We scheduled an extended layover in Dubai en route from Istanbul to Kathmandu, spending just 31 hours in this sprawling, glitzy, sandy city on the Persian Gulf. This proved to be enough time for us to see the cultural highlights and get our fix of western shopping and eating, and was about all the time our budget could afford in this land of luxury.
We arrived on the red-eye from Istanbul, spending just long enough in our hotel for breakfast and a shower before setting out on our whirlwind tour. We began in Old Dubai, walking along Dubai Creek with its modern buildings juxtaposed against the colorful, weighed-down “dhows” on the creek, which take goods up the gulf to Iran. We walked around the Deira souks (markets), the most famous of which is the gold souk, where every shop window is full of gold jewelry, from simple bangles to over-the-top necklaces and tiaras. After six weeks in Turkey, touring Roman ruins and 10,000 year old archaeological sites, the fifty-year old “Old Dubai” felt pretty modern.
“New Dubai” is all about being over the top: the tallest, the biggest, the fanciest. It consists of a relatively narrow strip sprawling along the Gulf Coast for more than 25 kilometers, and it is full of modern architectural marvels. We began our exploration of this area by taking the metro out to “The Walk,” an outdoor shopping and dining strip facing the beach where we stopped for iced Starbucks (our first non-nescafe coffee in a month), and walked along Jumeirah beach with its wide sandy beach full of (foreign) sunbathers, dipping our toes in the warm Gulf waters. Next, we headed to the infamous “Palm,” the manmade community built on a palm tree-shaped landfill jutting out into the Gulf. There, we walked around the extravagant Atlantis Hotel located at the tip of the palm – with a Vegas-like over-the-top gaudiness, and where even entering the main lobby of the hotel has an extra charge (we snuck in).
We spent our evening checking out the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at 828 meters (and over 160 floors). In its shadow is the Dubai Fountain, which has a nightly show set to music with the water surging as high as 150m. Of course, our trip to Dubai wouldn’t have been complete with visiting some of its famous malls (we managed to visit two). The more impressive of the two, the Dubai Mall, is the world’s largest mall and is situated next to the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain. Ferraris, Bentleys, Lamborghinis, and other luxury cars lined the valet parking area at the main entrance, and with over 1200 shops, an ice rink, indoor waterfalls, and a huge aquarium, you could walk around this mall for hours without ever retracing your steps. It was, in its way, beautiful and impressive, but we could have been anywhere in the world, with the chain stores making it feel more like Los Angeles than the Middle East.
Our quick trip was fascinating, and we did take advantage of the chain restaurants offering familiar foods, but 31 hours was definitely enough time for us in this Middle Eastern metropolis. In the morning we headed back to the airport and boarded our flight where we would again be transported to a completely different world: Kathmandu.
Click on the photo below to view our Dubai photo album:
We arrived on the red-eye from Istanbul, spending just long enough in our hotel for breakfast and a shower before setting out on our whirlwind tour. We began in Old Dubai, walking along Dubai Creek with its modern buildings juxtaposed against the colorful, weighed-down “dhows” on the creek, which take goods up the gulf to Iran. We walked around the Deira souks (markets), the most famous of which is the gold souk, where every shop window is full of gold jewelry, from simple bangles to over-the-top necklaces and tiaras. After six weeks in Turkey, touring Roman ruins and 10,000 year old archaeological sites, the fifty-year old “Old Dubai” felt pretty modern.
“New Dubai” is all about being over the top: the tallest, the biggest, the fanciest. It consists of a relatively narrow strip sprawling along the Gulf Coast for more than 25 kilometers, and it is full of modern architectural marvels. We began our exploration of this area by taking the metro out to “The Walk,” an outdoor shopping and dining strip facing the beach where we stopped for iced Starbucks (our first non-nescafe coffee in a month), and walked along Jumeirah beach with its wide sandy beach full of (foreign) sunbathers, dipping our toes in the warm Gulf waters. Next, we headed to the infamous “Palm,” the manmade community built on a palm tree-shaped landfill jutting out into the Gulf. There, we walked around the extravagant Atlantis Hotel located at the tip of the palm – with a Vegas-like over-the-top gaudiness, and where even entering the main lobby of the hotel has an extra charge (we snuck in).
We spent our evening checking out the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at 828 meters (and over 160 floors). In its shadow is the Dubai Fountain, which has a nightly show set to music with the water surging as high as 150m. Of course, our trip to Dubai wouldn’t have been complete with visiting some of its famous malls (we managed to visit two). The more impressive of the two, the Dubai Mall, is the world’s largest mall and is situated next to the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain. Ferraris, Bentleys, Lamborghinis, and other luxury cars lined the valet parking area at the main entrance, and with over 1200 shops, an ice rink, indoor waterfalls, and a huge aquarium, you could walk around this mall for hours without ever retracing your steps. It was, in its way, beautiful and impressive, but we could have been anywhere in the world, with the chain stores making it feel more like Los Angeles than the Middle East.
Our quick trip was fascinating, and we did take advantage of the chain restaurants offering familiar foods, but 31 hours was definitely enough time for us in this Middle Eastern metropolis. In the morning we headed back to the airport and boarded our flight where we would again be transported to a completely different world: Kathmandu.
Click on the photo below to view our Dubai photo album:
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