Text and photos by Yvette Cardozo July, Vol. 18, No. 11
Dubai really does look like some sci-fi writer’s city of the future. But it’s with good reason. In only a few decades, the modern city sprang from the desert.It gleams and sparkles with buildings of glass and steel, some that soar, lean, bulge, twist and fold, often seeming to defy gravity.
All that’s missing are the jet packs and hovercraft. But not far away is the desert with its camels, its Bedouins and the Bedouin culture of henna tattoos, hookahs and tents with rugs on the sand for floors. And so, while you can play George Jetson in Dubai, you can also visit the past in the nearby desert.
First, there’s the city. Everything in Dubai seems to try and be “the biggest.” There’s the world’s tallest building, the world’s largest natural flower garden, one of the world’s biggest shopping malls and, for $6,800, the world’s most deluxe spa experience which includes a 24 carat gold facial plus, soon to come – the world’s biggest Ferris wheel.
What perhaps makes Dubai more visitor friendly than most is the fact that 90 percent of the population is NOT Emirati. Nor is it all Filipina maids and nannies. A huge part of the folks who live here are corporate types who work in those glass spires and live well. So Dubai has learned to be somewhat more open to foreign ideas and more welcoming.
All of which starts with the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, an absolute must visit. “There is no such thing as an embarrassing, offensive or stupid question,” said Khulood Atryat, a stunningly beautiful woman who led the question and answer sessions on my previous visit. “There are too many misconceptions on both sides,” Khulood continued. “Outsiders think we were all religious fanatics and that our women are virtual prisoners. We are considered to feel that outsiders were just here to make money, take our money, disregard our culture and leave.”
Inevitably, like others, our group wound up talking about dress. Of all the colors, in the hottest country, why do women wear black? In the past, black cloth “was the cheapest and the most convenient in the day,” Khulood said. It made women invisible for travel at night. It also completely concealed them by day which, trust me, the mens’ white robes do not. And it didn’t show dirt.
My most recent visit to the center brought a chance to try on one of those all concealing women’s robes. You eat (yes, I asked) by sliding the food in from the bottom of the headdress. Your breath hits you in the face. And yes, the thing is hot. I couldn’t imagine wearing one during Dubai’s summer when temperatures can hit 130 degrees.
During the visit to the center my friends and I were introduced to Nasif Kayed and his keen sense of humor. Someone asked if there is a set age when boys can begin wearing robes. Nasif sighed. “My wife went out and bought one for our infant son. It cost more than mine!” Then he led us through the center’s recreation of a village, explaining that narrow alleys not only provide shade but funnel cooling breezes. And he explained Dubai’s location at the edge of the Arabian Gulf … pearls. Africa has diamonds and gold but we had pearls.”
And also a crossroads for trade. Today, some 1,800 cargo ships dock in Dubai each month. Which brings us to the commercial side of Dubai … its malls. There’s the Mall of the Emirates with its 285-foot-high mountain with five ski runs and live penguins. But for total wow, you can’t miss Dubai Mall, with 1,200 shops and six million square feet of, well, you name it, along with 65 million visitors a year.
Start with the 80 foot long dinosaur skeleton at one of the entrances, continue on to the four-story-tall waterfall and the amusement park where kids can choose an occupation (doctor, airline pilot, teacher, and policeman), dress accordingly and try their little hands at it.
But it was the aquarium that brought me to a standstill. It has (of course) one of the world’s largest acrylic viewing panels, along with a shark tunnel. But mostly, it has more fish than I’ve ever seen in one place … huge schools of this and that, threading around manta rays, giant groupers, sharks and the occasional diver. Yes, you can scuba dive the Dubai Mall aquarium. You need proper dive certification, of course. And had I known in advance, I would have been first in line, dive card in hand.
All this was fun, but the highlight of my trip was the desert safari. Okay, it’s a tourist thing. But it’s still exotic and a peek at traditional Bedouin life. My two friends and I were picked up at our hotel in a four wheel drive Toyota Land Cruiser for the hour drive into the dunes. Along the way, a procession of camels crossed our path … probably a hundred of them, loping down the street, heading for race training.
Several had a small box atop the saddle. Camels are more fragile than you think and can’t race carrying a lot of weight. So in past years, it was young children in the saddles, sometimes with catastrophic results. Laws were passed, robots invented and today, camels race with radio controlled machines that weigh maybe five pounds. Then it was off to the “dune bashing,” an experience not for the faint of stomach. “I am quite experienced in this,” Yasir said as we careened up, over and down the dunes, often sideways, while he seemed to defy the laws of physics with the car.
