Neil is working again today. He is the Director of Operations for the Ambulance service here for all of Dubai. It’s a responsible job and he is committed at the moment overseeing the service at a busy time. Dubai has it’s annual International Air Show this Sunday and the expectations of the ambulance service are demanding.
Karen and I head off for another drive. We head for the desert. We pass through small towns and the further west we go the less vegetation we see. Around the city the dunes are dotted with a shrub-like tree but they thin to nothing the deeper into the desert we go. Rainfall? There was a shower of rain on the morning I flew in and this was the talk of the town. Neil and Karen tell me they have had no rain for the last 12 months and this is not unusual. Some water comes from underground but most comes from desalination plants.
This is what the locals do for fun
The further west the bigger the dunes and the more red. They’re beautiful but there is a lot of road-side rubbish about that disappoints us both. A very popular pastime for locals is dune driving in either 4WD or souped-up 4-wheel buggies. There were several places along this road where we could have hired a buggy and gone for a strap around the dunes, such is the demand for this sort of thing.
On the way home we visit a birdwatching hide. Flamingoes are visiting the wetlands here at the moment. Flamingoes have one of natures most extraordinary migratory stories that is just too big to go into here. It’s just as amazing as the Antarctican penguins or the African wilderbeasts. It’s great to see them up close and in the wild.
We go into the city to visit the gold and textile suks and to visit Dubai Creek. Suks are markets. The gold suks are an area of town that consists of side-by-side gold shops. The stuff on display is stunning as you would imagine, and hard to describe. It ranges from the simple to the most complex and intricate design. The latter makes up the more traditional styled jewelry for weddings I suspect. But there is plenty here for the visitor and the area is busy with tourists.
We duck into a museum that is close by. The building was an old fort and was one of the original buildings. Apart from it, there is very little that is old in this city. Even the cars are all late model. The museum gives a great demonstration of how life was here and the story of the Bedouins. There is also a slick marketing-style presentation of what Dubai is today. This was a British protectorate from the late 1800s to 1971 when Dubai became independent and united with the other Emirates to form the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That union is celebrating 40 years this year.
We get on an old traditional-styled boat for a short cruise up the creek. The sun is setting and the light us just magical right now. As well as a popular place for tourists, this waterway is an important port fir freight boats servicing the local neighboring countries. These freighters are wooden boats that carry their load where ever it will fit. Some of it looks a bit precarious to me and risky for a rough sea voyage. The operators live on the boats. The views from the creek give another perspective of the city.
The Burj Khalifa. There is no taller building in the world (I did not take this pic).
For dinner tonight Neil and Karen take me to a restaurant in the city on ground level, just across from the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Between us and the Burj khalifa is a large pool that is home to a series of underwater pipes and tubes. About every half hour these pipes come to life to music. The display is fantastic. Spouts of water shoot up at different heights and different directions, synchronised to the music. The Burj Khalifa In the background adds to this water display with synchronised flashing lights from the bottom to it’s very top, 800 meters high. The show is a real crowd stopper as you would imagine. Our restaurant is part of the Dubai Mall which is a 1200-shop shopping mall so shoppers flock around at the predicted times to witness the musical fountain. It’s all a bit of an assault on my humbled senses. This could not possibly be further from my experiences in Indonesia, Wast Timor and South America. If it wasn’t for my comfortable time in Europe, Dubai may well be too overbearing for me.
The city of Dubai is new. it is so different to everywhere else I have been. The development of city I guess exploded after the discovery of oil here in the 1960s. It is now a city of modern sky scrapers and shopping malls. The flamboyant architectural building designs give this place one of the mist interesting cityscapes I have ever seen. Neighbouring Sharjar is more conservative.
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