Dubai, Old & New

 We arrived at our last port, Dubai United Arab Emirates about noon on Saturday, Nov. 19.
We had originally scheduled an afternoon excursion through the ship entitled Dubai, The Old and The New.  Steve was concerned whether I could handle the excursion since I was still surviving on a little fruit and peppermint tea.  I made the decision to go as we would be riding a bus and I didn't expect much walking.  I didn't regret the decision even though there was a fair amount of walking.

 Dubai is the most populated of the seven Emirates in the UAE with over 1,800,000.  The UAE was formed in Jan., 1948. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the richest and have the power to override any decision made by the other 5 Emirates. Only 15% of the population of Dubaiare nationals.  The rest are expatriates.  Islam is the station religion.  Other religions may gather but are not allowed to proselyte. Arabic is the official language with English as the second language.  The Emirates is essentially owned and governed by the Al Maktoum family since 1833.

 We boarded our bus at the port.  One thing we had never seen before were the rows and rows of nearly identical cars and trucks parked in sections of the port.  They were covered with dust so they had been there for awhile.  Someone said that no one wants to pay the taxes on them so they sit there. We really don't know.

 Our first stop was a famous mosque.  Saturday is their worship day so visitors were not allowed in.  We took photos and hopped back on the bus.

We liked this interesting telephone booth.

 Our second stop was at the beach to view the famous Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Hotel.  It is famous because of its shape.  Rooms start about $2,000 per night.  We believe that this beach is for the tourists.  We were told to cover are knees and our shoulders and be prepared with a scarf to meet the local dress standards.  We saw every possible kind of dress including some very colorful robes and head coverings on some women.  The word jumeirah means beautiful in arabic.  It was used a lot.

 Dubai is a global city and a hub of transportation for the Middle East with its location on the Persian Gulf.  The Al Maktoum family built the airport and created harbors to attract travelers.  It is the most expensive city in the Middle East and is known for its skyscrapers, high rises and shopping.  It is working to change from a trade-based oil reliant economy to a service and tourism economy.  They are building many new attractions including a new theme park.  They already have many malls with attractions including an indoor sky slope.  They are busily preparing for Expo 2020.

 The variety of architecture creates an exciting atmosphere.  The night photos look amazing but we weren't able to get any as we really couldn't see the main part of the city from the port.

 This is a new welcome gate that they are constructing for the Expo I believe.

 The Old City was near the British and US Embassies.  It is always nice to know where those are when you are in a foreign country.

 Our guide told us a little about the old city which was a fishing village in the early 18th century.  Then Persian merchants came from Iran because of its location on the Persian Gulf and began an extensive pearl trading business until the depression in the 1930's.  Many merchants today are Iranians.  They built Port Rashid in 1972 and developed their oil trade throughout the l970's. It wasn't until the 1990's that the city really developed its tourism, aviation, real estate and financial services.  It is sometimes called the City of Gold due to its gold trade.

 This little doorway was quite a surprise for me.  I ducked in to check it out and

 found this beautiful home and courtyard inside.  Because of their hot, dry, windy climate, these courtyards in the center of the home were very useful and private.  They were gardens, etc.  The bedrooms and other rooms of the house surrounded the courtyard.

 Inside many of the doors were small businesses.

Next we went to the Dubai Museum where we saw displays showing how the people lived.  We also saw some of the weapons they used to defend themselves from invaders.  Of course, there were also souvenir shops.

The museum also led us to the Fort Al Fahaidi.

 These next couple of pictures are houses occupied by wealthy people.

 This is another house.  Most of the business have signs in Arabic and English since there are so many expatriates.

 Next we were taken to Dubai Creek so that we could take a water taxi to the Deiera District.  Dubai Creek  is a saltwater creek that runs down through the middle of the city.  They are currently extending it as they develop their tourist attractions and financial industry. The Deira area has traditionally been the commercial center of the city.  It hosts the famous spice and gold souks.

 These Dhow boats are oriental ships that have been used for many years to transport trade goods and people from China and other oriental ports.  They are very common in Dubai.

These little buildings are air conditioned bus stops.  With the average temperature in the hot, windy, humid summer at 106 degrees F, I am sure that these are very well used.  Their highest temperature was recorded at 126 degrees. The average temperature in the winter is 75.

 Here is a sampling of the spices.  Someone scooped up a bag of something special for our friends and then told them the price was about $100.  They declined to purchase.  Food was all unappetizing for me that day so nothing was a temptation.

 Then we went to the gold souk.  There was gold everywhere.  We were not knowledgeable enough to even consider a purchase at this market.  However, it was very interesting to see.  It got more crowded as the afternoon wore on.

Steve got targeted by a bird.  We were happy it didn't hit him on the head or face.  I had already wiped it off before we thought to take a picture.

Since we had such limited time in Dubai, we felt our $39 excursion fee for a 4-5 hour overview was definitely worth it.  We are glad we went.
Our bus took us back to the ship for one more night.  We packed our bags to leave the next morning.

We disembarked our ship for the final time on November 20th with our bags in tow.

