I order for her. I’ll save my discourse for later. I ordered a fish curry for the two of us with naan type side dish. Once you navigate the bones, it’s really good. The slightly oily red sauce stains our fingers. No utensils in this building. Hands only. Meli challenges herself to tear her bread with one hand like all the other patrons. My days in Mali come in handy and I have an easier time with the utensil-less cuisine. As we are
DBX
the airport finishing up, the waiter asks if I would like a fruit juice. Mango for Meli and pineapple for me. He continues to ignore her.
We tour the Deira area a bit more before the sun begins to oppress us. It’s only 8:30am and the internet cafés don’t open until at least 9am, so it’s back to the Sheraton. The cost for wireless here is 90 AED for the day (about $30), which is why we prefer an internet café. Also, we want to move to the newer part of the city and ditch Deira, so we need the help of Expedia.com and TripAdvisor.com. We successfully find a place to stay and commence the move to Le Meridien Dar al Sondos Hotel Apartments in Bur Dubai. This is more like it. We are pleased with the new location and the new hotel (and the much cheaper price).
Lunch is at Lebanese Village. Again, the waiter doesn’t take Meli’s order. She’s getting heated, but respects cultural norms. The feminist in her is ready to blow a gasket. Lunch consists of the best dolma (stuffed grape leaves) I’ve ever had in this universe (“wine leaves” over here), and an entrée of
Dubai Museum
The fort and typical Gulf home lamb with egg (the Lebanese steak and egg dish, I guess). They give us a free salad that we don’t touch because we don’t know if it’s free or not and it is just a plate of lettuce, another leafy green, carrots, and a lemon. No dressing. Not appealing. I’m not even sure it was supposed to be a salad.
From ashy to classy The first tourist stop is the Dubai Museum. It’s recommended that we stop here before exploring Dubai, for a historical perspective and to put the current city more in focus. Sure. We buy it. The museum is housed in the Al Fahidi Fort, built in 1787 to defend the then 3km x 1km city of Dubai. It is here that we learn how the city prospered, primarily thanks to pearls (abundant in the Arabian Gulf), fish, spices, pottery and, later, oil. Dubai was strategically located along the trade route connecting Mesopotamia and the Indian Ocean locales (India, China, and Southeast Asia). The mainstay of Dubai’s commercial life is the souk (market). Souks are considered the real heart of Arabia, attracting merchants and traders from India, Iran, the eastern coast of Africa, and beyond. The museum
has recreated the experience with an elaborate labyrinth of spice stores, pottery and carpentry workshops, to name a few. The museum also has replica desert houses from back in the day. The highlight of these abodes is the barjeel, windtower, constructed in such a way as to divert wind from every direction to create a cool down draught into the interior of the house. Even today, the barjeel is a common architectural feature of the landscape. The mosque, Islamic school, feature on desert life including a model Bedouin community and video documentary of the history of Dubai all give us the proper introduction to this Billionaires Boys Club.
The best mall we’ve ever seen The Ibn Battuta Mall fascinates us. The mall has multiple subdivisions, each with the theme of an area visited by Ibn Battuta: Persia, Egypt, India, Asia, Andalusia, Tunisia. Each has a central domed court. The Persian court is magnificent, save the spoiling effect of the Starbucks kiosk in the middle of the court. The Andalusian court is outfitted with a stellar fountain. Asia has a humongous Zheng He treasure ship floating on a miniature sea. We both agree that, aesthetically, it is the most beautiful
Dubai Museum
Leroy and his homies smoking shisha... they look real, don't they? Scary! mall either of us has ever seen. We begin at the Shiseido counter, because Meli knew that they made a good facial sunscreen. Capturing the moment, a guard warns me that photography of the inside of stores is prohibited. He is nice about it. While Meli shops, I occupy myself with a plasma screen video game about Ibn Battuta’s journey. You go from place to place answering questions about Ibn Battuta’s journey and life and collecting “treasure.” You have 5 lives and each wrong answer costs you one. You also have to avoid the Black Death chasing you across the continents, which causes immediate game over. The goal is to collect 5 treasures and deliver them to the sultan in Mali before you die. I spend an hour here. I refused to leave until I won, and I did! The competitor in me. I felt no qualms about hogging the game. The food court is a temptation with culinary goodies from all over the globe. Surprisingly, and I’m still shocked, we resist because we are still satisfied from lunch a couple of hours ago.
While I was pretending to be Ibn Battuta, Meli was window shopping. She comes back
Dubai Museum
Wassup? Don't spit! excited about her new Vichy moisturizer (a cheap substitute for Dermalogica) and accompanying freebees. Easy to please. We’ll have to wait a few years before we can shop as the Emiratis do. What’s remarkable is how many Filipinos there are in the mall - serving coffee at Starbucks and manning the registers at Woolworths.
THE Icon of Dubai We wanted to end the day at the Bahri bar in Madinat Jumeirah, It’s close to the Burj al Arab and has a great view of the Persian Gulf sunset. We missed sunset because we weren’t ready to leave the mall. Madinat Jumeirah is the ideal Las Vegas resort, minus the casinos. The extravagance is over the top. In the lobby, what looked like a display of colorful stones from afar turned out to be a rectangular pool with peach and white rose petals floating in water. At Bahri Bar, the selection of drinks is extensive. A watermelon caipirissima (like a ‘roska but with rum) for me. An apple flavored caipiroska for Meli. The bar snacks didn’t disappoint. The best part: the view of the Burj Al Arab. Every few minutes, the lights change the color on the icon of Dubai.
Dubai Museum
Is that sashimi for me? It’s majestic. The aura surrounding this hotel—it’s unbelievable that it is actually a hotel and not some historic landmark—is captivating. We spend ten minutes staring at it when we arrived before taking a single photo. For the next hour, we enjoy the color show and our drinks, contemplating our future. Madinat Jumeirah or Burj Al Arab? Where to stay when we have the means? Most reviews say the former is better. The latter is worth a visit, a drink, or a meal. Time will tell. The Burj does come with a 24 hr personal butler. There is no registration or concierge there. Big time.
Off of cloud nine, we taxi back to Le Meridien. The plan is to let Meli work before watching the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, Man U vs. AC Milan. I fall asleep. No worries though. Our cable TV isn’t showing the game anyway.
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Alea
non-member comment
What in tacky, technicolor h*ll is the Burj and why's it have a worm-like plastic hardback casing?? ...It sounds like country-side Egypt in that the women rule the home (our tour guide had a PhD and was very modern but while her husband was alive, he worked, grocery shopped etc and she existed ONLY within the confines of their multi-leveled home, raising the kids and keeping house. And she was fine with it. Said there was a whole underworld of women Western women don't experience.) ...So Melissa, I'm just curious: how'd you find somewhere to use the bathroom while invisible?