Last year’s Christmas and this year’s new year are when some of my best encounters I could never demand more. Danny spent the entire stay in Dubai and Istanbul with me. It is his first trip Dubai and ours to Istanbul.
Dubai was fun with Wild Wadi Water Park, predominantly and of course, the Chicken Tikka restaurant with the most authentic Indian cuisine I have ever tasted. Dubai is never complete without a visit to Burj Al-Arab, but to our disappointment, we could not secure a reservation for the afternoon tea, where we could savour a great view of Dubai skyline. It was full for the entire month of December.
However, we managed to find out that, the best view of Burj Al-Arab is definitely not being in there, but when you climb the 27 meter high tower for the fastest water slide outside North America. Or is it the longest or highest? I am not too sure. But it was fast, when we slide down at 80km per hour (as assured by the Wild Wadi brochure)!
The view of Burj was magnificent and almost surreal from midway and to the top of the tower. The Burj (not to be confused with Burj Dubai, which is making its way to be the world’s tallest building), will never look that perfect if you don’t see the foundation where it lays on. It looks like a mighty sailing yacht with the pristine blue sky and ocean as its backdrop.
I can never imagine that anything man-made can be as beautiful as the Burj. It must have taken a genius architect to create it, I’m sure. It seems, these days, architecture has never been so alive with post-modern designs. Take a look at Beijing, the famous Bird’s Nest stadium and the Egg-like opera house, it’s a playground for architects to erect what their mind can conceive.
The Jumeirah beach, not forgetting to mention, is another good spot for sun tanning, relaxing and wanting to feel like you are in a Western country. Well, for a Muslim nation, we find the atmosphere here, very liberal and open. Not uptight at all. Well, bear in mind that we could be bias as we would always remained as the outsiders with an outsider’s lens.
We also ventured to Ski Dubai at Mall of Emirates. It is interesting looking at how Arabs dressed in their traditional costumes and with winter jackets on. It reminded me of some ski resorts I always watched on telly. Everyone in there looked just like penguins.
Mall of Emirates and Deira City Centre are some of the shopping malls we paid homage to. What is life in the 21st century without shopping malls?
Danny and I also tried riding on a camel during our Desert Safari Tour. Poor animal having to endure the weight of over 120kg! Camels are lovely animals but I could never forget what an Egyptian friend had told me about them. Once again, we are capable of stereotyping animals too!
Oh yeah, another thing to mention about this tour. Well, Danny managed to find out from interviewing our 4x4 dune bashing driver-cum-tour guide, that all the drivers and guides who appeared to be clad in traditional Arabian clothing, are mostly Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Iranians and probably Indians. The most common language spoken besides Arabic, is Hindi. In the tourists’ eyes, this desert safari tour seemed like operated by Arabs, offering a truly Arabian experience.
After knowing the truth behind, we were amazed at how difficult it is to differentiate the locals and foreigners. Everyone looks like an Arab here to an untrained pair of eyes. I conclude that, the locals are the ones in the posh-est cars on the road and it is an unwritten rule that other cars must give way to them when they are accelerating. That’s a true Arab living in the land they believe to be theirs and the rest are merely subjects working for them.
