Glamorous, glitzy Dubai. A city that boast hundreds of world records for the biggest, tallest, greatest … dancing fountain, building, shopping mall, flower garden, man-made islands, suspended aquarium, ferris wheel … and the list goes on. A fun city to spend a few days in but like Vegas can quickly overwhelm. The city had grown in the 20 years since I’d last visited, sprawling both upward and outward. The Burj Khalifa was under construction but had not reached its towering height of 163 stories to earn its bona fides as the tallest building in the world.
I had come to the city for a client meeting and conference and while stretching my legs on the riverwalk each morning, noticed a few changes over the past decades. The joke about the real national bird of UAE being the ‘crane’, (construction crane) vs. the falcon was still relevant. Construction cranes dotted the horizon as highrise after highrise emerged from deep holes in the ground. But unlike twenty years ago when construction workers from Pakistan and India crawled on steel girders hundreds of feet above the ground in rubber sandals, no head coverings and unharnessed in the oppressive heat, today, safety standards were evident. Workers were properly attired in hard hats, steel toed boots with safety vests and harnesses.
One afternoon, I played hookey at the conference with a few colleagues and ubered to the Dubai Miracle Garden. Opened in 2013, the Miracle Garden boasts of being the world’s largest natural garden with over 50 million flowers and 250 million plants. The garden normally closes in May when high summer temps and lack of rain stress the flowers, but weather conditions had been favorable so the venue was still open to visitors in mid May. We entered the garden through a burst of blooms. Inside the park were large green bushes in the shape of Disney characters; Dumbo being one of my favorites; surrounded by cascades of pink, white and purple petunias.
A castle with flowered turrets surrounded by twirling ballerinas with tutus of multi-colored begonias, pansies and daisies was in the center of the garden. There were several lovely peacocks with flowered plummage and even an Emirates 727 airplane fully dressed in white blooms. Despite the heat, this proved to be a more enjoyable way to spend an afternoon than viewing slides inside a dim, overly air conditioned conference center.
My husband and son joined me in Dubai when I finished my work commitments. Our plan was to visit Abu Dhabi and the Empty Quarter and then spend our last few days exploring Dubai before heading home. We had several activities already booked and fractured wrist or not (see prior post on Empty Quarter), I was determined to follow through. Fortunately, all our city activities could be done one armed!
After traversing the country, we had a dhow dinner cruise booked our first night back in Dubai, leaving from the Dubai Marina at 7pm. Between my hospital visit in Abu Dhabi, taking forever to check into our hotel in the midst of the Heritage Quarter and traffic, we arrived at the marina a few minutes before seven. Dhow after dhow lined the wharf and we sprinted boat to boat to find our tour company. Fortunately, we found our dhow just as the crew was preparing to cast off the lines, scrambled aboard and found our table.
Dubai at night is like Vegas on steroids. We motored along the inner harbor passing buildings accented with multi-colored LED lights, eventually nearing Palm Island with its private palace for rent. We motored past the colorful Eye of Dubai, slowly turning, you guessed it, the largest of its kind in the world! Dinner was a mediocre buffet. It was a bit awkward filling a plate and balancing on a rocking boat with one arm in a sling, so just as well that the food was not appealing. We finished the night watching a transvestite dressed as a gypsy in a sparkling multi layered tutu and turban entertain the crowd and coax guests to swivel and gyrate to the latest Bollywood tunes.
The next day we had At the Top SKY tickets for Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. We left early to explore the area around the Dubai Mall and have lunch near the dancing fountain. Depending on what measure of size you use, the Dubai Mall is the largest, second largest of fifth largest mall in the world, but hands down it is the busiest. Finding a parking spot in the massive cavern underneath the complex even with guide lights telling you where spots were available, was an adventure. The walk out of the garage took fifteen minutes and once we entered the mall we had to use google maps to find where we were. With over 1200 retail stores, the largest hanging aquarium in the world, an underwater zoo, an indoor theme park, movie theaters, an ice skating rink as well as indoor and outdoor fountains and every type of restaurant imaginable, one could spend weeks here! The mall also housed the elevators for Burj Khalifa so given its size, we wanted to scope the place out well in advance of our timed tickets.
