Tuesday – February 6, 2018
After all the hype and schemes for several years, I finally made it to Dubai – “the Las Vegas of Middle-East.” However, I soon discovered that Dubai is a gigantic sprawling city with distinct neighborhoods. Our hotel, the Hyatt Regency, was in the “historic’ neighborhood of Deira.
According to Frommer’s Guide, “Deira is Dubai’s oldest and busiest neighborhood, filled with the traditional sights, sounds, and smells of the city.” From our 11th floor window, we could see the cruise ship harbor in the distance and the commercial wharf of Deira lined with traditional wooden Dhows loading goods to be transported to Iran, India, and other Persian Gulf countries.
Our first stop of the day was the Dubai Museum located in Al Fahidi Fort. Built in 1787 out of coral rock and mortar, the fort is the oldest building in Dubai.
Several wooden boats, al abra, which are still used today, were on display in the courtyard.
The museum was well planned with life-sized dioramas showing existence in the region before the discovery of oil. As visitors walked along an indoor path, there were sounds and displays of shops filled with craftsmen, vendors, tailors, carpenters, textile workers, and depictions of desert life with a date farm, camels, and Bedouin families. In the courtyard outside there was a full-sized Dhow.
The tour group continued to the creek where we took several water-taxis, abras, across to Bur Dubai. This congested waterway reminded me of Venice! It was full of boats of all sizes and shapes. Who knew that Dubai was water and desert?!!
the other side of the creek was the more interesting part of Deira, with Dubai’s famous street markets, including a Gold Souk, Textile Souk, Spice Souk, and Fish Souk.
We were led into a large shop selling spices and camel milk chocolates and, after a sales pitch, we were finally able to explore the Souq on our own. Like its Arabian peninsula neighbors, most of the shoppers and vendors are “ex-pats” – people from other countries who came to Dubai to work with 2-year contracts.
Afterwards, the bus took us to the business center of Dubai and to our next stop which was Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world!
We drove through a lot of traffic but finally reached the famous skyscraper area of the city for which Dubai is known. Similar to Qatar and Oman, there was much construction going on everywhere. Burj Khalifa is part of the Dubai Mall and we had to walk through the mall to get to the entrance to the elevators which go to the observation decks of the building.
Like any main tourist attraction, we had to wait for our timed tickets to get on long lines to the elevators up to the top. There were two entrances which we had to go through for security: one for women & children and another just for men.
Statistics: Burj Khalifa is 2,717 feet tall with 160 stories. It was opened in 2010 and was designed to be part of a development which includes: 30,000 homes, 9 hotels, parkland, 19 residential towers, and an artificial lake.
There was an indoor observation deck with 360 degree views of Dubai and an outdoor observation area. Burj Khalifa set all the records for the tallest building in the world. It took the elevator 9 seconds to climb up to the 148th floor.
I walked around the observation areas, took pictures, and looked out at the other tall buildings built in the flat white desert. Then I took the elevator back down to ground level.
When the group was assembled, we were taken to have lunch at Jumeirah Emirates Towers’ excellent Italian restaurant, Alta Badia, on the 53rd floor. It is the world’s third-tallest hotel building in the world. We had a wonderful lunch with a fantastic view of Dubai!
We passed several interesting buildings on our way back to our hotel. This region of the world must be a wonderful place for professional architects to design and create fabulous buildings.
The building below is called “The Dubai Frame.” It just opened January 1, 2018 and has a museum and observation deck connecting the two towers. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit it. Oh well, next time!
We rested for several hours at out hotel and watched the sun set over Dubai Creek:
Maged, our tour leader, had a great surprise dinner for us. He had made reservations at The Atlantic which was rated “the best seafood restaurant in Dubai.” The restaurant was at one end of Souq Al Bahar and was billed as the “ultimate dining experience in downtown Dubai.”
We sat outdoors on the deck of The Atlantic overlooking the lake surrounded by illuminated buildings. Burj Khalifa dominated the night sky across the water.
The Dubai fountain was installed in the lake to rival the famous fountain in Las Vegas, Nevada and “danced” with musical accompaniment every half hour. What Fun!!
As an added feature, there was a light show cast onto the exterior of Burj Khalifa at regular intervals! What a show!! What an experience!!! Incredible…….
