Dubai (U.A.E.) Journal

We were searching for a place that we could rest our heads in April, 2008 and the alternatives were France, the Netherlands, and U.A.E. As the sea season began, we chose U.A.E. We had to agree with a tour company as we did not have enough time to search. We paid 1.500 US$ in total for 3 day Dubai tour with the company Jolly Tour.

For our journey starting from Sabiha Gokcen Airport, Istanbul, we drove the way between Istanbul- Antalya to travel the Aegean coast. As we would arrive in early hours of the day and we would depart late on the last day, we would spend 2 nights and 3 days in Dubai. We flew on a broken seat with Air Arabia Airlines with the pilot's prayers and in the end we arrived at Dubai's neighboring emirate, Sharjah. UAE consists of seven emirates and the biggest and the most developed emirate is Dubai, second one is Abu Dhabi. After completing the passport control, and retinal scan, at the exit we exchanged some money (1US$ = 3.6 AED) after we went to meet up female guide . Other than we, there were four other participants in the tour. We had estimated that the participation  would be much more in the tour but it didn't matter to us as we didn't plan to follow the tour  guide. After about an hour journey we had reached Dubai. The weather was hot and humid. The sky was misty because of the desert storms. As we are living in Antalya, we got used to heat and humid but the other participants complained of this situation. The first day, before settling in the hotel, we visited, the Burj Al Arab Hotel, Jumeirah Mosque, the famous gold and spice bazaars, and around of the palace in which Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his family lived in a panoramic tour of the city. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_bin_Rashid _Al_Maktoum) Dozens of magnificent birds in the vicinity of the palace, were Sheikh Al Maktoum’s  special delectation. According to the first impressions of ours, Dubai was like an oasis in the desert.

As our guide was constantly talking about Dubai's wealth and welfare of the people living, I remembered the proverb ‘’Zenginin malı, züğürdün çenesini yorar’’. We settled in our hotel and had shower and relieved at midday. Although we were in April in Dubai ,  the temperature was the same as Antalya’s July temperature. We were aware of that we should come back to hotel to take a shower here often. Our hotel was in the center of Bur Dubai. But for some reason we didn’t like the hotel but staff was very friendly. If we had not been here for a short time, we certainly would have changed our hotel. An arrow on the ceiling of our room indicating Qibla and the religious books in drawer made us understood that we were in a  Muslim Arab country. (http://www.palmbeach burdubai.com/home.html) If we would go to Dubai again, we absolutely would have preferred to stay at Jumeirah Beach Hotel. (http://www.jumeirah.com/en/Hotels-and-Resorts/)

When we went out to eat something, the first thing we did was staying in a shopping center because we were unable to walk outside due to hot weather. Life was passing in all in shopping centers. We went to the place called the Computer Plaza by jumping in the cab and we decided to buy  cheap- priced electronics goods. We didn't take any camera with us because of that, our first job was to get a camera. When we found Canon photo machine that was sold 600 US$ in Turkey at the half cost, we bought it without thinking. Some products were very close to the price range, some of them were incredibly different. We had to do a little research. After determining the prices of products that we need, we went to an internet café to make a comparison with prices in Turkey. The products making sense for us were Canon camera, Sony Vaio laptop and I Phone. After shopping, we had to go back to the hotel again to leave packages. Among cheap priced electronic goods, we even forgot to eat something. Immediately we got out of the hotel again, to go to Burjuman shopping center. This shopping center was within walking distance from our hotel. After eating at Pizza Hut, we took a stroll in luxurious department stores and waited for the sunset. The interesting thing was that we did see neither a security guard nor a security system at the entrance of stores and shopping center. Dubai was a safe place and as we learned later that the reflected number of events to the police except for traffic accidents was 3 in the year 2007. For a city of 2.5 million people live in this figure was not credible. It was said that heavy penalties still applied were also effective in this case. By all sayings, the penalty applied for a thief was not clear exactly. Dubai’s wealth,  was not oil wealth as thought. Already the country's income was accounted for only 8% of oil sales. Emirate's main source of income was trade. Indians, were taking everything by small boats to their country to sell. Dubai, a duty-free shopping center aimed at becoming a trade and financial center of  the middle east.

After the sunset when the sun lost the effect, we started to travel by taxi on Jumeirah Beach Road,. the coast of Dubai. There was very heavy traffic and even short-distance journeys took a long time. The taxi drivers were in generally Indian or Pakistani. It was impossible to see a Dubainian taxi driver. On the one hand ,villas designed with the architecture of the Arab style , on the other hand skyscrapers coated with mirrors formed an interesting image. The latest models of cars filled the streets. We had seen every color of Ferrari model launched in a car exhibition on streets in Dubai. Taxis were cheap and quality. All drivers could speak good English.When you want to smoke, the driver pulls side of the road and wait you till finish your cigarette . (We don’t smoke any more) All taxis were working depending on the government. After passing the coast path, for at that time (later named the shopping center named Dubai Mall had this title in hand) we were in amazement in front of the world's largest shopping center, Mall of the Emirates . In front of the door, there were no other car than Bentley, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. The wealth of Dubai was proverbial. Mall of the Emirates was a luxurious complex, hosting Kempinski Hotel, and Ski Dubai, the world's first indoor ski slope. (http://www.malloftheemirates.com/) Inside one of the local clothing stores, we had found the chance to try the local clothes of Arabians. Although we paid 300 AED for those clothes for remembrance, we regretted this later. After spending a few hours in Mall of the Emirates, we decided to walk back to our hotel through Jumeirah Beach Road. On this road, we had the chance to review the highest building of the world with 828 m, Burj Dubai (New name Burj Khalifa) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_11_road_(United_Arab_Emirates). This building was too high for a person to understand and The Discovery Chanel shot a documentary film about the construction of this building. (http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/)  We met the richness of the city along the way. We got back to our hotel by taxi after a while and fall asleep immediately.

