UAE, Dubai: Take #2

So I think you got an idea of the extravagance of Dubai. Seeing as I'm filling this in about a week overdue, my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'll do my best.

Dubai grew for two reasons:

1) Water

If you look at a map

(ooohh, so handy. ps we did the red & blue bus tour in 1 day...)

you'll notice the creek 'Khor Dubai' runs into a main part of Dubai. Towns grew surrounding the water and small boats were used to import & export from this port. The red bus tour goes around here, and is more the older, 'authentic' (ie not the last 20 years) sites to see in Dubai.

Around 1970, the 'Jebel Ali Port' was constructed (largest man-made harbour in the world), so that larger cargo could enter & exit, and Dubai became the main trading center for the Gulf region. They continue to trade and ship cargo, washing machines, air conditioners, etc. and import things as well.

2) Oil

Not much explaining to do on this one, and this made Dubai flourish from the 1970s (ish) onward. This meant many foreign workers came to Dubai. But right now, I'm pretty sure Dubai is almost out of has oil and is in massive debt, but Abu Dhabi (largest Emirate) is paying off its debts as to not allow it to sink, because it is serves many of the other Emirates as a trade post and also brings in tourists, like Simona & I :

Anywayyyyyy,

One of our first stops was the Dubai museum, which was interesting to see the rapid development from uniquely designed hay roofs......

(Tough to take a picture. Imagine a large outer square and then a plus sign inside the square, and then make that 3D [+] but all sides touching. Basically, wind that hits the plus sign from any side becomes traps, and helps to cool the room, hopefully replacing some of the hot air)

... to air conditioning. And the more rapid transition from primitive tools, traditions, & games to the current crazy conspicuous construction projects. Although good for learning, also quite hilarious in that most of the exhibits were not authentic, but sculpted or crafted to depict things even more recent than 100 years ago.

Minarets -

Some of the highest are found in Dubai (surprise, surprise). Before the automated call for prayers (which still occur throughout the day, 5 times) they provided a vantage point to make the call, the height ensuring that the sound was carried as far as possible. The calls are made at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. Each time, the same prayer is uttered except for the first prayer (I think) and they are all said facing Medina (apparently the hotel rooms have an arrow facing the appropriate direction to face while praying).

I'm told that when Islam began, in order to try to (at least politically) 'win over' the Jewish population, prayers were said facing Jerusalem, as done in Judaism to this day. Then, in order to make the religion more unique (or political move, or anything really, don't quote me on this one) it was changed to face Medina.

Non-Muslims are not permitted in the mosques, except one called the Jumera mosque, in which people are available to answer particular questions. I would have liked to visit, but they have strange opening hours which (ie only 2-3 times throughout the week), and it didn't fit my 'Dubai in a day' endeavor.

The Souq -

There are two 'souq's or 'markets' in Dubai. The Old Souq for textiles & spices,

and the Gold Souq for, well, Gold... Haggling was all part of the game, and the vendors were out in the streets hassling you, which reminded me very much of Canal Street in NYC (actually, Dubai in general makes me think of New York City on steroids).

P.S. Will you marry me?

Yes, that is the world's largest gold ring...

Took a mini walking tour, heard this "the crime rate is really low in Dubai, essentially zero, because we don't have poor people... " jeez. Apparently, though, the max tourist visa is 3 months, otherwise foreigners who stay need to be working or buy property. Also, there are 125 different nationalities resident in Dubai, and in attempt to preserve local nationality, locals who marry are given 70 000 Durham (~ 19 000 USD) to provide for their families.

After the tour, we decided to 'hop on' to the 2-hr boat cruise included in the ticket... chilling out in the sun while listening to somebody ramble on about the biggest & brightest Dubai had to offer. Here's the boat (we were on the roof!)

We saw many 'Dau' or little boates, used for fishing or to carry some smaller cargo, but also to ship people across the creek, which (in high traffic times) can me much quicker than going all the way around. I don't think I saw any more than 1 overpass (?!) and it was very near one of the ends (?!)

The tour pointed out and described several several buildings. The only ones that are worth sharing are the 'Deira Twin Towers' built in 1998, and actually not the tallest at the time...... (not too sure if this corroborates or hinders my NYC analogy, but regardless)

There was then a lot more rambling about the 'Palm Jumera' (fake land), which I already described and the 'Waterfront project' to extend the coastline (I know I said 800km, which I wrote down because it was just that shocking, but I can't believe it. Maybe 80 km ? Then more bla bla bla building Media City for Journalists, bla bla bla Internet City for companies. The Mall of the Emirates (NOT the largest) has 450 shops because the Dubai Mall (largest) has more...

Please oh please, can we just get to the last stop, which is...

(22 500 sq feet with 5 runs, 1500 guest capacity, & an entire freestyle zone.... hey! they must have graduated counting school at the same place the people from Tremblant did! )

Woooo! Oh, the run is over...

Last cool (extravagant) thing. The bus shelters are air conditioned!!

Ladies & Gentlemen, thank you for coming on the big bus tour with us today. We hope you have enjoyed experiencing Dubai with everything it has to offer. Oh, and since we uselessly used up all of the world's energy, if you could

that would be great.