City, Desert and Some Bellydancing

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What’s going on back home? For some inexplicable reason, Australia actually made it onto CNN News because apparently we now have a new Prime Minister (ess), what tha!!!! Women now officially rock Australia! It’s made even more cool because I’ve spent the last 3 weeks in countries where women are lucky to be spoken to, let alone run the country!

DUBAI CITY TOUR

After breakfast we are picked up for our tour of Dubai. At the start it is just the 2 of us but we are told there are 6 more people to pick up. Our driver is Shoki, he is from Pakistan and has been living in Dubai since 1992, so he has seen Dubai grow a lot. He tells us that Dubai has become what it has in the last 38 years.

There is 1.5 million people living here (and it seems everyone has at least 3 cars each, going by the traffic!) and approximately 80% are foreign, mostly from India, Pakistan and Asia. This is blatantly obvious when it comes to literally anyone you see working, I don’t think I’ve seen even 10 people of Middle Eastern appearance serving in shops etc.

Every kilometre or so there is a mosque, always beautifully built. Even though there is such a large amount of foreigners living here, we didn’t see any other churches, but we are told they do exist…

Dubai is also the only place where you can swim in a bikini, at most beaches in the Middle East men are not even allowed to swim in shorts! The beach here is manned 24 hours a day and the flags they use hold different meanings than in Oz, Yellow means low tide and Red is high tide.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

There is so much building going on, it is literally growing 24 hours a day, although there is a rule that building contractors are not legally allowed to work between 12:30 and 3:30pm.

Even though Dubai has only been growing for 38 years (back in the 90’s for example, all along the 14.4km creek was just sandy desert, now it’s skyscrapers and parks), everything that is built it seems is done in such a way that it has planned for the future, no need to add on, extend or alter most things, or the extensions are already accounted for, so minimal time and expense is required.

- The rail network is all automated (no option for a job here for me unfortunately!), a lot has been sunk underground and the rest is up on bridges, so it can be extended easily without taking up ground space

- The freeways are between 5-7 lanes wide (we’ve been told by different people the maximum speed limit is anywhere between 120kph to 160kph, maybe it depends on the car…)

- There is a tunnel that was built under the water way back in 1965

- Everything is air-conditioned, even the bus stops (as our driver says “good for women so their make-up doesn’t melt down their face”. The un-air conditioned water taxis will cost only 1 AED, where-as the air-conditioned ones will set you back a whopping 4 AED (divide by 3 for Aus dollar, so not very much)

- Taxi’s are everywhere, there is never a problem getting one, they all have meters and are quite cheap, especially with Perth as a comparison.

The buildings are all phenomenal, even the police station looks like a 5 star hotel and the fire station looks like it has a control tower meant for the airport. It seems the architects are given free reign and all try to outdo each other. We were lucky enough to meet an Aussie working here as an architect and he said there are no budgets when designing a building. The idea is to design the most amazing engineering masterpiece you can, put all the bling into it possible and then if it’s liked, cost is met. Sheer opulence would describe Dubai, everything is finished to the minutest detail and it’s an amazing showpiece.

We were shown just a handful of the palaces for the royal family. They are all beautiful, large and in the best of locations. They also have a nice fleet of cars, they are the only cars allowed to have dark window tint and all their number plates range from 1-999. The King has 5 wives who have given him 14 sons. When I asked how many daughters I was told “who knows, that doesn’t matter”. It’s a most interesting society; it’s not my kind of thing, but then who says my beliefs are right?

THE COST

It’s one extreme to the other it seems here. Clothing seems quite pricey, although we only went to the largest malls, so in regular shops away from the hustle and bustle perhaps they are cheaper.

Cars are cheap to buy and cheap to run. We were told a top of the range Prado would be about $30,000 Australian (can’t guarantee that one though), and petrol is between 1.48 and 1.63 per litre, so only about 50 cents Australian. So a Porsche isn’t going to cost much to run!

A carton of cigarettes costs less than a single packet at home.

Groceries are quite cheap, especially from a supermarket.

