Dubai is a city that continues to grow at a ridiculous speed
even when the rest of the world has taken a breath. I had 4 nights in Dubai and
was stoked to hear that Trudgy who is now living in London was going to join
me.
We both arrived late on the first night and meet up
downstairs the next day after a nice little breakfast. Day one we went to check
out a few sights in the city from our list of recommendations. Firstly was
Dubai Mall which was giant, I believe it had over 1000 shops and also had an Aquarium
with the worlds largest single piece of Perspex… Rising out of the top of the huge shopping
complex is the Burj Khalifa which holds the title of the tallest building in
the world at over 800 meters or more then 160 stories… it is huge in any
language.
From here we head to the Mall of Emirates which used to be
the largest mall before the new Dubai Mall came along. It does however have an artificial
ski slope inside which is pretty funky and undoubtedly a world first.
We then headed back to the hotel and stopped for a drink
upstairs by the pool (I had a swim). Well one beer turned into more and that
was the afternoon. After a shower and
some sobering up we headed off to Raffles to check out their steakhouse. I have
seen the inside of a few steakhouses and claim to know a decent piece of meat
when I see it.. well the food here was outstanding, as was the wine and the
deserts were out of this world. Not sure what the final bill came to and I am
sure it isn’t the type of meal you’d want to pay for weekly especially if you don’t
have an income right now as neither of us do.
The next day we had booked a full day with a car and driver.
We headed up the highway from Dubai to the capital of the United Arab Emirates;
Abu Dhabi. Here we saw the Grand Mosque which was a site to behold (I forgot to
take a photo of the outside which was the best part), then on to Emirates
Palace which is the 2nd most expensive hotel in the world and
finally the Sultans Palace no photo’s allowed and the guy in the machine-gun nest
looked like he had a itchy trigger finger so I didn’t tempt fate.
On the way back from Abu Dhabi we went to Ferrari World at
Yas Island. You’ll be surprised to hear but it is the largest steel structured
roof in the world. Inside the entire theme park is based around the Italian
fast cars with everything from museums to interactary games. The centre point
being the Rossi roller coaster which is the fastest in the world. Like a fast
roller coaster would worry a couple of hard Queenslanders. Well the good news is we didn’t scream, we
wanted to but there was too much g-force and I couldn’t get the noise out when
the ride was going more then 270km. I was honestly light headed and dizzy when
it stopped and my heart rate was about 200bpm.
We then went on some more rides but after that everything else felt too
tame. Back to Dubai and dinner and drinks.
Final Day was had a different driver (and car) for an
excursion to the desert for some dune bashing in a big land cruiser. This was
awesome. We headed towards Oman and found some monster bits of sand before out
driver started going nuts flying up one side and down the other. I was thankful
we had a roll bar and promised to not mentioned the little squeal Paul made at
one stage when we were going down a very large dune at great speed…sideways !
Afterwards we headed to the Aviation club for lunch with a
plan to check out the Burj Al Arab building in the afternoon but like all best
laid plans it didn’t happen. We stayed at the aviation club enjoying the
outdoor beer garden and corona drinks special.
So what is UAE like.. it is like nothing I had imagined. The
city is spread out along the coast line with some of the most amazing buildings
you will ever see. But behind each one is nothing, there is no depth to the
city it is simply one layer of buildings. There are so many more in mid
construction and I understand even more again waiting to be built. This means
Dubai will be 3 times larger in a few years. The place is sandy, very sandy
which I guess needs to be expected of the desert. It also seems to be all about
the expat with all services aimed at keeping them happy (just like honkers).
I enjoyed the trip and think it is a pretty amazing place,
it would take a humongous package for me to move there but it was fun for a
holiday.
My final observation is about the camels (they are imported
from Australia!) but more importantly I couldn’t figure out how one got into my
room each night and left that foul taste in my mouth….
Goodbye Dubai