Once we found the elevators to the Burj Khalifa, we were ready to go outside to see the building itself. We exited the mall, walking past the dancing fountains, not yet ‘dancing’, along a walkway with shallow pools where little yellow electric boats puttered past large pink metal flowers and green leaves.
We had to walk several blocks away from the mall near the plaza by the opera house to get a full view of the slender elegance of the Burj. Designed by the Chicago architectural firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the building’s footprint has three lobes, representing the hymenocallis flower or spider lily, a regional desert flower. As the building increases in height, the wings or petals of the flower reconfigure the shape of the building. We sat on a short wall in the plaza, admiring the balanced proportions of the structure, the reflection of the sun creating a bright star in it middle.
Time for lunch, we walked back towards the mall where scores of restaurants overlooked the dancing fountains. We choose a Lebanese restaurant, Abh El Wahab and ordered a mixed grill plate of lamb, chicken and beef, accompanied by fattouch and hummus with olive oil and pine nuts!
Despite the heat, we opted to sit on the balcony for a good view of the dancing fountains which our waiter told us would now start to go off every 30 minutes. As we sipped our drinks, music began to play and the world’s largest fountain began to dance. Different zones in the pool began to spray water, swaying and undulating to the beat of the music. Lovely, cooling mist lingered in the air. Must admit it was pretty spectacular to see the choreographed, synchronozied jets of spray pulsating up and down against the backdrop of some towering amazing architecture.
After lunch, we wandered until it was time to join the line at the Burj’s elevator. Tickets were timed so we joined a group of about 100 people to take an elevator to the first set of observation decks on levels 124 and 125, at 1500 feet. Although crowded, we were still able to find space on the outdoor observation deck to enjoy the sensation of looking down on a cluster of towering skyscrapers.
Our tickets included a drink at the bar on level 124, so we grabbed one and ascended the spiral staircase to the inside observation deck, once the highest in the world but now scooped by a building in Shanghai (once again showing the short shelf life of being a record breaker!) Here, we could easily circle the tower, getting a 360 deg view of the city. In the distance, we saw yet another Dubai ‘est’ in the world, the Frame. The Frame is actually a 450 foot tall building shaped like a rectangular frame. Made of glass and steel, it is located in one of Dubai’s popular picnicing locations, Zabell Park and is yet another tourist attraction with an observation deck.
We found the elevator to the SKY deck on level 148, hoping to leave the crowds behind. Ascending another 300 plus feet, we emerged from the elevator into a large carpeted lounge with comfortable chairs and sofas interspersed with hors d’oeurve and desert tables. Fortunately, there were little alcoves with seating for six to ten clustered around the windows so although there were still a lot of people here, it seemed more private. We snacked and then went to the outside observation deck to watch the dancing fountains. From 1800 feet, the water sprays looked two dimensional, almost like lines on a etch-a-sketch as the jets activated.
We stayed atop the Burj watching as the sun set into the hazy horizon above the sea. Looking out on the islands along the oceanfront, we saw silhouttes of the national bird, the construction crane and the never ending development running rampart in the city.
Our last day in Dubai, we planned to explore the Heritage Quarter, the traditional area of the city that highlights how people lived before oil wealth changed their way of life, then cross the Dubai Creek to the souks. Decades ago when I visited, Old Dubai was a modest ‘outdoor museum’ with a few stone and mud huts illustrating traditional homes and Al Fahidi Fort with displays of black and white pictures of important historical figures, a dagger and weapons display and several old wooden sailing vessels. The homes lining the small alleys and streets were residential where everyday people lived. Today the heritage area reminds me of China’s newly restyled hutongs; in the same way that the Chinese removed and relocated people living in modest homes in the narrow alleys of Beijing and repurposed the name to mean newly constructed quaint looking shops in narrow alleys, now a major commercial tourist attraction, so too Dubai relocated people, refurished and did the same thing with old Dubai. It was hard to discern what structures in the Heritage Quarter were old and which were new but constructed to look old. Hotels, cafes, restaurants and shop after shop selling everything from tshirts, to colorful scarves to brass Arabian lamps to stuffed camels lined a maze of alleys and winding street along the Dubai Creek.