Getting around isn’t much, the train from the airport to almost the end of the line cost just over 6 AED ($3 Aus), a water taxi 4 AED for air-conditioned, taxi’s cheap, cheap,

BURJ KHALIFA v’s BURJ AL ARAB (Burj means Tower)

BURJ KHALIFA

- At 165 floors and over 800 metres it’s not only the tallest building in Dubai, it’s the tallest in the world. It contains businesses and apartments.

- It also shares the site with the only Armani Hotel in the world. It’s so new, the official opening was delayed due the recent volcanic ash issue halting all air travel in and out of Europe so Georgio Armani wasn’t able to get to Dubai, and you can’t have the opening without the guest of honour!

- It’s alongside the Dubai Mall, the largest shopping mall IN THE WORLD! It has all the names we have only seen in a Thailand market like Rolex, Cartier, Tiffany’s, Ed Hardy, Burberry, Guess, Chanel etc, but it still has room for McDonalds and Burger King. There is an ice skating rink (though not with real ice, pretend ice like Andre Rieu used for his concerts so it’s not cold) and an aquarium with an underwater zoo to walk through.

- In between the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa there is a pond that every half an hour after 6pm has the most amazing synchronized water fountain show, it only goes for about 5 minutes, but it looks great and draws a big crowd so getting there early is a must.

BURJ AL ARAB

- It has 28 DOUBLE STOREY floors and is 320 metres high with 202 suites. All huge and with decorated in gold.

- Just an afternoon tea there will set you back 395 AED

- It is alongside a beach and also a water park, Wild Wadi.

- It has it’s own fleet of Rolls Royces.

THE DESERT SAFARI

We head off in the afternoon for our Desert Safari. We are collected in a nice air-conditioned Toyota Landcruiser (very much the opposite of the one we went in at Wadi Rum, Jordan) that has been refitted to accommodate the punishment it is about to get put though, complete with rollcage from front to back. There are 4 others already in the car plus the driver so Tim and I sit in the very back, mini skirt NOT good choice today.

We head off to a meeting point where all the vehicles from our company join up. There are a lot of companies all doing the same thing. Our company has all their vehicles set up the same and there are even a couple of Hummers in the mix.

From there it’s a short drive to the desert meeting point, where all the drivers let their tyres down and open bonnets to cool engines!

Then it’s off we go, it’s the most fun convoy we’ve done to date. We go absolutely flat out through the enormous sand dunes in the desert. The sand is so powdery soft and the dunes are so steep it’s a credit to every driver who works there! They could all get a job at CALM getting the trucks in and out of the fires without getting bogged (sorry guys!)!

We stop to regroup every 10 minutes or so and then head off again. We stop at a camel farm (out in the middle of nowhere) and at another spot to go sandboarding. Tim goes first up and manages to stay upright the whole way, he’s a star! Others don’t fare so well, the Japanese especially. As much as they loved it and kept going back for more, just weren’t naturals that’s for sure. But they had a great time trying, and would’ve spent the next week getting sand from all sorts of places sand is just not meant to be.

Finally we get to the ‘Bedouin Camp’ that they have set up. There are camel rides and quad bikes out front and inside there is cushions and tables set up around a stage, a bar (everything is included except alcohol so Tim and I are right!), henna painting (yep, I did it), a dress up area so you can look like the Arab Oil Sheikh you perhaps wish you were, a bottle sand guy and of course a clothes shop for all the belly dancing wear you could want.

When it gets dark enough, a video of our day is shown and a buffet dinner is served. Huge variety I haven’t had a meal yet I didn’t enjoy, don’t know if it’s because of the excellent cooks we’ve been lucky enough to have or just my love of all things food!

After tea we have a belly dancing show. She was a lot better than the one we saw in Egypt on the boat, for a start she seemed to be enjoying herself a little more. She also did a dance with a walking cane and managed to balance it on her butt (near the small of her back), her hip and also her chest. She kept it balanced all the time she was dancing away, very clever. Some of the more hard core belly dancing critics said she wasn’t very good, but I thought she was great.

So another bouncy trip back (this time with a full belly!) and then our day is suddenly over. We are tired, sandy but very happy. Definitely recommend anyone coming here to do this tour, loads of fun but remember to hold on tight!

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