We would like to spend the second day in Dubai very efficiently. We went to Carrefour nearby the hotel. Turkish product brands filled the shelves of store. Besides things for breakfast, cashew nuts, almonds and cigarettes only costed 1/4 of the price in Turkey. A carton of cigarettes was only 30 AED. After leaving the packages in our room, we decided to go to the shopping mall Dragon Mart. (http://www.dragonmart.ae/) Then, we went to the island in Palm shape by using the  Sheikh Zayed Road hosting world's leading skyscrapers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Jumeirah) This island was the famous one from which the world's society was competing to purchase real estate.The construction landscape was the most popular landscape in Dubai. According to sayings, more than half of the tower cranes installed in the world were in Dubai. Palm islands and a world- shaped group of islands were ongoing projects. (http://www.theworld.ae/)  We had to get back from the section of villas after entering a part of Palm Jumeirah. Due to security measures, no foreign visitors are allowed in here. From where we were, we could see the Burj Al Arab Hotel and the view of the beach. After taking a few photos, we went to Jumeirah Beach Park again and began enjoying the golden sandy beach. For our 2 hour and 80 km trip, we paid 180 AED, including the highway fees, to the taxi driver. The place we got off was one of dozens of the gate of Jumeriah Beach Park. Warning signs at the doors indicated that photography on the beach was strictly forbidden. This was an Arabic country.  When we paid a reasonable price and saw the sandy beach through the green gardens, we felt relieved. The air temperature was 40 ºC and we would like to jump into the sea as soon as possible. But we could not find what we were searching for in the sea.The sea looking great from the outside was hot and muddy due to fine- grained desert sand. However, we spent a few hours in the sea and got back to our hotel by taxi to have a shower and rest. After an hour, we went to Deira Abra Port in order to get on Abra boats. We agreed with someone for 120 AED to take a one hour tour in the bay. At the end of our trip, we realized that we got so hungry. According to the research done previously, Medinat Jumeirah, the touristic complex, was the best place to eat at. Almost every country's cuisine was available in these restaurants. Our aim was to have a nice dinner at a stylish Italian restaurant in the glitter of Burj Al Arap Hotel. We managed to go to Madinat Jumeirah Souk by taxi in one and a half hours. It was late for the dinner time and the restaurants turned into the concept of pub. We needed to eat something and what we did was going to Pizza Hut on the drive. After the dinner,  we went to Madinat Jumeirah Souk again and wandered in this market designed by Arabian architecture until we got exhausted. Madinat Jumeirah Souk was a great address for those who would like to take pictures of Burj Al Arab Hotel. Especially on the second floor, there was a section filled with photographers. I definitely recommend photo enthusiasts to visit here.  We could not take remarkable photos with out compact machine; I set on my mind visiting there again with my DSLR machine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Madinat_Jumeirah) We had a very enjoyable time at Madinat Jumeirah Souk, and if we come back to Dubai, we decided that we would visit here again.

In the morning of the last day in Dubai, we woke up a little bit late because of the fatigue. After leaving our room, we went to Mercato Shopping Mall on the Jumeirah Beach Road  for breakfast. (http://www.mercatoshoppingmall.com/) Mercato was a stylish and a large shopping center. We  spent a few hours in eating and wandering in here. After here, by passing through the Al Maktoum Bridge, we reached Dubai Golf and Yach Club in the Deira area. Dubai Yacht Club was the marina on which the world's high society and the Arab Sheikhs anchored their yachts. There were dozens of villas inside of the Yacht Club, a wonder of landscape. When we asked the location of the club to the attendant at the door, he took us the club building by one of the golf cars. The service was impressive. After drinking something in here, we visited Deira City Center Shopping Mall opposite the Dubai Yacht Club and got back to our hotel by taxi. One of the vehicles of our agency picked us up and we headed towards Sharjah.Since late in the evening, there were a lot of Indians and Pakistani working in Dubai but living in Sharjah on the way back home. Due to high rents in Dubai, many people chose this way. Traffic was indifferent from inner city traffic; one hour road lasted two and a half hours. We wanted to get around in Sharjah before flight, but we were too tired to do this. After spending a few hours at the airport,  we flew back to Istanbul with Air Arabia.

Although the upper limits of luxury and showoff were being drawn in Dubai, the things we saw became mundane after a while. As it was our first holiday abroad with out wife, we really enjoyed Dubai and we did not worry at all. According to the table of 2008, Dubai needed a few more years to complete its current structure. What I recommend you is to wait for a few years to include Dubai in your holiday plan. While you apply your current holiday plans, Dubai will turn into a more spectacular place by continuing its mega projects. When we left Dubai, we decided that we should come back 10 years later.

Note: All photos in Dubai page are extracted.

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Oktay.