Monday, January 5, 2009

36 hours in Dubai

After stopping in London to transfer, we boarded Emirates for the flight to Dubai, on the newest Airbus A380-800.
Emirates is one amazing airline. They have wide seating arrangements and Tivo-like entertainment consoles in each seat.

My brother Justin has told me about Emirates' incredible first-class "compartments" which include a personal spa for each passenger. I couldn't get up there, but I took a picture of the stairs to this exclusive area; when you peek at the top, there's a reception desk, just like a hotel, to check in the first-class passengers!After that, we landed in Dubai and had to figure out the way through Dubai's GINORMOUS airport. After resting in our hotel room, we walked around the town a bit, which was actually a bit difficult because the city is very spread out and it seems most common to take taxis everywhere. By the way, these are not your usual taxis - they are Lexuses and Toyotas.

Later that night we went to a Safari tour. Think Hawaiian luau, Arabian-style; the trip started with "dune-bashing," which was a lot of violent driving around like this (Shirley didn't like this very much): Here's a VID.
And a BBQ dinner in a tented, open air-area with a belly-dancer, henna drawing, hookah-smoking, camel riding and some dress-up:
Finally after 20 years of watching cheech and chong I can quote them more properly.

The next day before heading to the airport, we went to one of Dubai's most famous landmarks, the luxury hotel Burq Al Arab ("Tower of the Arabs" in Arabic) on Jumeirah Beach. It is the tallest hotel in the world, situated on an artificial island, and cost $650 million to construct. We discovered you actually can't go inside without a hotel reservation or restaurant plans, and there's no way we'd get to stay there with suites starting at $1,000 a night! So to get this picture we ate breakfast at the hotel next door.
I found that wikipedia had documented some interesting opinions on the Burq Al Arab, ranging from: "...monuments to the triumph of money over practicality.." to "... the very pinnacle of tackiness..." Do you agree with either comment?

All in all, our overall impression is that Dubai seems to be a city continuing its incredible growth and change, especially in real estate, with most attractions are centered around shopping, beaches and fancy hotels. Sort of like Las Vegas, without the sin.

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