I had one day to myself to explore the city of Dubai. Eva booked a spot on a tour for me, and on Monday I was ready and excited to board the bus. (I am not sure if I was more excited to get a break from my job or to see Dubai...)
I was the only person from our resort on the tour and the bus made several stops along the way to pick up other people from nearby hotels. Add these stops to the not inconsiderable distance of Ras al Khaimah from Dubai and it took us three hours to get to Dubai. We parked in an IKEA parking lot on the outskirts of the city to wait for another bus. I was on the English tour, obviously, but with me on the bus from Ras al Khaimah were several Czechs and some Germans and they had to switch buses to get on their tours. It was a little crazy.
We finally got started. On my tour were a dozen other people, mainly British. And quite reticent. I could barely get a "hello" out of them as they boarded the bus. I was hoping someone would be friendly so I wouldn't be all by myself all day, but no one showed any interest in the little girl sitting by herself. Ahh, woe is me.
Our first stop was by the creek to get photos of the Dubai bank. Here it is in the middle. They are all about sail-shaped architecture, as you will see.
Then it was a thirty minute stop at the Dubai Museum. This was quite helpful as I knew nothing about the city. After being surrounded by thousand year old history for months, it was rather shocking to learn that the Dubai we know is only about 50 years old. There have been small settlements in that area for centuries, but electricity and telephones only arrived in the 1950s. The creek was too shallow and full of shifting sand bars to allow for big boats, so trade and travel was only possible after the creek was dredged like crazy in the 1950s. The sheiks have essentially re-shaped the landscape and designed the city from scratch. (It is an interesting experiment, certainly.) The city really began to grow when oil was discovered in the 1960s, which caused a big boom. Now, oil revenues account for only 6% or so of the economy. The rest comes from tourism, real estate, and financial services. Or it did, before everything got a little shaky about a week after we returned to Prague. Not my fault, though.
So the city is quite new, even by our short American standards. The museum is in an old fort of some kind, or maybe the fort was built to look old. I can't remember.
Highlights of the very child friendly museum included rooms full of tableaus showing traditional suks, pearl diving, desert living, and camels. Lots of fake people sitting and standing around. It gave me the creeps. They were awfully real looking. And I am not a wax museum person.
The main goal of the museum, at least in my opinion, was to wow the visitor with fake people and display how much the city has grown into the awesomeness it now is. There was an emphasis on the "traditional" lifestyle of tents and camels juxtaposed with the incredible modernity, shiny-ness, tall-ness, and overall ridiculous consumption of Dubai today. It is rather amazing since according to the models of the city, there was really nothing there but a few tents in the early 1950s. And now...
My favorite moments in the museum had little to do with the exhibits. I almost started clapping when I heard a small child singing "Row, row, row your boat," and then I remembered that his song was not such a big deal since he is American. I get so excited when one of my charges says anything in English that I forget that for native speakers it is not quite as amazing.
(Lukas does love nursery rhymes, so he is constantly chanting "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed..." except he changes the last one to "Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, 'Yes, please, monkeys jumping on the bed,'" I guess since he likes the idea of a monkey on a bed. He also substitutes my name for monkeys, so it becomes "Five little Camerons jumping on the bed" and he also enjoys changing bed to table or jumping to eating or whatever. He also likes "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes." It is a great way to get him speaking, but a bit annoying on long car rides.)
Anyway, back to the museum. I somehow became entangled with another group of what sounded like American tourists. I would bet they were from a cruise ship since they were a bit on the older side. I was behind an elderly woman with her pure white hair cut in the cutest pageboy. She looked like an older version of June Allyson, and she reminded me of my grandmother in Minnesota. She was dressed in a white polo shirt and white slacks (which is the only appropriate word for those pants) and she was all done up with jewelry and makeup.
She was with an equally old man named Jack. It made me smile: Grandma and Grandpa do Dubai. Awesome.
I stuck with them through the museum just to hear their comments. And to hear English. And because I felt like I was their honorary granddaughter for a few minutes. As we passed the cannon in this picture, the woman said:
"Jack, look at those balls!"
Her comments throughout the exhibits were slightly irreverent and silly and a pleasure to hear. She kept calling for Jack to come and look at things, and exclaiming over various objects in a loud, un-self-conscious voice.
In the gift shop I was looking at books and she came over to the shelf and started browsing, too. She said something like "There are so many!" and I nodded and smiled and agreed. She leaned forward conspiratorially and said, "I want to ask which is their best book but the line is so long!" "That would be helpful to know," I said.
