As you might have noticed from the posts that happened in the last 24 hours, as well as the new Dubai 2004 Photo Album, I am back from my Dubai holiday. 10 days of relaxation, reading, sun and fun. It was great.

The hotel in Jebel Ali was very nice and the beach area and pools even nicer. The ocean had the exactly right temperature to be easy to get in and still remain refreshing, with a good set of waves from time to time. The 10 days just flew past us and we could actually have added another 3 days to the mix to get the relaxation process settled in. 10 days just seems to be the absolute bottom limit.

After two days of settling in, reading and doing nothing much, we took our first trip, being a safari tour with jeeps into the desert. Theme park rides can now no longer shock me. When you get to the desert, the drivers will let most off the air out of the tires to get better traction in the sand when going up and down the dunes and boy do they need it. I remember one jeep suddenly grinding to a halt, everybody jumping out really fast… somebody had obviously splattered some of their lunch over the back seats ;) I was actually getting close myself with the second 40 minutes ride after our stop at a camel farm. Our group in the jeep held out very well though and it was a fun ride with them. The evening finished with dinner in the dunes, which was actually good, setting on the floor, smoking a water pipe (apple tabacco kicks) and watching a belly dance. At our trip back to fill up the wheels again and go home, our driver wanted to not be last at the fill station and suddenly broke out to the right giving us another very speedy and hell ride through the desert with a few tiny jumps actually.

Another trip was obviously to take a look at the Burj al Arab, the 7 star hotel (their own term ;)) on an artificial island. Sadly photos were hardly allowed but I actually have to say that it was less impressive than I thought. Sure, everything is in gold but it could have been cold coloring. It’s not like there is a big sign saying “This wall cost $2000000.” or something. Sure it looks impressive, but it only really is if you think about it. We went there to have tea, as you cannot just go into the hotel without some kind of reservation. It was a full blown english tea for 30 EURs with wonderful choices of tea, great service and three different courses of different cakes and pastries, one tasting better than the last. It was actually a very good value which one wouldn’t have thought. It was also possible to go up to the 27th floor restaurant, giving a view of the first Palm of Dubai where construction of the streets and houses has now started. The second Palm was actually just being built in front of our hotel, with ship after ship coming in and blowing a mixture of sand and concrete into the water in a big arch as if it were water. The houses on this thing are actually not too expensive, with the biggest problem being that you are actually financing the Palm as you start paying now, with your house being finished arround 2008. As a price example though, there are penthouses on the top floor in the skyscrapers in the Marina with close to 400 square meters, 160 square meeters of sun roof with pool for $500.000 to buy.

The last trip we did was a tour through Dubai, trying to take a look at the cultural riches of the country. These sadly do not exist. The real history of Dubai kind of started in the 1950s really and one of the greatest cultural happenings is a one month shopping season in I think February. That should speak for itself. It was half a day and while the spice and gold souk (market) was very nice, as well as the boat trip, the most impressive part of the country is how the sheiks have build up the economy in a very efficient manner. Only 20% of the inhabitants of Dubai are natives and there are some fun little twist on how things work. Natives can get a free house when they marry natives, the have full medical payment (not service, that is being built) meaning that they get a trip to a foreign country doctor paid by the state, including somebody traveling with them for help.

A nice thing for cars is that there is a speed limit of 120 km/h and the cars start beeping when they go too fast. Well, not all of them, the expensive ones only beep once, which we noticed when we were driven back to the airport in a fully fitted Lexus including TV in the back of the front headrests.

I also took a gold course at the hotel which was very nice and it remains an interesting sport. I previously just hit a few balls on the driving range with a friend but having a real lesson helped not totally ruining my style ;) I now have muscle ache due to having gone clay pigeon shooting twice and the rifle is damn heavy. My right arm (I am left handed) hurts once I extend it and turn the palm of my hand upwards, as if holding the rifle. It was fun though.

Then of course it was lots of beach, pool, sun and getting the relaxation pool refilled. For that, I can only suggest Dubai. Especially in 5–10 years this city will be interesting.

Oliver Thylmann’s Musings

The Trip to Dubai