How funny that our preconceptions usually turn out to be misguided…
The first thing that I noticed about Dubai was that everything is huge, massive, gigantic! The buildings are pretty unique, Burj Khalifa is just amazing. It’s like a reflective spire that just reaches up forever.
And the train stations look like something from a science fiction movie. The trains are driver-less too...
There is also an indoor ski slope, that makes the mind boggle.And the constant construction that is going on – roads, buildings, ships… This is a city in a constant state of change. Although this has all slowed down since the GFC. There are half finished skyscrapers just sitting in the middle of an empty expanse.
We did join a tour for 2 days called ‘The Big Bus Tour’ which was pretty good. It involved climbing on and off buses at set drop off points around the new and old parts of the city (the new parts being all the shopping malls). Some of it was pretty amazing, some of it, not so much… The pre-recorded track that accompanied the tour sounded to me like an advertisement for Dubai – look at me, aren’t we great, look at what we can build, this is the biggest/highest/longest in the world – gets a little old after 2 days of hearing the same thing over and over.
If you ever visit the gold souq (which you should because it sparkles!), just be prepared for it to be a very aggressive sell. The shop owners follow you down the street and stand in your path and just keep talking as you walk passed them. I found it very uncomfortable and practically walked in on my partners heels, glued to him. The spice souq is also there, which is something that should be visited. You walk down all these tiny back alleys that are no more then 2 metres wide and in this space are also all the wares the shop sells and the salesmen – so you are still mobbed, just in a tinnier space.
Actually, thinking about what Dubai is like, it’s kind of strange the spice souq is so small! But it is original!
So that was Dubai – hot, hazy, huge.
We did join a tour for 2 days called ‘The Big Bus Tour’ which was pretty good. It involved climbing on and off buses at set drop off points around the new and old parts of the city (the new parts being all the shopping malls). Some of it was pretty amazing, some of it, not so much… The pre-recorded track that accompanied the tour sounded to me like an advertisement for Dubai – look at me, aren’t we great, look at what we can build, this is the biggest/highest/longest in the world – gets a little old after 2 days of hearing the same thing over and over.
If you ever visit the gold souq (which you should because it sparkles!), just be prepared for it to be a very aggressive sell. The shop owners follow you down the street and stand in your path and just keep talking as you walk passed them. I found it very uncomfortable and practically walked in on my partners heels, glued to him. The spice souq is also there, which is something that should be visited. You walk down all these tiny back alleys that are no more then 2 metres wide and in this space are also all the wares the shop sells and the salesmen – so you are still mobbed, just in a tinnier space.
Actually, thinking about what Dubai is like, it’s kind of strange the spice souq is so small! But it is original!
So that was Dubai – hot, hazy, huge.
One last thing, although Australia claims to be 'multicultural' - they have nothing on the UAE. In the hotel alone there were Africans, French, Indian, Philipino, German, probably Dutch, Australian, etc., etc., etc. And from what we saw, there aren't any racial clashes - interesting.
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