angusmccoll

I’m now back in Cairns. The flight home has completely worn me out! The Dubai to Australia leg with a 9-hour stop over in Hong Kong airport, and without any help from Qantas, was tuff for this already weary traveller. And I lost my faithful old glasses in the toilets…well not in the toilet. I put my glasses down while i was changing my shirt in the cubicle and left them behind. I realised what I had done but within five minutes, they were gone and the toilet attendant had not had them handed into him. I went back an hour later just to make sure he wasn’t wearing them but alas, no. Not losing them up to then was one of my triumphs on this trip.

The adventure is over. Thank you to everyone who took an interest and followed my often very self-indulgent ramblings. It was comforting to know you were there. If you aren’t completely tired of my blogs, I will be going back in over the next few days to ad photos.

A special thanks to my family for keeping a close eye on my travels and querying when ever I was late with my blogs, especially my sister Steph.

Special thanks also to Freddy and Agung for showing me around east Java and Bali, to Justin for showing me around Dili in East Timor, to Hugh and family for helping me out in California’s Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, to Don for hosting and showing me around Tucson, to Micher for hosting and showing me around Lima in Peru, to Andreas for hosting and generously showing me around his part of Germany, and to my long-time good friends Neil and Karen for generously hosting and showing me around Dubai. Your help has added genuine value to my traveling experience and I will never forget that, even when dementia and memory loss sets in!

Let me tell you about a very bad investment I have made. It is called the Qantas Club. I joined the club before starting my travels thinking it would make my time in the airports more comfortable. It cost just under $600. In all my travels around the world I have been able to use my membership twice and both those times were in Australia. That works out at about $300 per meal so far and I’m half way through my membership. Granted, many of the places I have travelled are not Qantas destinations but it does have affiliations with other clubs. I arrive at Heathrow Airport in London thinking I would be right. There is no Qantas club but it is affiliated with British Airways. I find that affiliation only works in Terminal 3. I flew from Terminal 5. I didn’t expect anything at the Dubai Airport but my luck will change at Hong Kong. I have a 9-hour wait there and could really use the facilities. There is a Qantas Club, great. But no. Because I am flying Cathay Pacific I don’t have access, despite Cathay Pacific being a One World partner of Qantas. I have to be flying Qantas or British Airways. So my investment remains at $300 per meal. It seems I have a few poisonous letters to write when I get home.

The beauty of the competitive airline industry is that I don’t ever have to use Qantas again. Flying these days is very much a choice and I choose to use anyone else but Qantarse!

Looking straight down from the viewing platform of the Burj Khalifa.

It’s Sunday and Neil and Karen go off to work. Fridays are holy days so Friday and Saturday are the weekend in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I go into town to go up to the viewing platform of the Burj Khalifa. I had to book and pay for the privilege two days ago. Ten o’clock is my appointment with the tallest building in the world.

The viewing platform is on floor 124 but there are a further 39 floors of living space. The roof is nearly 830 meters from the ground and there is a spire above that. Construction began in January 2004 in the good times but with the implosion of world economics, completion only came with some serious help from friends in the neighboring Emirates. It was finally finished six years later in January 2010. The bill came to $1.5 billion (American dollars I suppose). The crane driver, rather than up and down every day, lived in the crane for the latter part of the construction winning praise from the Emirate hierarchy.

Looking out over Dubai central from the viewing platform.

The Dubai Airshow is on today. I had a possible opportunity to go but in the end didn’t. Entry to the show is complicated. It isn’t open to the general public. You have to be associated with a business and after paying your fee you have to then go through a registration process. Having an entry ticket does not guarantee you success at the registration phase. Anyway, I’m feeling tired and with a lot of flying ahead of me I decided not to go. I hope I don’t regret it. I can see most of the action from Neil and Karen’s balcony but there are also a lot of planes on static display at the show, including the new Boeing Dreamliner. I would like to have seen that up close and personal.

I’m catching my flight for home early tomorrow morning, 1.30am early! The end of this adventure is neigh.

Passing from one Emirate to another can happen un-noticed. There is no grand signage to indicate you are crossing some border, which is interesting because the rules of etiquette and laws from one Emirate to another can be quite different. Each Emirate expresses Muslim traditions at different levels. Dubai is comparatively liberal with it’s rules. It is fine to wear typical beach wear at the beach, you can buy pork in the supermarket (even though it is sold separately in another part of the shop), and there is obvious religious tolerances here. The bookshops are full of books on non Muslim religions. Sharjar is more conservative. Police will let you know if you are inappropriately dressed at the beach or if you are there on the wrong day. The week is divided up as to who can go to the beach. They have women only days, men only days and family days. Karen works in Sharjar and always dresses conservatively.

The population makeup of Dubai is interesting. It is largely made up of itinerant workers from around the world. A quick head count shows Emiraties, or nationals, only make up 17%, other Arab nationalities 9%, 42.3% Indian, 13.3% Pakistani, 7.5% Bangladeshi, 2.5% Filipino, and the rest from Sri Lankar, Europe, America, Australia, and more.

The itinerants are the workers who do the building and servicing of Dubai. It is not common to come across an Emirati in your every-day business dealings.

We go out for drinks. The bar we go to is no ordinary bar. It is the highest bar in the world, 122 floors up in the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. The night views from here are of course stunning. You look down on some of the most extravagant part of town and every where you look us just class. I feel uncomfortable here because it is not my thing but the experience is amazing.

