United Arab Emirates
We had a brief stopover in UAE a couple of years back at the end of a cruise from Barcelona across the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea (through territorial waters of Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Somalia (!), Yemen and Muscat and Oman before ending the cruise in Dubai. We splashed out on a couple of nights in Dubai Raffles Hotel before flying home and that hotel is amazing. It`s the only place I`ve stayed in which has a phone by the toilet with a red button which you press to tell anyone at the door that you will be with them as soon as you have finished the paperwork. :-) I would venture to say that this hotel even surpasses the Copacabana Palace in Rio, having stayed in both. Our `standard` room was more like a suite . Just check out the picture below of Gill taking coffee in the foyer whilst they hurriedly got a room ready for us as we had turned up fresh off the boat at 9 am
Dubai itself is readily split up into old and new. Around the western side of hte emirate is Dubai Creek which was the original old town complete with traditional buildings, markets and dhows which moves goods all around the Aabian Gulf. If you are a fan of Michael Palin you may well have seen him travel on a dhow from this area across to India on his journey. You see great stacks of products in transit alongside the quay ranging from air conditioners, washing machines and other large white goods. Most of the dhows are tired looking having plied their trade for many years but there are also a few that have been converted into floating restaurants. Check out our pictures below. Taxis are cheap and public transport is also very good so it is quite easy to get around either sightseeing or shopping.
And that brings me to the new part of Dubai . . . shopping (biggest shopping complex in the world is the Dubai Mall), business and leisure. The tallest building in Dubai is the Burj Khalifa, which rises 828 metres (2,717 ft) and contains 161 floors - again see my pictures. We grabbed a day ticket on the Big Red Bus which constantly circulates along several routes and has a constant audio tourist presentation via headphones to keep you appraised of where you are and what you are seeing. The Dubai Mall is mind bogglingly huge and an added attraction are the nightly dancing fountains which play out in the huge pool on the seaward side of the mall every 30 minutes from dusk onwards. A great free entertainment if you are running short of funds. I`ve not mentioned the beaches or their hotels, or indeed the sea reclamation wonder which is The Palm but Google will tell you all you need to know about that
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Browse through the picture galleries below relating to this page and you will get a much better idea than just reading my words! Each page has it`s own set of relevant images - where possible taken by us.