UAE: Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi seems more familiar than Dubai. There is a recognizable downtown. There are city parks connecting downtown to the sea. There are waterfront promenades and public beaches. The water is a beautiful shade of aquamarine.

We made the obligatory visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, completed in 2007. It was gigantic, but it was beautiful. There were many visitors, maybe because we were there on a Ramadan Friday with shorter visiting hours. There was an army of workers to manage the crowd. Most of them don't look to be volunteers. The visit is completely free, except they have built an underground shopping center with a food court for visitors to file through.

Abu Dhabi may derive one third of its GDP from oil and Dubai less than one percent. We could feel the difference acutely on this brief visit.

We rode the bus from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, about one hour and thirty minutes. Took some cool pics thanks to the tinted windows of the bus. At the green, modern, Abu Dhabi Main Bus Station, we bought a transit card and then took a local bus to our downtown hotel.




After settling in, we headed to the promenade along the Persian Gulf for a sunset walk.






Then we headed inland back to our hotel enjoying the city lights.




The next day we rode the free tourist bus from our hotel to the Emirates Palace Hotel area. There several monumental hotels and resorts, and beautiful views over the Persian Gulf.










Finally, another two buses to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque which on Ramadan Fridays was open only from 3pm to 6pm, and 9pm to 11pm. Crowded. Entry is free but controlled with ticketed entry times. The floral inlays are amazing, not to mention the luxurious carpet in the inner halls.

UAE: Dubai

Dubai, the most populated city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is an enigma for us. Dubai is now among the top 5 most visited cities in the world, and at around 3.5 million in population, Dubai is a small city among them. There are 7 expats to 1 emirati. With so many tourists and expats running around, the whole time I was wondering to no avail - who is even an emirati?!

Yet the city spans 60 kilometers along the Persian Gulf, much of that distance served by a single linear metro line. Just to give context, Heathrow to Greenwich is ~35km; the diameter of the 20 arrondissements of Paris is ~10km; the length of Manhattan island is 22km. Almost all of the high-rises are on a single corridor centered by Sheikh Zayed Road, otherwise the city is anchored by mega commercial centers(shopping malls, hotels, business centers, entertainment, condos, etc.), unlike any other city or metropolitan area we have been to.

We went to the old parts of Dubai; Deira and Bur Dubai. We were by some new centers; Dubai Mall, Dubai Marina, and Madinat Jumeirah. The place is NOT AT ALL built for pedestrians. The few energetic young visitors we saw on bike-shares were having a frustrating time too. Every inch of the place served commercial purposes. We didn't cross any city parks. The one public beach we came across was roped off. Around those developments, all the beaches are private. Palm Jumeirah looks really cool on the map, and cannot be viewed without further investment, i.e. monorail or the viewing deck.

I still find it incredible that a place that was a village; now, because of oil, had an injection of money, built themselves some tourist attractions, so now they no longer have oil but thrive at attracting tourist money. Cannot that not be a development model for many places in the world?! Since we are oblivious to the allure of Dubai, we cannot begin to glean their secrets.

Sun-Ling sat at the window on our flight from KL to Dubai and marveled at the desert landscape below.




After settling in to our hotel, we headed out to ride the metro to Dubai Mall to checkout the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, and to catch the music and light show at the Dubai Fountains. It's a two-for-one as the fountains are located below the skyscraper. We arrived at 6:00pm hoping to see the 6:30 show, but it was pushed back to 7:30 due to Ramadan. So we waited, and were not disappointed. FYI: the Burj Khalifa is 828 metres (2,716.5 feet) tall, with more than 160 stories!












The 7:30pm show was excellent so we stayed for the 8:00pm show from the back side of the lake. There's a different show every 30 minutes.




Dubai Creek spilts the older parts of the city in two. One can take a ferry across. So we did - see the short video below.






The east side of The Creek is called Deira. It's famous for its Gold Souk, one of the largest gold markets in the world.






There is also the so-called Iranian spice market nearby.


On the western side of The Creek, called Bur Dubai, our first stop was Lassi Shop pure veg resto run by a woman from Bhutan. Gobi Manchurian!


We were captivated by "wind towers", they bring cool air down into buildings, in the Historic Al Fahidi neighborhood, now a shopping district.




The Diwan Mosque, the Grand Mosque and the Iranian Mosque.






The Dubai Metro is mostly above ground with huge "exit/entrance bridges" that often span 8 to 16 lanes of traffic. The pic below is from the entrance to the World trade Center Station, just a few blocks from our hotel.


On our 2nd full day we rode the Metro West to Dubai Marina and headed east towards the famous landmark, The Sail, aka Burj Al Arab Hotel, in search of a public beach.




After no luck finding free/public beach access near the Dubai Marina, we rode the new tram toward Sufouh Beach - "temporarily closed". However, we could see The Sail in the distance (far right). Yippy!






To make a long story short: We decided to take the bus back to our hotel. And The Sail was right across the street from the bus stop. Woohoo!




Our hotel The Muse is the green building directly behind the minaret. There are great views from the pool terrace.