Dubai and the Desert

It’s been a busy week since I last wrote!! We spent 3 days in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. What a place! It’s really hard to imagine and describe unless you’ve been there, but I’ll try to get something down.
We arrived about noon on the afternoon of March 20. The ship was offering a complimentary general overview tour of the area, but Annie and I decided to do a “Dunes Dinner Safari” tour instead. We got off the ship about 3:00 pm and got into 4 –wheel drive SUVs (with a driver-guide!), 4 of us to a car, and a caravan of about 30 cars. (Just as a side note, they use Toyota Land Cruisers – say they’re the best for the desert). After about a 45 min. drive, we reached the desert, but before we could travel too much, we had to stop and let the air out of the tires and decrease the pressure to about 15. They said it was the best way to get over the dunes. So, with our newly adjusted tires, off we went! Talk about off-road driving! It was really pretty amazing. You just drove up to the top of a dune, not knowing whether at the top the dune would flatten out or if it would be straight down. The sands are so amazing, just the way the wind has blown and made patterns and designs. The dunes are always changing and moving, so sometimes even our driver didn’t know what lay ahead. Actually, they split us up into groups of about 15 with a lead driver and vehicle that was responsible to check out what was ahead. At the end of the line, was the back-up vehicle. He didn’t have any passengers, but his job was to make certain all 15 stayed together – and to pull out any who got stuck in the sand. And stuck they got! We didn’t get bogged down, but a number of them did. After we went down a big dune, we’d all wait at the bottom and watch the others come down. It’s so fast when you’re doing it yourself, but when you’re watching someone else slide down, it’s a different story.
After about two hours, we stopped to watch the sunset, and then it was over one last stretch of desert to an encampment where dinner was set for us. We sat on low couches and were treated to a desert “barbeque” with all kinds of food and drink (don’t know what some of it was – probably just as well!) There were henna artists, who paint these beautiful henna tattoos on your body. Annie wasn’t up to that, but I had them do one on my leg. It’s supposed to fade in 7 days, but I don’t know! And of course, we had the obligatory belly-dancer show (neither of us volunteered for that!) Anyway, it was a great night in the Arabian Desert.
The next day, we took a cab with a couple of other people out to one of the mega shopping malls, the Mall of the Emirates. Definitely not anything we’re used to! Every designer label shop you can imagine and the crowning jewel – an indoor ski slope!! There are lifts and jumps and everything!! And it was packed with people! A lot of the crew (especially those from Austria and Scandinavia) went and said it was really a good deal. It cost about $50 for two hours of skiing and that included all the equipment, including skies, boots, jackets, etc.! (If you want more info, check out www.skidbx.com) Unbelievable!
We were scheduled to do a boat tour which was a cruise around “Palm Islands and The World.” It ended up being cancelled because of problems with the boat, which was too bad, because it’s an amazing development. What they’re doing is dredging up a lot of sand from the sea and actually making islands and developments. The Palm Island developments look like enormous palm trees from the air and there are all villas and residential developments on each of the different palm fronds, or leaves. At “The World”, they’re actually creating a map of the world – all 7 continents and some of the major island chains! Again, private homes, hotels etc.
Money is no object in this oil-rich country. Dubai is one of 7 emirates, or independent kingdoms, that make up the United Arab Emirates. In the mid-1960s, the oil boom exploded. Incalculable wealth flowed into the area. Oil was truly “black gold.” In addition, Dubai became a major source for the sale of real gold, a fact that remains today. In 1971, the 7 Emirates joined together to create the UAR (United Arab Emirates), as a way to consolidate their resources and gain stature in the world community. The largest emirate is Abu Dhabi, and its sheik is the ruler of the UAR. (Abu Dhabi in particular is very rich with oil; one guide told us that it is estimated that there is enough oil to support Abu Dhabi for 150-200 years – and that doesn’t include oil reserves not yet discovered!) Some of the smaller emirates haven’t yet found major oil reserves; some, like Dubai, have basically exhausted their known reserves (only another 5-10 years left) and have turned to other areas of commerce.
In Dubai’s case, it has turned to business, business, business. And the business of this city is shopping and high-level lifestyles. The building and development in this area is unreal! Cranes and new construction are everywhere; something like 15% of the world’s cranes are at work in Dubai!! The world’s tallest building is under construction; already, it has something like 120 floors – and will go up to 165 in the next year or two!! A good percentage of the building is residential and tourist. Dubai boasts the only 7-star hotel in the world – the Burj Al Arab. It’s designed to look like a sailboat and stands out spectacularly on the shoreline. You can’t even go into the lobby – or the lounge – for a drink without a reservation – and reservations for dinner or lunch are sold out months in advance! Unfortunately, we didn’t make a reservation in time – but maybe I should change that to fortunately – for 2 people, lunch is generally $400 – dinner about $700!! Hard to believe, but it sells out!
The last day we did another tour of the city and general area – and of course, a bit of shopping (or maybe looking is more like it!) Amazingly, we were very good with non-shopping this port; I think there was just so much of everything, it was a bit overwhelming. But then again, we still have many ports – and many shops – to go before we get home!