So she barreled her way nicely to the front of the line and asked the man behind the counter, loudly, "Which is your best book?"
Love it.
I hated to leave her behind but I had to get back to my bus. I crossed the street and felt like all the male drivers were staring at me. I don't know if they were since I didn't want to look, but I I felt very conspicuous and a bit vulnerable all day. It was being alone, being a young woman, being a pale, blonde young woman, and not really knowing what the plan for my day was. Eva just handed me the receipt for the tour (which was very nice of her to get for me, don't get me wrong,) but I had no idea where the tour was going or when it stopped or if I needed to change buses again at some point or how I was getting back to my hotel. Which was not a great feeling for a control freak like me alone in a foreign land.
The bus took us to the creek which we crossed in a traditional, flat bottomed boat. Another wild juxtaposition between the somewhat shabby wooden boats and the skyscrapers lining the creek.
The ride took about five minutes. Very touristy but cool.
The dhows, bigger traditional boats, were lovely to look at as we crossed the creek. They are quite intricately carved and painted in nice colors.
Then it was off to the spice suk. I am not a very knowledgeable cook but it was still interesting to see the spices in their big sacks and jars. Weird, though, since next to the picturesque spice stalls with their saffron spilling out of burlap bags and dried dates and cinnamon resting in the sun...were stalls of cheap cheap cheap plastic toys, toasters, floaties, gaudy, thin beach towels, tacky clothes...Weird.
Next to the gold suk. Like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, this covered outdoor market is lined with gold and jewelry shops.
There were some beautiful things. I didn't buy anything or even look very seriously, though, since you have to haggle with the merchants. And I don't haggle well. I needed my father!
While gazing at the emeralds and diamonds in a window you were constantly approached by men shouting about "Water! Pashminas! Juice! Chanel! Shirts! Fendi! Sunglasses!" I don't like being yelled at like that. So I didn't get a fake Chanel purse or a bottle of water.
Back to the bus. The tour was fine but they kept taking us to stores where they clearly had deals with the owners. I don't like being so blatantly herded into tourist traps. We spent more time waiting in jewelry stores and rug shops than we did seeing Dubai. They justified these stops and the ensuing delays by telling us that we had to wait for the bus to turn around...right.
We did stop by a Haagen Dazs which is conveniently across the street from a mosque.
Not just any mosque--the Jumeirah Mosque, which is the biggest one in Dubai. Although this mosque does allow non-Muslims inside, (it is the only one to do so in Dubai) we did not go in since the non-Muslim tours are only offered once or twice a week in the morning.
Here is a detail of one of the minarets. You can see the speakers for sending out the call to prayer. From our resort we could hear the call of a nearby mosque, especially the noon one. It was beautiful.
From the same point by the Haagen Dazs we had a nice though hazy view of the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world. I don't know what makes the air so hazy. Heat? Pollution? Sand?
The Burj Dubai will be 2, 684 feet when it is completed in January. It has 160 floors, and was only begun in 2004. It cost 4.1 billion US dollars: office space was selling for $4,000 per square foot, and residential was $3,500 per square foot.
Nice little chart. Thanks, Wikipedia.
The construction in the city is really incredible. Look at all the cranes! These are all buildings near the Burj Dubai. Ten years ago there was nothing there.
At this point in the tour I switched tour groups to a German one. I think the English tour was going to have lunch somewhere but Eva had not paid for that part. So I got on the bus with German speakers and tried to figure out what was going on. We stopped at the Burj Al Arab, the tallest hotel in the world. (Everything in Dubai is the tallest or the newest or the fastest.)
This is the sail-boat shaped hotel you may have seen. It is one of the most expensive hotels in the world, and is unofficially the one and only 7-star hotel. There are seven or eight staff per guest room, I think. Crazy. It stands on its own man made island, which is near the Palm Island. We didn't see that, but we did drive by the world island, which has artificial islands in the shape of the continents. It is not quite finished yet.
There is a heli-pad, just in case driving there is not cool enough for you.
Back on the bus and a short drive to the Mall of the Emirates. It seems that Europe and Dubai are a little crazy for malls right now. And there are some lovely ones. It is interesting, though, since in my limited experience I think that America is moving away from the gigantic malls towards more mixed-realty, "community" shopping centers. As though the US has already done the huge mall thing and is ready for something else.
