Dubai, old and new
go together perfectly
A short but packed honeymoon because we left our 1 year old daughter at home (otherwise it's not a 'real' honeymoon...) We're still too young for a cruise on the Queen Mary 2, but on the Discovery Channel we also saw a documentary about the worlds most luxurious hotel... That was something we wanted to experience, especially as it is a nice change from the tents and mountain huts we slept in during previous holidays. And that's how we chose Dubai in May 2005.
Dubai concentrated on diving for natural pearls until they found oil in 1968. After that things changes drastically. But because they realise that the oil wil run out at some point they are investing enormously at the moment to position themselves as THE holiday destination in the world. Everyting is expanding super fast, but they do value the old heritage as well...
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Our first hotel was located at the banks of the Creek and from the 9th floor we had a great view over the river and the dhows (traditional wooden trade ships) that are waiting for new cargo. |
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A nice example of how old and new go together perfectly: this huge modern building has traditional style elements and was built in only a hundred days ! |
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Our most important reason to come to Dubai: to stay for 1 night in the Burj Al Arab ******* Hotel on a small island of the coast: the highest and most luxurious hotel in the world. |
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A beautiful construction, ouside and inside... |
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Even inside everything is huge and high: you can look up 220 meters ! |
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And of course you can also look down 220 meters...
The round fountain in the picture shoots out a 30 meter high water beam every thirty minutes. |
We chose the panoramic suite with 2 stories and a total size of 225 square meters. Unbelievably luxurious and spacious. Nice to experience for one night but maybe a bit bit too crazy for normal people...
The incredible sunset below was free of charge ! So is it's wallpaper you can download here !
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Not much time and a lot of plans, so we only spent one day at the beach. As it was 39 degrees Celcius this was also enough...
From the Hilton Creek hotel we could also visit the Hilton Jumaire beach resort. The beach and pool are nice but that region is not recommendable at the moment as they are building a lot of new hotels there right now, as you can see on the next picture! |
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Another day was packed with culture: an organised trip to the cultural capital of the 7 emirates: Sjarjah.
In heritage village we visited an old traders house, a traditional souk, a heritage hotel and some markets. A very hot day, but definatly worth it. |
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At about 40 degrees Celcius you run from one airco to the next. Of course it was as hot in the old days, but back then they did not have airco: they used these win towers to have the wind twirl through the house. By hanging up wet towels the air even got a bit colder. |
Two Australian expats persuaded us to take a desert safari as well. We thought it would be just a bit to touristy: it was, but it was nice as well ! We did the jeep safari, some sand boarding, a camel ride, got a henna tatoo, clapped for the belly dancer and enjoyed a barbeque. It was all good fun !
Of course the Burj Al Arab is a bit over the top, but for one night very nice and even worth the money for the experience you get ! Also the rest of Dubai is interesting: it is growing enourmously fast: there are now 45 five-star hotels and next year another 45 will be finished... For a short sun-trip with some cultural influences we can definately recommend Dubai !
Lot's of (bigger) pictures can be found on this (Dutch) microsite I created about Dubai.
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