Dubai Day 2 27 April 2023

Day 2 After finding that Lance was just not going to be able to walk very far at all yesterday we decided to book a private car tour today. This was all done very efficiently by the tour desk at the hotel this morning. We breakfasted in the hotel restaurant and everything was lovely apart from the turkey bacon. We assumed that because we were in an Islamic country they probably don’t have proper bacon, only to find the seperate ‘pork section’ as we left. Our driver, Hameed, was a lovely gent dressed in his long white outfit and head dress. He gave us a run down of all that we could see and not see. His obvious pride in his country was to be admired, even though he and his children could never be citizens of Dubai. His father emigrated from Pakistan in 1963 and Hameed was born in Dubai, as were his five children. Only those with the lineage of United Arab Emirates can be citizens. Our first stop was at Al Seef. This is a new tourist area that has been built along side the river, or creek as they call it, but Al Seef has been built as an authentic village and houses a lovely and market stalls. The place was pretty much deserted as we were there at 10:30am. But I still managed a wee purchase.

Our four hour drive took us through old Dubai, which isn’t very old at all, and an area that is very old but didn’t look old as it was perfectly maintained. In fact everything is perfectly maintained. We have noticed that there is an over abundance of staff everywhere. The road side workers and gardeners come in bunches, the shops have almost more assistants that customers and at the airport there was someone to guide you every few metres. The service almost everywhere is fantastic and everyone is very courteous and attentive. Hameed told us that there is a ministry of happiness in their government. The minister’s responsibility is to harmonise all government plans, programmes and policies to achieve a happier society. Rewards are given for driving safely or working hard. How cool is that! A quick stop at La mer beach allowed me to dip my toes in the Arabian Sea. It was a perfect temperature and the beach was packed with people lounging and swimming. It was the classic resort style beach with umbrellas and loungers.

Tucked in behind the beach were numerous eating places which were closed when we were there, but I imagine it would be humming in the evenings.

Further on there were more beautiful beaches with no cafes or other facilities and they were deserted. Hameed took us to all of the attractions, filling us with information along the way. On the drive out to the Atlantis on the palm he told us that it took them only four years to build the area from scratch. Actually I should say from droplet, because it is all land reclaimed from the sea.

The Museum of the Future has been created in the shape of the ring that is placed through the camels nose and has Arabic writing that says something like, “We might not live for hundreds of years, but the products of our creativity leave a legacy long after we are gone”.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum lives in this magnificent palace. He is happy for people to check out the grounds and is apparently a well respected and clever King. His face and the face of his father are in super size all over the place.

We did pass other palaces of the Ruler’s family, but they were not as visible. Apart from one who has a zoo! And we could see the tops of the cages over the wall. I googled it and it appears that he has big cats like lions, tigers and cheetahs and other exotic animals like orangutans! Hameed dropped us back to our hotel where we rested before heading out for the evening. Lou’ana’s mum Louella lives in Abu Dhabi and some of her friends were joining us for a drink and a bite to eat. Louella had booked us into Neo’s on the 63rd floor of some building. When googling the address before heading out to get a taxi I encountered some confusion. It just kept coming up with The Address! After some bad words and several attempts at google I realised the the building is called The Address! And luckily I had been googling because I picked up that you can’t wear flip flops or shorts and guess who had shorts on! Not me, but Lance wears shorts everywhere summer and winter. The traffic as we got into the city was terrible and we were 20 minutes late and anyone who knows Lance well, knows that he is NEVER late! Leaping out of the taxi at The Address I would like to say that we flew inside, but actually one of us hobbled. Only to find confusion because the elevator didn’t go up to 63. The very obliging and huge security guard showed us to the correct elevator that would take us down and then a short walk along to another elevator to go up. He quipped “it’s like in life, you need to go down before you can go up”. Down took us to the most pristine underground car park that I have ever seen, and into a rather fancy lobby. The woman took our names and sent us up. Louella had done a great job in choosing this place. And we needn’t have worried because they had been also stuck in traffic coming from Abu Dhabi.

We had a lovely evening catching up and meeting her friends. And the view was spectacular!

We left for bed at 9pm (jet lag) and the city was pumping with people of all sorts. I just had to snap this guy directing traffic. High viz goes with anything!

Also I need to mention the call to prayer that is audible via speakers at various times during the day. It is quite lovely, almost mystical.