Za'beel Mosque Dubai with New Downtown in background
When your flight takes you through a really cool place for a really long time why not make the most of it and actually spend that time seeing that really cool place?
For us it was an extended delay of a safari that we had been planning for May of 2020. A little thing called Covid threw a monkey wrench into that and it was time for us to make good on our wish to relive and add to memories of one of the greatest trips we had ever done. A safari in Kenya.
In searching for the best way to get from here to there and when to do it we came to two truths that became clear to me. The best time to do a safari in Kenya was at the peak of the Great Migration. The best way to get there was through Dubai on Emirates Airlines.
The unfortunate fact that there was a twenty-two hour layover in Dubai on the return flight turned into a challenge. What to do with all that time? I researched and found that the only problem with this long layover was that it was not long enough. I decided to add about another thirty-six hours to the outbound flight in order to at least give due respect to our smorgasbord sampler of the United Arab Emirates.
Flying is not for sissies and it remains one of the most significant obstacles to travel that I encounter both physically and financially. After spending nearly one third of my safari vacation budget on our flight we were fortunate enough to get a nonstop flight from Orlando to Dubai with no-one in the seat between us. After fourteen hours and three meals with very nice service on a flight with a group wearing t-shirts that said Traveling Glam Girls Dubai 2023 we made it to the Dubai airport. The terminal was massive and glittering in its newness. The customary stop at the ladies' room revealed we were not in Kansas, or in any of the United States. The line in the ladies room left one stall available for Dusty to take care of business. The hole in the floor was a challenge she was prepared for from her travels in the far east in the past. With nature answered we proceeded to customs and we made it through with minimal challenges. They even gave us a couple of free SIM cards for our phones to make our visit easier. Nice touch Dubai.
We were picked up by our prearranged transportation from the airport to the hotel. The staff at the Golden Sands Hotel Creek had called me to confirm while we were in Florida and promised to get us a room with a good view as it was our first time in Dubai. It never hurts to ask. The night view was lovely, but when I opened the window to get a better look the canal view behind us 100-degree air rushed in at 9:30 at night and changed my plans to look any longer.
In the morning the view from the 14th story rooftop pool was more impressive. You could see the tallest building in the world. The Burj Khalifa. The rest of the city was impressive, but this one stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Early the next morning we were met for a half day tour of the city by private driver. We chatted a bit in the lobby letting him know that we really did not want to just hit the landmarks or shop. We wanted to get a sample of what Dubai is and to take it at a pace that was comfortable for everyone. He surprised us with more of the landmarks than we expected. We surprised ourselves with just how much we appreciated visiting them.
First of all you have to realize that Dubai and the United Arab Emirates is really a very young entity. Most of the buildings were not even started in the last thirty years. Our first stop was more of an art project than an actual building (although you can go up into it). The massive picture frame that looks forward into the future of Dubai with the new city seen to one side and to the past with the old city to the other.
Getting out of the van the heat hit you immediately and it shaped our outdoor activities for the remainder of the day. Nine o'clock in the morning and it was already 100-degrees. As always when I am trying to do travel photography I was wearing my fishing vest over my long sleeve shirt and quickly felt the sweat running between my shoulder blades.
The royal family has more than its share of perks. Among those perks are a number of palaces in the best locations with structures that are, well, palatial. Za'abeel Palace was built with a special nod to the sultan's love of horses. A quick stroll up and down the driveway, noting to stop when we approached the police car, yielded a sense of the scale of the place but the peacock managed to evade my camera. If the structure below looks familiar it's because it was based on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Our driver asked if I wanted to get a photo of the Burj Kalif and I was kind of lukewarm to the idea of a skyscraper shot, but it is the largest in the whole darned world. He dropped us at an entrance adjacent to the Mall of Dubai and suggested that we walk through the corridor of shops to the water feature behind for a look at the famous landmark of Dubai and meet him in about twenty minutes where had dropped us. We grabbed a Seattle's Best coffee and made our way through to the place he had recommended.
First. Wow! The pool with fountains and lights was modeled after the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas, but much bigger. That seemed to be a theme here. There were dozens of people in the pool scrubbing and cleaning for the show that would be that evening and every evening. But the show right now was the massive building across the pond that tapered up into the sky with the desert sun glinting off of it. And the Five Guys burger joint in the actual mall across the water from us reminded us of the awesome power of an American hamburger
We stopped at the Dubai marina surrounded by more glass and concrete skyscrapers for business and multimillion dollar condos. Here Dusty insisted that I be in a photograph in one of the many spots set up for just such tourist kitsch shots. I submitted to her request and here is the result.
We were not nearly done yet. The Palm Jumaira is the manmade extension of the shoreline built in the shape of a palm tree. By doing this here and in other places Dubai was able to increase the very valuable oceanfront property many times over. There is a monorail that runs the length of the community providing one of several mass transit options to the sixteen "palm fronds" that support condominiums and homes starting at over one-million dollars and going to well over fifty-million.
We were dropped off again for 10-15 minutes wandering "The Point". This was at the top of the palm tree with a small beach with water toys and life sized games of chess and billiards. Being at The Point did not mean we were on the outside of the colossal engineering project. No. For all this valuable real estate to exposed to the open water would be irresponsible. Surrounding the whole tree was a massive breakwater. But this semicircle of land/rock/sand could not be wasted. Looking across the gap to the defensive structure we could see proudly standing one of two Atlantis community structures in the UAE. Being the UAE neither of these two massive entertainment centers housed a casino.
After a short wait in the oppressive heat we were picked up again and continued back into the center of the new city to the Museum of the Future. The building is something like a cross between the Cloud Gate giant silver bean in Chicago and a huge chrome egg with the yolk removed and covered with Arabic graffiti.
The concept of the museum was to illustrate the future of Dubai. For a little extra money and another hour or so of time spent there we could have toured the whole thing and learned what was envisioned for Dubai. Or we could take a look around the huge atrium of the museum watching a six foot long silver flying dolphin bird drone thing and come back in a few years to see what really happens. Limited on time we did the latter.
Two more off again and on again stops wrapped up our whirlwind tour of Dubai. The first was Old Dubai, a section of the city built in the 1700's and maintained in its original form with shops and even a small coffee museum where we paid a short visit. The Bur Dubai Souk Market where there were dozens and dozens of small stalls with traditional Arabic wares and spices was second.
By 1:00 in the afternoon we were as fully exposed to the highlights of Dubai as we could manage with the bit of jet lag we were experiencing. But there was one more place where we wanted to spend a little more time before leaving the next morning for Kenya. The largest mall in the world. The Dubai Mall.
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