It’s been almost six months since we arrived here in Dubai;
and in just two weeks I’ll be walking down the air bridge and leaving for my
first Summer departure, a very common practice here whereby the women leave
behind all their ‘Summer bachelors’. That level of fascination and awe from our
arrival has dissipated and we feel a lot more comfortable with our overall lifestyle
here. We know our favourite places to eat, we know how to get around, and heck,
we even have a cat. We’ve spent a lot of time settling in, sorting ourselves
out and getting organised for some serious travel in the region. In doing that,
we haven’t explored too much of Dubai’s ins and outs in the meantime. Sure,
we’ve have some little trips, tried new malls and restaurants, but there are
still gaps in the things we’ve done. The arrival of the delightful Leah
Chamberlin however, signaled our first opportunity to be tour guides of this
crazy town and to catch up on a few of the sights and delights we’ve missed
along the way, with the added bonus of being a little bit more Dubai-savvy than
your average tourist bear.
Now, if you want to head over the border, you can find the
Islamic holy city of Mecca nestled deep within Saudi Arabia. This is the
pinnacle of their faith and the development of Islamic history. Want the Mecca
of shopping? Head to Dubai. The malls often have the same stores, but every
store in every different mall is stocking different gear! Sure, you may find a
few duplicates, but Leah and I traversed four malls in two days to find
completely different merchandise in every store, each differing in targeted
clientele ever so slightly. You really can spend days in the malls, and every
mall has some form of entertainment, family fun or general tourist attraction.
Ibn Battuta Mall has a tethered hot air balloon for sights of the city from
above, Mirdif City Centre hosts an indoor skydiving unit, Festival City has a
bowling alley, Mall of the Emirates has a ski slope and snow centre, Dubai Mall
is not only attached to the Burj Khalifa and Souk al Bahar, but also has an aquarium in addition to all
having cinemas and children’s play facilities. With an endless range of
attractions and shopping galore, it’s very easy to whittle your days away in
the malls. Just don’t get out of bed before 9am. Nothing’s open until 10am.
That said, it is all open until 10-11pm on weekdays and 12-2am on weekends, so
get used to sleeping in and staying up all night.
When you’re done eating, drinking average coffee and making
dents in your savings balance, you tend to want something little more
‘cultured’. Brace yourself for the mid-40s, sweating until it drips down your
face and sweltering through the denim in your jeans, and you will be ready to
tackle the souks mid-summer. It’s intense. I didn’t like the souks at all the first time I went. However,
shared with good company and an even better sense of humour towards people pushing hard to
get sales, it’s a much more enjoyable experience. One must tackle it in the
same way they might approach bartering in the Thai markets, with the
consideration that it’s generally more expensive. The haggling is good fun and
the guys down at the textile souk genuinely have a great range of pashminas
tucked away inside their air conditioned refuges. I think I’ll need to give the
Old Souk and Spice Souk another crack one day; just one more try.
Shop ‘til you drop - that’s the general theme. When you’ve
had enough, there are enough sights to still entertain. The Burj al Arab and
Atlantis hotel are architectural attractions in and of themselves. Catch them
in the golden hour, and you’ve set yourself up for some beautiful photographs
and a neat view of the sun dropping into the sky. For the horse lovers, there’s
a tour available of the Polo Club and there are a plethora of great places to
eat to your heart’s content for your entire time in Dubai. Then, when you find
yourself completely relaxed on your last evening, pull up on a lounge at a
sheesha café in the Marina and gaze up at the lights of the skyline with some
wicked Iranian tea (or if you’re Leah, a Banana Splut). There are of course a
zillion more things to do in Dubai and the surrounding Emirates to learn about
the culture, the people and the ability to go completely over the top in construction
and tourism attractions; but for that, you might just have to move here….
