Dubai - November 2022

 

As I landed onto Terminal 3 of Dubai international airport, the first impression I got off the enormous facility was that it’s sheer size and scale, which is quite obvious when you walk into the world’s second largest building by usable floor space. What I didn’t know then is that Dubai airport is the world’s busiest in terms of volume of international passengers that fly by. I have actually flown through Dubai almost 13 years ago when I had a transit stop in this airport, but I failed to notice the vastness of the facility possibly because I was tired from a 13 hour flight from Toronto. Another interesting observation (purely anecdotal) was 3 out of every 5 staff members at the airport seem to belong to a south Asian(India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh) lineage and I noticed that there is abundance of workforce engaged in the upkeep of the airport, I even felt that they were overstaffed at times. Later I learnt that the airport contributes to over 25% of the Emirate’s GDP and that was convincing enough to understand the deployment of such large-scale labor. Every washroom (incl. ladies as my wife observed) has an attendant who cleans the closet before you step in and invites you with a welcoming smile which is drenched in high hopes of getting a decent tip. Though it may be a coincidence, most of the washroom attendants that I met were Indians, specifically North Indians. My reactive thoughts were around what distinguishes people like me and those workers. Is it my skillset acquired through education, is it just the good fortune that put people like me in the right spot that I could acquire such education, is it the socio-economic background that these workers were born into that declines most of the opportunities that I was offered without even striving for it. My selfish mind just let those thoughts disappear in anticipation of the vacation experience that awaited. My first experience of clearing the immigration queue, which was crowded, disorganized, didn’t please my mind that got used to the North American and the English politeness and customer service styles that I was lucky to have experienced for the past 20 years. The local immigration officers were sounding rude and somewhere at the bottom of my mind I thought the color of my skin and appearance evoked such a treatment. As we cleared through the immigration formalities, my wife turned more impatient hearing my rants and raves which was a queue that I simply put on a tourist lens and start to appreciate the vacation experience.  By the time, we were dropped at the hotel it was almost 930pm local time and my wife started craving for some spicy Indian food, yes, Indian food in Dubai. 😊 We found this place called Eat & Drink(https://goo.gl/maps/439xzqr1WGEUfQpq5)  which was a 15 min walk from the hotel and was run by Indian Malayalee’s, the food was spicy and sumptuous.

Our first sightseeing trip was a taxi-ride to the Dubai old town. As we drove to that place we got a glimpse of Dubai’s city scape, including a passer’s-by view of the Dubai creek and the bridge that opens and closes every day. The taxi driver cum tour guide who took us also explained about Bur Dubai and Deira, the older neighborhoods, though we just rode by, these parts of the city seem to be buzzing with local businesses and seem to a haven for residents who look for affordable dwelling units. We were enroute to the Al Fahidi historical neighborhood, which was cool to visit but having grown up experiencing ancient Indian heritage and the culture, the place lacked authenticity and immediately seemed to us as an artificially erected tourist photo-op site full of handy-craft vendors. Even the products lacked authenticity and my wife still went out and shopped some souvenirs and gifts. After a million selfie’s my wife made up her mind to leave the place and I was searching for a local cuisine that we can try. The driver suggested that our next destination was Dubai mall which has a decent food court where we can find variety of food vendors. As I expected, the mall was huge and food court had mostly familiar fast food joints including our Canadian Tim Hortans. I saw more onlookers (window-shoppers) than serious shoppers.  After some gazing and walking around, we walked over to the Burj Khalifa as we had a pre-booked ticket and a timeslot to visit. My Rasheed who was our tour guide has been in Dubai as an immigrant worker from Calicut Kerala for over 18 years. His father works for the Department of Police in Dubai and his younger brother works here too. But all of them have left their families back in India, will visit them during the vacation which is usually 4 to 6 weeks during the peak summer months when the tourism slows down due to the scorching heat.

The world’s tallest structure as on date, Burj Khalifa is tower that’s named after the second ruler of the Emirates, who also has the credit of bringing in education reforms to the country and he was the one who established Emirates airlines. This is probably the 6^th such large structure that I am visiting after Kuala Lumpur’s twin towers, New York’s Empire State Building, Canada’s CN Tower, Auckland’s Sky Tower, Sydney Tower Eye. So, for me, the excitement has always been the views that these tall structures offer and the bird’s eye view of the cities that house these towers. Burj Khalifa didn’t disappoint - I can see what the oil-rich nation has done with its opulence and the solid infrastructure that the emirates was built on. Every single time I am on one of these towers, the thought that a helicopter ride with a guiding commentary would be significantly better than climbing atop these tall structures, never fails to surface in my mind. Another aspect that made me awestruck was the artificial water-body (Burj Khalifa lake) that was built around the structure. I kept admiring how they maintain this reservoir in such a dry land. We thoroughly enjoyed the Dubai fountain and the light show to cap off our first full day in Dubai.

Our next day’s schedule was to first visit Dubai Frame, another man-made extravaganza, built off steel, aluminum, glass panels and concrete offers glimpses of old Dubai and the modern Dubai on either sides. While my wife was busy taking selfies as usual, I engaged a staff member and asked cheekily, whether the Mexican architect who designed the original structure was given his due compensation finally. She gave a wide grin as the response. How can one protect an Intellectual property effectively? Isn’t this impossible? Do we compensate or pay royalty Thomas Edison every time we switch on a light bulb or take a selfie? The moment the original creator publishes his work, doesn’t that become public? While I shy away from arguments with others, I love such arguments with myself. But seldom do they see the conclusion and mostly I get distracted away or doze off leaving those countless debates in abeyance. We also got a glimpse of the Dubai Museum which was another architectural marvel in our views.

Next on our schedule was the famous Desert Safari – which I thought was to be a smooth sail across a deserted land to catch some awesome sunset views followed by some Arabian dance and food. It actually turned out to be an off-road driving adventure in a desert like area off the city. I am not an off-road enthusiast nor am I an adventure seeker, I didn’t enjoy the ride at all. Instead of enjoying the ride, I was so apprehensive about a lady co-rider (from another tourist group) who was pregnant for 6 months and was not told that it’s an off-road adventure. The driver was at his heroic best and the view of the sunset across the sand dunes was gratifying. My wife thoroughly enjoyed the ride and was laughing out loud at times uncontrollably. I don’t know whether laughter was an expression of her enjoyment of the ride or her expression of witnessing my helplessness and the view of me sheepishly clinging on to the handle of the jeep that we were riding on. The dance show was awesome, followed by some food (mixed cuisine) and a mini fireworks show.

Our next day was spent in visiting Green Planet – which is like mini-wild life sanctuary which I will recommend to visitors who have seen large Zoo’s (e.g. Toronto Zoo) and animal Safari’s to skip as there is nothing exciting there. We spent the rest of the shopping in Dubai and Lulu malls. The evening was spent driving by the luxurious Palm Jumeirah neighborhood. We also took the Dinner cruise that gave us a decent cruise ride for couple of hours and again a mixed-cuisine dinner was served. Though seated inside the cruise boat, I stepped out onto the balcony. As the cold breeze brushes past my face, the elite waterfront communities filled with skyscrapers present a beautiful view. It was a great opportunity to experience the city streets and the ultra-rich cityscape when it was lit in the night. One of the best experiences, I would say.

The last day was marked for shopping spices and gold in the famous Gold Souk. My wife had a list of ornaments to purchase and she wanted to explore Arabian style jewelry. To our surprise Gold Souk had a street full of Gold and diamond merchants, a mix of known, luxury brands and some local merchants. After surfing through some, we decided to shop at the Malabar Gold’s main outlet – a sprawling Gold jewelry store with a wide-spread collection, variety and great customer service. If one is concerned about your safety while carrying gold, we heard it’s absolutely safe and secure in Dubai. Tourists can buy gold tax-free and the purity of gold appears to be of a higher standard compared to other markets. The variety that’s at display was abundant, you will see a range from an ear stud to full jacket / top that’s made in solid gold. So if you are not hit by the import duty of gold at your destination, it’s worth buying gold from Dubai. Gold Souk also has perfume and spice merchants and we picked up some exotic spices like saffron, nuts and dates from there.

Though we spent about 4 full days in Dubai, our exposure to the local culture was close to none. The natives that we had acquaintances with seemed to be limited in their ability to converse in English and as a tourist, we barely had the chance to interact with them. From our perspective, Dubai was multi-cultural city thriving on Retail and Tourism and we barely get to experience their culture except that the ‘Al Fahidi Historic’ district and the museum offer some glimpses of how the Emirate evolved from the pre-oil era to the modern days.  We were on the lookout for some authentic local cuisine and got to taste some really nice Kebabs and Mandi. Mandi was similar to the Indian Biriyani with layers of meat and rice, cooked in a clay Tandoor in an underground oven. Some locals suggested ‘Zam Zam’ and ‘Mandilicious’ as some food joints where you can get authentic Mandi’s. We liked it and noted that we felt one serving of Mandi can serve 3 or at least 2 hungry adults.

Everyone advised that the time we chose to visit Dubai (early December) is the perfect time to visit the Emirate as the temperatures are mild during these winter months there. It was shorts and t-shirt weather and we really enjoyed it. It seems the mercury rises above 45 degrees during the summer months (June – Aug). Most travel, credit cards are accepted widely.  The popular communication tools like WhatsApp and Skype are limited that voice calls prohibited in Dubai. Getting a local sim card and using the alternate voice calling app called ‘Botim’ is a good choice. For foreign tourists, we can see Forex vendors in all the malls as well. Taxi’s are common and reasonably priced. There are drivers who run cars that don’t have a Taxi board or label who tend to be more expensive and it’s advisable to rely on Uber. We didn’t get the time to try the Dubai metro but were told that it’s a decent and the most economical means to commute within the city. Tipping is extremely common in hotels, taxi’s, restaurants even in public washrooms.