Driven to our luxurious hotel, Al Qasr, approached through a tree-lined avenue of sculpted, golden Arabian horses. Hotel has an Oberoi feel to it, but not themed as many Oberois seem to be. We are exhausted and, as we're not to be picked up until 3 PM, we pass on taking advantage of the many hotel amenities, including transportation via waterways, in favor of going to our large, ocean-view room to sleep. We give our dirty clothes to the laundry, though it might have been as cost effective to throw them out and buy new clothes. We are definitely not in Kansas, or Ghana, any more.
At 3, we're picked up by our absolutely delightful guide, Leah Gulen. She is from the former Yugoslavia, and moved to Dubai about ten years ago, with her husband and two sons. In addition to perfect English, she speaks Italian, French and Spanish.
Leah is a very enthusiastic supporter of Dubai, but open and honest in her responses to our questions. The overwhelming sense one gets is of what oil money can build in a very short period of time. Fifty years ago, perhaps a bit more, Dubai was desert.
Dubai is one of seven Emirates, each headed by a sheik. The United Arab Emirates were formed in 1971, when the area emerged from a British protectorate. While the population of Dubai is 1.8 million, only about 20% are local, the rest foreign nationals, which contributes to it's more open and relatively, only relatively, less conservative nature. The other well-known Emirate, Abu Dhabi, is considerably more conservative.
Marriages are still arranged, though girls can now sometimes say, "no," and husbands are supposed to support four wives. While this is still rather alien to Leah's thinking, she gives the positive side of it, too (support). Everyone (except spouses) is required to hold a job, so that there won't be poverty, and loss of a job entails quick deportation. Homosexuality is not condoned or recognized, though it exists.
Our 4-hour tour is a whirlwind. We see many of Dubai's highlights, the boat-shaped, seven star hotel with helipad and all duplex suites, Burj Al Arab, which would have cost an extra $600 to stay one night at and the tallest building in the world at 120 stories, designed by Chicago architect, Adrian Smith.
We spend quite a bit of time at the Dubai Museum, in the Al Fahidi Fort, which gives one a good sense of the development of Dubai. We take a water taxi across the Dubai Creek and wander through the gold market, bathed in heat and humidity. We feign interest in some gold jewelry in order to get an air conditioned respite from the heat.
Leah drops us off, too early, for our 3-hour dinner cruise on the Dubai Creek in a very nice air conditioned boat, with guitar and piano music. The cruise is pleasant and the dinner good, though the poor map we are given makes locating what we are passing pretty-near impossible.
Our limo is 15 minutes late picking us up, which does not please us, as we need to arise at four in the morning. Back at the hotel, we get packed and set for early departure.
Though we only skimmed the surface, I think we got some sense of Dubai, and so the stop-over was worth doing. Not a spot we're likely to return to.
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