Oh…and I forgot to tell you I touched the Titanic at the Dubai Mall last night. And tonight we stumbled across the Emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

After dinner last night we went for a stroll through the Dubai Mall. Featured there is the largest aquarium I have ever seen. Full sized sharks are just some of the residents, along with huge rays and thousands of fish of all sizes. A walk-through tube is available for those who want to pay. But Neil takes me to an area of the mall that specialises in watches and flashed-up mobile phones. Watches are a huge status thing here as they are elsewhere but in this particular shop there are watches that are like no others. Not diamond adorned ones because that is so last season. These watches are truly unique. One line has rusted metal from the Titanic in it’s styling. Another has actual moon dust in it and another has it’s band made from the astronaut suits from one of the moon landings! They are limited releases and cost around $12000 dollars. Neil thinks Karen is going to buy him one. Karen doesn’t think so! Such is the opulence on offer in Dubai for some. Tourists come here to shop and that us what Dubai wants.

Neil and I visit Atlantis today. Atlantis is a holiday resort built on the man-made palm-shaped islands. We catch a special monorail that takes us up the stem of the palm. From the monorail you get views of the islands that make up the fronds. A single access street runs down the middle of each frond with residences built either side so they all have water fronts. It’s all very impressive. And of course the frond islands get shorter as we move to the top of the palm. I cant help thinking it wont take much global warming to cause problems here. These islands are only just out if the water. Amongst the residences are holiday resorts and planned shopping malls but the GFC has left huge holes in their place. The Atlantis Resort is one that was completed. It’s busy at the moment with families from around the world. It has a spectacular feature. Huge aquariums take up the centre of the resort and they are decorated with sets of a crumbled Atlantis, the lost city. Very impressive and the main aquarium is so large they did have a whale shark in there for a while. Concerned citizens eventually forced the resort to release the shark back into the wild. Some of the resorts rooms actually back onto the aquarium so that you could wake up with a shark staring you in the face!

Neil has to check in on the Dubai Airshow practice sessions so Karen and I wait in the carpark. We get a clear view of the action. Planes fly past in formation doing all sorts of air acrobatics and trailing coloured streams of smoke. An F16 and a Phantom fighter jets do their amazing solo acts in a cloud of exhaust and noise. It really is exciting stuff though Karen’s levels of excitement are less than mine. ‘It must be a guy thing’ she says! These amazing fighter jets do this thing where they perform a slow flyby. Like a dog dragging it’s bum on the ground they too are bum down and head up, passing by at the minimum speed required to not stall. From my vast experience with flying fighter jets, this would require great skill from the pilot and exert enormous stresses on the craft. Karen is still not that impressed.

The day is not over. For dinner tonight we head out into the desert. It’s a 70 kilometer drive through a lot of beautiful beautiful nothing. The sun is setting and the colours are mesmerising as is the mood. We pass a base for the Dubai endurance horse riding. Endurance horse riding is a big sport here and is a favourite of the Emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He is very good at it by all reports and travels the world competing.

Our restaurant is part of a resort out here in the desert by itself. It’s luxurious and very comfortable. We start with a visit to the bar. It’s packed with the ‘UAE Black Eagle’ biker gang. On the way out Neil recognises a large black car wearing the number one number plate. That belongs to Sheikh Mohammed. On our way into the restaurant after enjoying the desert air from beanbags we are asked to step aside and coming out is the Sheikh. With his all-male entourage, he walked right passed us! He even acknowledged Neil. I’m very impressed.

The dinner is buffet style specialising in traditional Arab foods and it comes with and Arabian styled show including music and dancing.

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.

Dubai is one of seven Emirates that are economically and administratively united under the one flag, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Emirates share the Arabian Peninsula with Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Each Emirate (or state) is ruled by an hereditary Emir and the UAE is overseen by a President.

The name ‘Dubai’ refers to the city capital and to the region. Within the region are other small towns. The city sits on Dubai Creek, which isn’t a creek but a deep narrow inlet that provides great access for trading vessels. Dubai was a well established port for traders from around the world who enjoyed the generous tax breaks here and then oil was discovered in 1966. then the economy took off and so did the modern development of Dubai.

Karen takes me for a drive. We visit Sharjah, which is a small Emirate bordering Dubai to the south. Karen teaches Year 3 at the Australian International School in Sharjah. This school is a business owned by Emirates (nationals) that uses the Queensland curriculum. Most of the staff are Australian, including the Headmistress. They have had visits from the Queensland Premier and the Governor General.

We also visit Sharjah’s University City, which is a large area given to universities from around the world. The facilities are very new and very impressive. The grounds are immaculate. Manicured lawns and gardens of soft colourful ornamental flowers demand constant attention from a large staff of gardeners and water sprinklers. I suspect a desert landscape would be far more appropriate, considering we’re in a desert, but it is typical of other places here also to have these water dependent gardenscapes.

Nearby is a wildlife park full of animals from the Arabian Peninsula region. I live going to these places to check out the other inhabitants. Surprisingly they gave done big cats and the highlight of the visit here was being just a meter away from a beautiful cheetah lying there cleaning itself, occasionally eyeballing me and licking it’s lips at some kids nearby. Fortunately for them there was plenty of thick glass between us. A leopard roamed in the background. Hyenas really are ugly and desert rats are very cute, as are the hedgehogs. The Turkish spiney-haired rat is particularly cute, and very rare sadly. So little is known about them so there is a PhD into their delicate little lives just waiting to happen.

Arabic dancers with bagpipes in the band!

For dinner we meet up with mates of Neil and Karen and go into town to a World Trade Expo. This is an event that happens for a month each year and is very popular with the locals. Countries from around the world set up shops to sell their wares and foods. There are cultural performances as well. The Arabic dancers were impressive. They had bagpipes in their band, which I thought was interesting. When did the bagpipes come into Arabic culture? Or did they have them first? There was a very basic bagpipe made with goat gut in the local museum. Maybe the Scots pinched them from the Arabs!

And of course there are the rides for the strong of nerve.

What a day!