Interspersed amongst the shops and restaurants were displays of artifacts of the past. Near the entrance to our hotel room was an old cart with a jumbled assortment of typewriters and dial up aqua phones. We never figured out the cultural significance of showcasing vintage 1970’s technology in the heritage district but it served as a landmark to help us find the narrow street where the elevator to our room was located.
Other displays were more relevant to the culture of Old Dubai. We wandered through a shaded square displaying several wooden dhows, common sailing boats used in the area for fishing, pearling or trading. Characterized by their sharp bows, these boats typically had one or two masts with large sails.
Of course, our favorite ‘display’ in the heritage district was the camel habitat. Mom and baby lounged placidly most of the time, surrounded by information boards that described camel trivia – ‘did you know that camels can sleep standing up?’ Once a day, a trainer roused them to interact with tourists who paid for the privelege but everytime we passed they were relaxing in the shade.
We soon learned that the Heritage District was quiet and not well frequented during the day. Despite canvas tarps that blocked the sun, daytime temperatures exceeded 100 degrees. The district started to come to life around dusk, once the sun dropped and the temps were more conducive for people browsing the shops or dining in the outdoor courtyards.
Sweating from our jaunt around the Heritage District, we caught one of the many ferries, or abras serving as water taxis, crossing Dubai Creek to the souks. For the equivalent of about 27 cents, we hopped on an abra with fifteen other passengers and made the five minute trek to the opposite bank closely following scores of water taxis following the same route. The breeze in our sweaty faces was wonderful!
My recollection of having visited the souks twenty years ago, was that they were airconditioned. We hustled the few blocks through town to the souks, now canopied, crowded but wonderfully cool. Shop after shop displayed an amazing collection of necklaces, pendants, rings, bracelets, watches and even elaborately ornamented breastplates and headresses, all highlighting their 18 karat pedigree. Like the Road to Eldorado, the souk was paved with gold. The glinting and glistening variety of merchandise was overwhelming – I found a necklace I liked, decided to continue looking and then had a very difficult time retracing my steps to once I decided to buy it!
The spice souk was not visually overwhelming but the scent of herbs, spices and perfumes beset the nostrils as soon as we entered. Baskets heaped with powders, roots, leaves and crystals were artfully displayed alongside other merchandise. Tumeric, nutmeg, cardamon, basil, sesame, sumac… the choices were endless. The most prized and expensive spice in the market was saffron – reddish, yellow threads derived from the stigma (the female reproductive part) of the saffron crocus. It is without a doubt the most expensive spice in the world because of how tedious it is to harvest; people actually have to manually pull the saffron threads off of each flower individually. It takes between 60,000 to 100,000 flowers to make one pound of saffron, all harvested by hand. This helped explain why saffron was selling at $40-$50 per ounce.
We spent the remainder of our last afternoon in Dubai sailing Dubai Creek. We rented a larger canopied boat and driver for a couple hours to appreciate the amazing architecture, rest our feet and make our own breeze. Modern, architecturally stunning hotels, condos and office buildings lined the banks.
My husband, with a long career in the construction industry, couldn’t help but comment on the complex shapes, curves and angles of these buildings, expensive and purely done for aesthetics. Multimillion dollar yachts motored past. No wonder Dubai is considered an expat’s paradise!
After a few hours on the water, we headed back to the hotel a little bit windburned and a lot a bit sunburned, to pack our bags for our evening flight to Amsterdam, then onward to the US. We bring home many memorable experiences from our time in the UAE, the most unique being my souvenir broken arm, pictures and the story that goes with it!
May, 2023