Dubai Travel Guide, United Arab Emirates

Dubai

From the 20th to 25th April 2008 we visited Dubai.

We left Munich at 8 pm and we stopped in Istanbul, Turkey. It was an Turkish Airlines Airbus. The Landing was quite difficult because the plane was too fast at landing point. We had to wait here three hours before we left towards Dubai.

We arrived at 6 am local time. After we passed the customs we took a cab to my brother’s place. Cabs are not very expensive there. You can cross the whole city for approximately 10-12 Euros. Dubai is like a huge building site. It is very impressive with the tall buildings which have a huge carne on their top. It looks like a scene from a science fiction film. The temperature was acceptable 25 C but we already felt the dust in the air. The city has a lot of sand brought by the wind from the desert. Unfortunately we missed my brother’s house, because the taxi driver didn’t know the address. That’s a general problem in Dubai, that the cabs don’t have GPS and the drivers don’t know the city very well.

Finally my brother picked us up and brought us to his house. It’s a terraced house with 8 rooms and 3 bathrooms. There is a pool and a fitness room in the yard. It’s a nice neighborhood called Al Hudaiba. The majority of the people living there are physicians and The American Hospital’s employees. There was a mosque next to the yard where the people go to pray. According to their rules muslims have to go to pray five time a day. There is no chance to miss them, because they are called through loudspeakers. Four of those speakers where directed towards the house. This way we were woken up each day at 5 am even if we didn’t go to pray.

Otherwise Dubai is a not such a conservative country in comparison to Saudi Arabia, or other Islamic countries. In spite of this there are some starnge rules and laws. Israeliens can't enter Dubai. There is a rumor, thet even when you have an israelian stamp in your passport, you can't enter. It is ruled by the Ruler of Dubai and Vice president of the United Arabic Emirates: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He seems to be a reasonable person because he tries to foresee the future when Dubai’s oil reserves will be over. His plan for the future is to establish the city as a touristic and financial center, a bridge between the Middle East and the rest of the world. Dubai has currently 4 million visitors every year. Their goal for 2020 is to have 15 million visitors. To make the city attractive for tourists and investors they decided in the middle of the 90-s to build more beaches. For this purpose they started to build islands in front of the coast of Dubai. This way they created the famous Jumeirah Palm. This will become a city with an entire infrastructure. It was an unique project and it is considered as the eighth wonder of the world.

Otherwise there is not much to see for an ordinary visitor, who isn't interested in skyscrapers and overwhelming luxury.

You can enjoy luxury only indoors, because of the scorching heat (over 45 degrees) and dust which comes from the desert. You can see very few people on the streets.

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• A Few Days Vacation in Dubai
  review by MadSuh posted more then 30 days ago
  This was an interesting trip. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was certainly surprised. I think that most people living in the Western World have some prejudice against the Arab world. I certainly thought I would feel a bit uneasy in an Arab State. We are used to personal freedom and modern...

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Read our members' travel tips about Dubai

• Ski Dubai
  travel tip by MadSuh posted more then 30 days ago
  Ski Dubai is located inside Mall of the Emirates. When I was there I was just amazed about how they had managed to build this thing inside a mall, wow. And guess what, people actually use it. Anyhow, if you ever want to go skiing in the...
• Jumeirah Beach
  travel tip by MadSuh posted more then 30 days ago
  Jumeirah Beach is an amazingly beautiful beach on the outskirts of Dubai. You should go there and then also visit the Burj al Arab which is quite close.
• Burj Al Arab
  travel tip by MadSuh posted more then 30 days ago
  The Burj Al Arab is supposed to be the most expensive hotel in the world. When I went there I told the guard that I was in Dubai for a travel conference and that we were supposed to get a tour for free. He made some phone calls and I was...

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