Sunset was glorious as a blood red ball slid behind the dunes. And then we were at the camp, a collection of divided cloth tents with pillows for seating and rugs for floors. We were greeted with rose water to wash our hands and Arabic coffee to perk us up, then off to try a hookah. The hookah, an instrument for vaporizing and smoking flavored tobacco where the vapor is passed through a water basin, is ubiquitous in the Middle East. We encountered it everywhere, including on the swimming pool deck of several very upper class hotels. And of course, I had to give it a go. But, um, you can’t blow the smoke out of your mouth unless you inhale and produce bubbles in the device, no matter how hard you suck on it. My friends have a great shot of me turning purple and coughing my head off. So much for my experiment with smoking.
Later that evening, we got henna tattoos and a chance to ride a camel. The saddles are far more comfy than you expect and the most exciting part is when the beast rocks forward, then backward to stand, a motion that feels like it’s becoming some kid’s transformer toy under your rump. As for the henna, for $5 I had an intricate design dribbled onto my hand. You leave the black mud on for 30 minutes before scraping it off. To my disappointment, it left behind a barely visible light orange design. But by the next morning, it had turned into a deep terra cotta that lasted for more than a week. And then the high point of the night: Larissa the belly dancer, whose hips took on a life of their own as she twirled with scarf and knife in the dim light … much to the appreciation of a line of local men in their robes.
There was more in our trip. We indulged in a spa treatment, went to the Dubai Miracle Garden with its 45 million flowers across everything from a Victorian house to cars and an entire valley. And one of our last nights, we attended the Dubai World Cup. It’s not soccer but, rather, horse racing with a $10 million purse (yes, the world’s richest) and everyone dressed to the nines. There is even a published pamphlet on how to dress (think Wimbledon) with expensive suits, fancy dresses and extravagant Kate Middleton hats. The marching band is dressed in Arab robes, there’s fireworks, food, booze. It is, in other words, Dubai’s top party of the year.
What did we miss in Dubai? Quite a lot. There are tours where you can learn calligraphy and traditional dances, meet a local artist and paint with him, visit farms, prepare and share a meal with a fisherman, visit homes. There are themed hotels like in Las Vegas. There are places with swimming pools the size of small villages. In the end, five days was just not enough.
If you go:
- As expected, the most comfortable time to visit Dubai is winter, specifically November through March. Nights then can be cool, dropping into the 50s.
- This is NOT a walkable city. Sign up for tours.
- Tourism now accounts for 20 percent of Dubai’s income, which is saying a lot in a Middle Eastern country rich from oil. Visitors went from 3.6 million in 2001 to more than 10 million in 2012. There are 82,000 hotel rooms, some 20,000 more than just three years ago.
- The Dubai World Cup horse races are held the last Saturday of March.
- A word on dress … Visiting women do NOT have to wear a veil but they should dress with sense. There are plenty of women on the streets in jeans and sleeveless blouses but halter tops with bare stomachs are not a good idea.
- On money … US dollars are acceptable as are US credit cards. But you need local money, the Dirham, in the souks (old markets). Current exchange rate is about 3.6 AED to $1.
What you should not miss:
- The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding
- A desert safari
- The traditional souks (markets) in Old Dubai
- The Dubai Museum with life-size dioramas of the pre-oil era.
- A trip to the top of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa
- At least half a day in the Dubai Mall. At the mall, do NOT miss the dinosaur skeleton, the three story waterfall or, especially, the aquarium.
- Ski Dubai in the Mall of the Emirates, even it it’s just to take a peek.
- A dhow dinner, specifically the romantic and very gourmet Bateaux Dubai
Should you need to stay over in London, among the welter of hotels are the Hilton London Heathrow Airport Hotel at Terminal 4 (decorated to continue the airport theme) and the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in the middle of London, walking distance to Hyde Park and London’s famed shopping district, plus it has a killer spa.
- For Dubai: definitelydubai.com
- For tours: http://www.gulfventures.com
- For Dubai World Cup: http://www.dubaiworldcup.com/
- For London Heathrow: http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/hilton-london-heathrow-airport-LHRAPTW/index.html
- For Jumeirah Carlton Tower: http://www.jumeirah.com/en/hotels-resorts/london/jumeirah-carlton-tower/
YouTube links:
- Center For Cultural Understanding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XMF0KzDQUk
- Camel Farm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOJMcQ6Sxh0