Eastern Mediterranean Tour - Dubai
Day 1, 12th of December (Beatrice)
Today is the 12th of the 12th of the 12th! (this is the last time we will have the day, month and year the same number for 88 years!!)
Our trip is of all the ancient countries with long histories and fascinating cultures. First we will be flying via Joburg to Dubai, followed by Egypt, Italy, Greece and Turkey. After all that we will fly via Dubai, via Joburg back home. This, what I’m sure will be amazing trip, will take us 5 ½ weeks.
Well we started off relatively early, that is, we left the house at 6.15am. Claude (our neighbour) drove us kindly to the airport. We had something to drink at the airport café whilst reading newspapers. And finally we were off! The flight to Joburg went quite smoothly apart from the fact that the it was very bumpy. As all Air Namibia flights the flight crew played their favourite song as we landed. (Fact: no other airline does this)
Once in Joburg we first had to wait until the Emirates’ counter opened, for the previous flight landed 15min early. While we were waiting we talked to Chakirra, an ex-student and now co-worker of my mother, who was flying to Mozambique.
Daddy and I waited at the counter for ages, because it seemed that they couldn’t get their act together. Once that was done though we browsed in the duty-free items, buying a few magazines and a pillow for Alex. We sat down at Mug & Bean and enjoyed the view through the massive window of the aeroplanes taking off and landing.
We had a pink cab with a pink lady driver, who with great speed got our luggage in and brought us to the “Rush Inn Hotel”, which (would you know it) had a Club underneath called “Africana”- we at least thought this was very amusing. Alex and I have a room and down the hall Mummy and Daddy do too. We decided to sleep in “late”- as if! and meet up at 9am. leaving us with about 5h 15mins of sleep!
Day 2, 13th of December (Cathy)
We all slept like logs, very tired after our long trip. The hotel is a little eccentric – manifested by non functioning plumbing and the fact that breakfast is offered in a nightclub. This area is apparently the Little India of Dubai. it is the older part of town but not that old by normal thinking, and has attracted the immigrant population that has built up at the service of the locals, all wealthy from oil and more recent investments. All the tables were facing a stage on which Indian dancing is offered of an evening in competition with the disco one floor down. I am glad we are on the fifth floor, the noise on the lower floors must be something else. Breakfast offered a choice of egg, chicken sausages, spicy rice with relish and toast. Some of us were more adventurous, some of us stuck to toast and jam. The tea was really good and I drank enough to set me up for the day.
We set off from the hotel with Alex as our guide getting increasingly fed up with us through the day as we showed we did not trust his sense of direction. Our distrust was misplaced actually he did not get us lost once. We made our way through narrow streets and alleys to the first souk. Indian and Pakistani traders followed us hopefully as we passed their stalls. One chap ‘photo only’ got Alex dressed up in a variety of local garments, explaining all the while – this is rich young man’s dress, this is latest style etc. Demonstrating the various headdresses and how to create them. Beatrice and I bought her a turquoise top of modest design to wear whenever she thought ‘respectful dress’ would be necessary. She and I do not propose to wear veils but it is clear that women are expected to dress modestly and the locals are not happy with shorts and spaghetti tops. Beatrice had her first try a bargaining in Dubai and did well – she would survive very easily in India!
The souk has been built in the old style with wood and wooden shutters. It feels like a pastiche but it could be a restoration that is a little too efficient – we will find that this is often the case here. On the other side of the souk is the creek which is full of boats. Chris asks one of the river taxi guys how much for a trip on the creek – the hourly rate was reasonable and so we all piled on. There is no rail to prevent one from walking straight off the boat and into the water so we sit very carefully on the bench in the middle. The boat plies its way up the creek – what would be upstream if the river was flowing – maybe in a good year it does. We leave the old town, Bur Dubai where most of the buildings are fairly low rise, and move towards the business district where the ministries, the banks and so on are found. Here the buildings become far taller and the more recent buildings far more adventurous in design. Some are twisted into shapes resembling barley sugar sticks or fancy pasta, some are covered in mirror glass and we see our reflections in them as we pass by. We feel almost as if we are in a film set for a futuristic movie. Beatrice is reminded of the film ‘Meet the Robinsons’ I am reminded of Metropolis. There are no sky cars but there are helicopters flying around like large dragonflies and a plane takes off every minute or less from the airport and flies over the town so the sky is pretty busy. The banks are lined with wooden cargo ships of modest proportions. Presumably they bring goods into the city from the port. The creek being too shallow for the big container ships. Together with the little wooden taxis they make a quaint contrast with the hyper-modern sky scrapers. There are restaurant boats too along one of the banks all ready for the sun-downer cruises, equally antique in design. It seems to be that having being catapulted from a traditional way of life into the 21st century in the 1960s the citizens of Dubai maintain a need to be connected with their past which after all is only 2 generations ago.