The Mall of the Emirates was quite nice. Very upscale. A lot like the Mall of America, but more marble. And you are supposed to cover your shoulders in the Mall of the Emirates. But not a lot of people did, which surprised me. There are signs everywhere asking people to dress respectfully, but tourists walk around in tank tops just the same.
I got some lunch at Hardee's in the food court. Amusing, I know. The girl at the cash register was really nice and asked me how I liked Dubai. It was a sweet, unexpected conversation.
After lunch I wandered around. I saw the indoor ski slope...neat, but why? I sifted through racks of sequined tops next to women in burkas, which made me wonder what they wear underneath those voluminous black robes...
All the stores were the same as in European cities. Mango, H & M, Zara, Ralph Lauren, Bata, etc. I went into a department store which was filled with Christmas decorations (interesting) and saw the running outfits that conservative Muslim women can wear to work out in. It is like a burka--long sleeves, long pants, even hand coverings, but made of brighter, stretchier material. It comes with a matching head scarf and veil. I don't know about bathing suits, but there are women-only beaches and clubs in Dubai where women can go swimming since they can't unveil with men around.
After some fruitless shopping I parked myself at a Starbucks near where the bus was parked. My home away from home...
I watched the cars pull up to the valet parking. Lots of Range Rovers, Porsche Carreras, Mercedes, and an intriguing matte black BMW sedan. I have never seen a matte car before. I liked it. It glowed instead of shimmered.
The level of wealth in Dubai is really staggering. And who knows how much of it is real and how much is just a display. But pretty amazing. Also a bit strange since the gulf between haves and have-nots is immense. Dubai imports a lot of South Asian workers, for instance, and driving through the city you have the Burj Al Arab on one side and seedy looking, sad streets on the other.
My main impression of Dubai was "artificial." The land and water is artificial and the growth has been artificially, astronomically fast. It seems that a sheik decides to build a new highway or another huge man made island or the tallest building in the world and it just happens. I guess when you have a lot of money you can do that, completely manipulate your surroundings and your reality. But when I was there I wondered what would/will happen when the money disappears. When another city is the tourist hot spot, the chic place to go, or when another place has the tallest hotel in the world. You can't keep building the tallest ____ or have the newest _____. Well, I guess you can, but that isn't a sustainable plan long term. Right now the attraction of Dubai is that it is so ridiculous. Everything is taller, bigger, newer, more expensive, more luxurious. But I am not sure that that can last. The novelty wears off. Also, it felt like such a man's city. Not to be totally sexist, but I don't think a woman in charge would place such an emphasis on taller, bigger, higher. Like in Shrek, when the short king builds the tallest castle. Compensating for anything?
Dubai also reminded me of Venice. But most things do. Anyway, like Dubai, Venice is an artificial city. It was build on marshes and the land was reclaimed from the sea by hammering millions of tree trunks into the water and putting reed mats on top and hauling in soil until there was some semi-stable land to build on. Venice in the 14th and 15th and 16th centuries was one of the most powerful city-states in the world. It was a tourist haven even then because of its wealth and its insane architecture and attractions. But as the world shifted it gradually lost power, mainly because it was no longer the entrance to the East. I wonder if in a hundred years we will look at Dubai the same way we look at Venice. An interesting place to go, but a bit sad, too, to see something so beautiful and extraordinary and powerful decay, though ever so slowly.
I was a bit surprised that my mind kept going to what I perceived as the inevitable fall of Dubai...I kept imagining it as a ghost town, and wondering what aliens or our human descendants would think of the city. Hmmm. Especially interesting given the sobering financial tidings that came out of Dubai a few weeks ago.
The kids and Eva all have their own skiing gear, but the boyfriend and I needed to rent stuff. I was completely clueless about what I needed and how to put everything on. I immediately hated wearing the ski boots. I thought I was being obtuse because I couldn't walk very well in the stiff boots. Then I saw other people in their boots and realized that it wasn't just me. We all looked like Frankenstein's Creature, clomping around, rocking from heel to toe in the uncomfortable, coffin-like shoes.
Eva had gotten me a ski instructor for two hours in the morning, for which I am very grateful. After we were all suited up in our terrible boots and layers of clothing, lugging our cumbersome skis and poles (could someone please invent a better way to do this sport? Or at least a better way to carry everything?), everybody but me hopped into a gondola to go to the top of the mountain. I went to meet my ski instructor, Peter.
And posing on the way:
