Arriving into the city, we were instantly struck by the hyper-development being undertaken. The sheer scale and imagination behind some of the construction projects is incredible. Dubai’s vision, driven by it’s ruler Sheikh Mohammad, is to establish itself as a city like no other on Earth. Marveling at structures such as the ostentatious Burj Al-Arab, the World’s only 7-star hotel as well as the Burj Dubai, recently announced as the tallest building on Earth despite only being 75% complete, highlights Dubai’s over-the-top nature and craving for attention.
One project that nearly defies belief are the Palm Resorts which are being developed off the coast of Dubai. The first of the three Palms Resorts is almost complete and they intend for a million people to live there. As if this isn’t crazy enough, this is by far the smallest of the three Palm Resorts. On top of this, they’re also developing the World Resort, which is basically an island resort in the shape of the world, where prospective buyers can buy plots on their own countries.
Satellite Image of Dubai in 2000
The same Satellite Image, in 2008, complete with Palm and World Resorts!
There was plenty to keep us going during our week in Dubai. With an enormous selection of ultra-modern shopping malls, flamboyant hotels, chic nightclubs and every kind of restaurant under the sun, it all seemed a bit too easy for us here, especially considering the countries we’ve been travelling through for the past few months. The novelty of having a wide selection of decent places to eat was something we had almost forgotten about! We even felt spoilt with the option of going to the cinema!
When it comes to alcohol and nightlife, Dubai is extremely liberal for an Arab city. Since alcohol has been non-existent for us over the last few weeks, we indulged in a pint or ten of ‘The Black Stuff’ at Dubai’s Irish Village and visited some of Dubai’s best nightspots. Our favourite was Boudoir, where we had an amazing Tuesday night which happened to be ladies night so the place was packed out with Emirates and Eithad air hostesses. There’s about 10,000 Air Hostesses living in Dubai, arriving in Dubai, we all felt a bit like convicts being released from prison after travelling through strictly Muslim countries!
Dave and Rhys Going a bit mad at Boudoir Nightclub, Dubai...
The amount of money in this city can be seen everywhere and the best indication is the huge amount of top end cars tearing around the city. It gets to the stage where you don’t even look twice at Ferraris and Lamborghinis. In fact, Dubai was the first place where the Hummer wasn’t ogled at for once. And Liberty Automobiles who are the biggest Hummer dealer outside the US, were good enough to give the car a free service. However, we still couldn’t organize a new wing mirror, which is still hanging off after our incident with the overloaded truck in India!
Chuck with Russ and Tess
There’s a good expat contingent over here and we were lucky enough to know a few people who showed us around. A big thanks here to Russ and Tess for looking after us.
Fintan's second time wakeboarding...
Also a big thanks to Biffo, who brought Rhys and Fintan out for an amazing days wakeboarding near the Palm Resort!
Rhys gets involved on the Waterski
We took a day trip and headed Southwest for Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Much more conservative and laid back than Dubai, this city seems to retain a much stronger connection to the desert and it’s Arab culture. Luckily, the Red Bull Air Race was being held in the harbor during our visit and we spent a great day watching these agile racing planes race around a track at 400 kms per hour only 10metres above the water.
One of the Red Bull Planes zips near Fintan's Head!
Dave and Rhys watch one of the planes on the Big Screen at the Red Bull Air Race
We really spoilt ourselves with a 10 stay in Dubai and felt a million miles away from the countries we had just travelled through. It was a good chance to get our lives back in shape and look remotely healthy again! But Dubai isn’t a cheap city and although our serviced apartment acommodation was the cheapest we could find in the city, it was still by far the most expensive place to stay on CrazyJourney so far. Dubai is more of a high-end destination and doesn’t really cater to the backpacker on a budget! It was now time to get the show on the road again and head on to Oman, a country we had all been looking forward to for a long time.
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