We pass State House, a series of low buildings among trees on the bank of the creek. There are big signs everywhere saying ‘no photography’, the sheik obviously cherishes his privacy. On the other side of the water two large sky-scrapers, tactlessly called the Twin Towers, carry massive posters of the sheiks of the UAE that take up more or less their entire surface. Apparently the UAE national day was recently celebrated here, we will see the remnants of this all day as we travel around, half cleared parties, abandoned stages, posters and flags everywhere for the 2nd of December.
The water is aquamarine in colour and pleasantly tepid, the day is cool and the breeze is balmy, what perfect weather. Dubai in winter is very bearable, apparently summer is much less so which explains why the air conditioning is busy in most of the larger shops and malls.
Once we have been returned to our starting point we walk towards the sea to the heritage part of town. Here there are many old buildings and palaces that have been restored and turned into museums. They were presumably originally of adobe. There are watch towers and crenellations on the top stories that make you think that this must once have been quite a warlike place. I was fascinated by the wind towers, cleverly designed to channel the breeze into the houses and the courtyards, cleverly designed to trap the smallest eddy to cool off the inhabitants. Each courtyard has a large tree, a banyan or similar to provide shade. The most interesting museum had old photos of Dubai, dating back to the 1930s. It really was a very small settlement a few buildings on the banks of the creek belonging to pearl fishermen and other fishing folk , the sheik’s residence and that was about it. We also saw the calligraphy museum which showed Arabic script through the ages and the museum of coins and other artefacts all very fascinating. From the heritage area we walked along the main road to find the big Carrefour supermarket to buy our lunch. We passed the port area with huge cruise ships in dock, we passed some camels looking very out of place and we were passed by dozens of the state owned taxis, all coloured beige below and Smartie colours on top.
The supermarket had so much choice that we were boggled. Goods from all over the world, asparagus from Thailand next to tomatoes from Italy and oranges from Spain. The carbon footprint of the average Dubai citizen must be massive! We made our selection and walked back to the creek where we found some benches in a shady spot and ate our lunch.
After lunch we crossed the creek by water taxi and went to the Spice Souk where we were delighted by the colours and scents and had the spices explained to us by keen salesmen, (someone tried to sell ‘natural viagra’ to Beatrice) some of whom even knew where Namibia was! Many of them thought we were joking when we said where we were from. From the Spice Souk we walked on to the Gold Souk where Beatrice exercised her bargaining skills again and bought a silver chain.
We took the Dubai metro to see ‘The Palm’ an artificial isthmus which was a bit of a disappointment because you couldn’t get e decent view from anywhere, but the metro itself was state of the art and very futuristic. From the metro we took a taxi to The Palms and our patient Pakistani taxi driver stopped for photos at various strategic spots and even took some photos of us all together. Most taxi drivers are from the Indian sub-continent it seems. Chris’ ticket misbehaved on the metro and so I buzzed him through on mine and an alarm went off. I carried on walking but the kids said a man was ready to give chase. Still not sure if I believe them. Anyway at the last stop he explained his problem to another official who let us through. I am very impressed with how eager young men are to give up their seats for me on the train – so polite. Chris says its cultural. After a brief stop to freshen up at the hotel we left to seek our supper. The Club Africana in the basement had started business and the Indian club on the mezzanine floor was throbbing with a disco beat.
We found a lovely little restaurant selling South Indian food where Alex discovered a taste for spices and Masala tea. We has various pancakes and relishes, some raita and copious chilled water and finished up with Indian sweets all for the princely sum of 60 Diram – what a bargain! The service was good the tables on the pavement was nice and airy the place is called the Madhura restaurant, Al Hisn Street, Bur Dubai. Totally recommended for good tasty cheap food.
