Dubai
Trip Start
Aug 09, 2008
1
34
Trip End
Sep 16, 2008
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Yesterday I spent the majority of the day waiting at airports and traveling. I'm quite sad to leave Egypt. Despite it's issues, I found it to be such amazing place to visit. A real eye opener for the uninitiated, a real culture shock for my narrow minded and limited brain. Egypt is a poor, overpopulated country that is 30-40 years behind the rest of the world with environmental issues, but is so rich in history and culture. I really will miss Egypt.
Today, I went on a tour called City of Merchants. It's a tour of the last remnants of what Dubai had been before the architect of Dubai, Sheik Rashid, started his vision of a Dubai that wasn't dependant on Oil. The guide said that Tourism is the largest contributor to the GDP. Oil only makes up 7% of the GDP. Oil was only discovered in the area in the 1960's so Rashid had enough foresight to see that the riches of Oil would not last. Smart man!
First, we were taken by mini-bus to Jumeirah where the Bur Al Arab (the hotel shaped like a sail) is, some 210 metres tall, it is built entirely over the water and not on land. It's foundations go 44 metres into the ground. Also, in Jumeirah is the first Palm Islands, Palm Jumeirah. We didn't get to see it, and to be honest you can't see much anyway. Best to see it from the air.
Next was the most important Mosque in Dubai. It's a beautiful structure, but no one was allowed inside, so we just took pictures from the outside for 5 mins.
Next was the old Dubai Port next to the Dubai Creek. You can walk around the port, where the houses have been restored. Inside some of the houses are displays and tourists shops. It was interesting, but after 20mins it was time to move on.
The Dubai Museum is next. It's a restored fort, with displays on how living conditions were in the early days of Dubai. The highlight of the display is the Gallery, which you enter through a door to the left of the entrance. It leads down a spiral walkway into a very large underground museum with impressive displays, video presentations. Walking through this area took me about 40mins, but it was worth it.
When I exited most of the tour party was waiting for me, and then we made our way to the water taxis to take us to the Spice and gold Souks (Markets). The taxi ride took about 10 mins to cross the Dubai Creek. It was quite an enjoyable ride, and from there we went through the spice souk, looking at various stalls, and then onto the Gold souk, where we were left to browse around and spend money on gold, silver, diamonds, and fake watches if we desired. I bought nothing, not even a fake watch. Too broke now. I'm to my last few dollars.
After that the tour ended, so it was back to the hotel. I tried really hard to find a bar that was playing the All Blacks vs. Aust game. There was an Aussie in the Hotel trying to do the same. It wasn't being shown anywhere and disappointingly; all I could get was Live Score updates on the Internet. That's two games I've missed while on this tour, although the game against Samoa doesn't really count since that was an arse whooping. In the end, I had dinner with the Aussie and his wife. We ate and chatted for about 3 hours. They are a very nice couple from Brisbane.