We were directed to a line to wait for a taxi to take us to the airport.  It was hot and the line was long. It was frustrating for several reasons.  People who disembarked after us did not go to the end of the line.  They went to the front and crowded in.  No one seemed to stop them.  There were lots of taxis lined up to take people but those in charge would only let one taxi load at a time.  It would have been much faster if they had allowed six or eight taxis to load, drive off and be replaced by six more taxis. We watched taxi drivers being frustrated too.  Our wait was at least 1.5 hours.  We had to go to the airport because they had a service there where we could check our bags for the day for a fee.  That way we didn't have to drag them with us all day.  Our flight didn't leave until 1:45 a.m. the next morning so we had the entire day to see more of Dubai.
I had purchased tickets for us to see Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  It's a good thing I purchased them for 2 p.m. because it took us almost that long to get there.

The pink-roofed taxis were driven by a woman and were for unaccompanied women and children only.  However, with foreigners, they allowed men too.  When we arrived at the airport, we waited in another line for about 30 minutes to check our bags.  It was a very inefficient process.  Across from our line was a business which rented cell phones for a day, week, etc. for use in Dubai.

After we finally got our bags checked, we were able to locate the train and purchase tickets to the Dubai Mall.  It is the biggest mall in the world.  You have to walk through it to get access to the Burj Khalifa.  What a marketing ploy!  When we boarded the train, we didn't see that the women and children car adjoined the one we entered.  Steve and Larry had to make a quick adjustment to make sure they were in the appropriate space.  The two cabins were completely open to each other so it was not obvious at first. Shaun and I stayed seated where we were.  We were some of the older women there, so I didn't feel badly.  Actually, I did feel badly.  I was still feeling under the weather so I needed to sit down. 

We were on the train about 30-40 minutes and when we arrived we walked a mile or two through long corridors before we actually entered the mall.

Signs kept encouraging us that there was an end somewhere.

This is the biggest bookstore I have ever seen.  We had to walk through it to get out after we had been in the Burj Khalifa.

The mall was absolutely gorgeous.  We saw many high end brand name signs but didn't really stop to shop.  The ticket booth and entrance were at the bottom of the mall.  We picked up our reserved tickets at a Will Call desk and the line there was fairly short.  I was glad we reserved them ahead of time.  Then we went to the nearby food court for some lunch and to use the restroom.  The restrooms were very nice by the way.  I still wasn't able to eat much so I tried a fruit juice slushy drink and got a little of that down.  Steve had pizza and Larry and Shaun had some kind of a wrap.  Nothing looked good to me.

Once we entered the line to go up in the building, we had to go through security and then wait another 25-30 minutes to go up in the elevator.  They say the lines were relatively short.  At a minimum of $38 each, they were raking in the money.  It is possible to go up a few more floors but they charge $50 for that.  We couldn't see that it would make that much difference.

Once we arrived at the 125th floor, we got off to enjoy the view.  The day was hazy which I guess is quite common.  It was hazy throughout our visit.

These pictures that show water are amazing.  The city of Dubai has no wells or access to fresh water. All of their water must come from the Persian Gulf and must be desalinated.

After we had been walking around taking pictures for awhile, Steve went to get his binoculars out of his fanny pack and he realized he didn't have his fanny pack.  That set off a total panic for both of us as we had our passports in his fanny pack.  He realized that he didn't get it back after he put it through the security screening.  We quickly found a security employee and he called down to the security desk and described our pack.  We were so relieved to find that they had it and would keep it for us until we went down.  We tried to enjoy the rest of our visit since it was another 30 minute wait to get on the elevator to go down.

When we got off the elevator, there is another long walk.  They had sort of a museum that showed the building of a ship from historical times that made the walk more interesting.

We were so happy to retrieve our passports and Steve's fanny pack.  The officer who assisted us told of a tour guide who left his backpack on the security belt recently.  It contained 80 passports.  I bet that caused a huge panic.

 These are more pictures of Dubai taken from the train on our way back to the airport.  We had a long wait at the airport, but we were too tired to go anywhere else.  The odd thing about the airport was that there is a compete mall inside the airport.  However, you have to go through security with your boarding pass to get to it.  They don't allow you to check in and get your boarding pass until two hours before your flight and of course, you have to wait in another long line to do that.  By the time, we got through security, there wasn't any time to browse around the mall.  We would have been entertained by that for the other hours we were sitting around with minimal food options and only a few chairs.  Strange!  I would like to help them with a few efficiency ideas.

When we finally found a place to park ourselves for awhile, we were next to a women and children only waiting area.  Women would wait there for family members to deplane from incoming flights.

These brochures to available attempting to explain how wonderfully well the women are treated in Islamic countries.  We didn't believe their propaganda.  Dubai is a rapidly changing city.  They are adding a new theme park and lots of venues and interesting buildings to attract more tourists.  I would say wealthy tourists from their oil rich neighbors.
We were ready to go home.  It was an amazing adventure and the trip of a lifetime.  We felt blessed to have Shaun and Larry as our travel buddies.  They were a lot of fun and I believe the four of us were more adventurous together than we would have been on our own.  Thanks for the memories!

Goodbye to the Norwegian Star!  It took us over 36 hours to get home after we left the ship via Paris and London but we made it safely.  It was a very memorable trip!