Day 3, 14th of December (Alex)
So no long sleep like yesterday, much to my disappointment, already at 7:30 am we had to be at breakfast, this is of course my parents’ idea of a holiday. Finally hot water to shower with, but therefore all the water was hot and no such thing as cool water. On the lift down all seemed normal until the doors opened on floor 01, then with a ding we were “transported to New Delhi airport” (my father), because there were absolutely loads of Indians in the passageway all coming back from breakfast and in a rush to get to the airport. The “breakfast hall” soon cleared though and then it was the usual Indian food for breakfast, with the addition of watermelon and a kind of paratha. Beatrice and I then rushed back to the room to brush our teeth and pack our rucksack, after which we then proceeded to the lobby to meet up with our parents. We stepped outside and very promptly managed to wave down a yellow taxi, for the metro was closed and the taxi was cheaper for 4 people on such a distance than the metro.
Today we are off to Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world at the moment. The taxi drive was short and the trip was filled with interesting discussions with the driver, as it has become the norm. From the taxi we couldn’t see the tip of the tower, only once we got and craned our necks up high could we see the very tip. Whilst walking through the Mall/ Burj Khalifa area we found the place where the dancing fountain display was to take place.
Since we were going up the Burj Khalifa and only had the receipts, which we had ordered online for 100 Diram, we had to go and fetch the real tickets. Briskly walking through the Mall we found the “At the Top” shop where the trips to the tower were organised, here we received our tickets and were told to be back at 10:50 am sharp. So that meant we had about 1:30 hours before we had our first engagement, so we decided to walk through the mall. In Dubai doing things early is not simply done, so loads of shops were still closed or just opening, we even found a sign advertising that they did early breakfasts at 9 am. Let me just say at this point, this mall puts all other malls to shame, for it is bigger than any mall I’ve visited and has some huge and awesome shops, a souk inside the mall, an ice rink, an aquarium the biggest bookstore I’d ever seen and an indoor Theme park. Every brand imaginable was to be found in this mall and to top it off there were shops with so much ”bling” it really dazzled you when you walked inside. We then found to our delight that the mall’s cinema was showing the Hobbit in 3D, I know awesome right. We thus formed the plan to go see it at 5 o’clock in the evening. On our way back to “At the Top” we found the most fantastic shop I had ever visited and literally had to be dragged out of it; it was called the Noble Collection and had all sorts of movie paraphernalia, such as the one ring from Lord of the Rings or a Nimbus 2001 from Harry Potter and tons more items from tons more films, in short I was in heaven and would have bought everything if I had the money.
So once back at the assembly point for ascending the tower, we had to drop off our bags at the office, and then stand in a queue that led through a security check. It was interesting to analyse the anatomy of the queue: the prompt Germans in the front followed by other Europeans, then the locals and other Arabs followed swiftly by the Asians and last but not least, well it’s their fault they were there, the English. We were walked on conveyer belts to the centre of the Burj Khalifa and then had to be packed into lifts, much like luggage at the airport. To partner with the worlds tallest tower, which can be seen from 95km away, had 12000 construction workers build it, is 826m tall and has 200+ storeys , the tower has the world’s fastest elevator travelling at up to 10m/s. This speed really did a number on my ears though having to equalise the pressure on my ears about 4 times on the way, the elevator worked so smoothly that if it hadn’t been for the pressure changes, one could’ve believed that we weren’t moving at all. The viewing platform was on the 124th floor and we had an absolutely stunning view of the City, Creek and Palm. We stayed at the top for about an hour, in which time it started to “rain”, well drops of water descending from the sky, but still not an every day event in Dubai.
Once back down, after having shared a lift ride with a screaming child, we wanted to go see the fountain display at 1pm, for that is the time explained to my mother, or rather so she thought. 1pm came and went and no sign of fountain movement, so we waited until 1:30pm and were very disappointed in the display which only lasted about 3mins. In the waiting period my father had decided to go look for a supermarket, which we discovered was nonexistent in the mall, well there was one shop which was stocked like our local fuel station shop but none of the employees could tell you the prices, so my father said. We then found each other after much looking and headed off to the food court, where we found loads of food chains including Nando’s. The rest of my family had salad, but that’s for wimps, so I had a foot-long chicken tikka sandwich from Subway, also very nice.
My mother and Beatrice headed off to the aquarium and my father and I to mooch around some more, into electronic shops of course and a couple of others, we then tried to get the wifi working on my father’s computer and finally figured out how, very simply but also very hard to discover. Then my father and I split ways I went to the indoor theme-park, just to have a look and laugh at the addicted small children wasting their parents’ money.
Cathy and Beatrice: while Alex and Chris were doing their separate explorations, Beatrice and I went to the aquarium with ‘the largest single acrylic panel in the world’. A massive vista of sea life with shoals of fish and sharks, sting rays and various other curiosities all swimming in a massive tank of sea water. Divers permanently cleaning and a long tunnel running through the bottom of the tank to walk through. It was pretty spectacular and the aquarium zoo upstairs was also really fascinating. It was strange to be watching all of this with the lights from the shopping centre reflected in the water!(Alex again) Then at 5pm we all met up at the cinema, for the Hobbit in 3D, it was really, really cool, long and 3D. I would really recommend to those who like Lord of the Rings to go and watch it.
It was nearly 8pm when we left the cinema and thus walked towards the fountains for the evening show. At 8:30pm sharp the lights were extinguished and the music began, now this was awesome. the spotlights highlighting the water and the water sounding like rockets being shot up into the air, everything was synchronised to the music, it was just amazing, like a firework display.
Then we took a taxi back to the Hotel and wanted to have dinner at the same place as yesterday, but it being 11pm on a weekend, it was packed, so we found another which too had lovely chai tea and the food was good too, but it wasn’t spicy enough for me, the restaurant was called: Sherar-Karachi Restaurant, it has nice food and is also relatively cheap, but I would go for the other restaurant any day.
Then back to our hotel where we had the conniption of Beatrice not finding her silver chain and me , where mummy had forgotten that I had given her back her phone and forgotten where she had put it.
While lying in bed and watching television, I stumbled upon a cooking program and in this program they were discussing different types of meat and once they started talking about Pig meat aka Pork they muted the word Pork, at first I thought it was an interference, then I realised that they were purposefully muting the word, understandable in an Arab city but still strange.
A very long day, but totally worth every second.
Day 4, Saturday 15th of December (Christof)
Getting up reasonably late, no rush today. Only Alex gets up early to finish yesterday’s diary, because we want to place it on the blog before we leave for the airport at lunchtime. Yet another savoury Indian breakfast, which suits us fine … I’m dreading the tasteless sweetish continental breakfasts later on this trip.
Beatrice and me are going back to the gold soukh where she bought a silver chain on the first day, which they had custom lengthened, but which had come apart on the soldering spot. So, it’s a brisk walk down to the creek, take a boat across and walk from there again. Somehow, our boat has landed further east than anticipated and so we are taking a bit longer to find the place. They repair it properly without complaint or charge. We still need to find a specific bottle opener (with a flip-flop and Dubai sand motif) for Alex. We both look and look, but its nowhere to be found … only at the very last shop do we strike luck. Then it’s a brisk walk back to the hotel. There by 11:45, while check-out is supposed to be at 12:00.
Alex unfortunately informs us that the wifi in the hotel is not working, so he could not post the blog … ah, well, at the airport then. As I pack my suitcase I ask Cathy for my money belt, which was locked in her solid suitcase. She says she had problems with closing her suitcase and Alex goes to help her. Suddenly the suitcase is locked (with all our money belts inside!) and Alex can’t open it anymore. Fortunately the passports are in Cathy’s hand bag, while my purse with credit card is in my pocket. Quickly Alex and Beatrice take turns to try all the 1000 possible combinations to open it, but none responds. Anyway it’s time to go for the airport by now. We just hope that Cathy’s suitcase does not get lost on the flight and that we can find a skilled locksmith in Cairo tonight …
The taxi to the airport, 20 km out of town, is even cheaper than anticipated, only UAD22 (N$55) for the four of us together. Well at N$2 per litre of petrol, I’m not surprised! Unfortunately the wifi at the airport (free of charge) is not working on my computer … Alex says it’s because it needs some incompatible ‘network’ setting. Well, I hope we’ll be able to activate it tonight in Cairo. Checking-in is all per routine. Flight leaves at 16:00 instead of at 15:30. The tour operators in Cairo, who are supposed to pick us up there will just have to wait a bit.
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