Month: September 2010

Unfortunately we only had 2 nights in Dubai meaning we had very little time to do much more than we already had.

We started off the morning having breakfast with our Swedish friends before saying goodbye and that we might visit them in Copenhagen. We caught a taxi out to see the world’s only 7-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab – the iconic hotel on the water in the shape of a sail. Sadly, to get past security you need a reservation and moreso, semi-formal attire is a must. No shorts, jeans etc which is all I have. No matter, we got the photos, we can say we’ve seen it – mark it off the list.

From there, we caught a taxi to go to Palm Jumeriah – the man made island created from nothing in the shape of a palm tree. The hotels, the housing – just everything is beyond belief. It’s excess for the sake of it. We couldn’t help but think how much water must be used to keep the lush grass, trees and flowers alive given the conditions.

Our taxi driver gave us an unguided tour in that he really had no idea what was what, but he stopped occasionally for us to get out and take photos. The crown jewel on the palm is Hotel Atlantis – a massive resort where the filthy rich play.

From there, back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and off to the airport. We were in the taxi for probably an hour, maybe 75mins for the princely sum of 140dirhams or about $40. Bargain.

You know the airport is busy when they have actual checkouts – probably 8 in the normal food area and another 6 in the alcohol / cigarettes area. Duty free seems an odd thing in Dubai as it’s an open port – there is no sales tax. But – the airport is one of very few spots you can buy alcohol so I guess people stock up.

The plane ride to Munich was easy and uneventful. We got an older Airbus and whilst comfortable, was showing it’s age a bit and the Boeing we had to Dubai was noticeably nicer.

We got through customs, caught a train into the city center along with about 20 Scottsmen dressed in their kilts (and had clearly had a few drinks on the plane). We found our terrible hotel, but it was clean and it’s grown on us since. A good night’s sleep and we ready ourselves for the big day – Oktoberfest!

I had written a long post about Oktoberfest but my draft has gone kaput! It was very long and self indulgent so I’ll recap the hopefully more interesting bits.

We had breakfast at our terrible hotel which has grown on us but the food was good, and luckily, we sat next to 2 Australians from Sydney – Johnny & Lena. Super nice people and they asked if we wanted to go to Oktoberfest with them and their friends… Hell yes!

We walked over, meeting up with the others – Mel, Dale and Leigh. All very nice and dressed in the outfits that we wish we had by now. Arriving at the gates, we had the obligatory photo infront of the big sign and in we went. The Hoffbrau tent was the choice and we were seated with a probably 10% full crowd. Not bad at 10am! By 12, it was packed.

Order given, 1L steins delivered and it was on! The others were seasoned professionals being they went the previous day and made sure they told us the finer points about drinking – such as take it slow, it’s a marathon session, not a sprint. Something some of the other knobs around us could have done with hearing. Over the course of the day, we saw a number of people kicked out by big German security guards just itching for you to resist. Some did, and probably wished they hadn’t.

The beer tasted great, even that early in the morning. As the beer went down, our interest in other tables around us grew. We would have talked to 50+ people during the day – people from Canada (Serena & Ali + 2 others), the US (Kurt, Louis and another guy), Darwin (Pete) and a truckload of locals & other Australians. We had a huge amount of fun with 2 in particular – Matius & Julian – 2 young guys from a town about an hour from Munich. They put up with our effort at sprechen zie deutch, translated when we needed it and explained a heap of stuff. In return, we helped them with the ladies who for some reason loved our table. There’s some good stories from the day/night, but can’t really put them up here, even if it’s nothing to do with us directly.

We stayed until 10pm and by then, the seats were for standing only and the only talking done was singing along to whatever the band played.

Seriously, it was one of our most fun days we’ve ever had. If you ever get an opportunity to go, take it! Its like nothing I’ve seen or experienced before. Everyone is so friendly and there for a good time. Maybe next year…

After the tower, we caught a taxi to Emirates Mall. The taxi driver was from
Bangladesh and was keen to chat since we had something in common between the 2 countries – cricket. Turns out he moved to Dubai to earn money and send back home to his wife and 2 kids. The Dubai Government won’t allow them to join him as he doesn’t have time to see them. Taxi drivers work 12hrs/day, 7 days a week and have 50days off per year to go back home to see their family. It was pretty sad, but he said he only needs to do it for another 2 years and that will set them up.

Emirates Mall is another ridiculously huge shopping mall. The locals love to shop – I guess you have to do something with that non-taxed income. At Emirates Mall – the shrine to excess is located there, namely Ski Dubai. The monolithic indoor ski fields with temperature set to -4. Chair lifts, ski runs, taboggon areas – it’s just insane. We were running short of time, so we didn’t participate, but there were plenty of windows to check out the action.

We got picked up from our hotel to venture off for our 4wd tour in an almost brand new Toyota Landcruiser – worth about $AU60K which is pretty cheap compared to what we’d buy one for in OZ. We started talking with a very nice Swedish couple who were from our hotel as well – Pedro & Jackie. Not everyone from Sweden is called Sveta & Sven we learnt although Pedro’s middle name was Sven, so that made everything right in the world. They don’t have an Ikea on every corner nor do they only drive Volvos and Saabs. We’re learning a lot as you can see!

Others in the car were 2 Polish guys in their 20s. Strange guys but on the trip home, we got talking to them and they turned out to be friendly and very interested in Australia. We were told, not asked, that kangaroo milk was delicious. Milking a kangaroo – that’s a new one. We couldn’t talk them out of it either.

On the way to the desert we went past the King’s palace – we could only go a short way up the driveway, but that was enough. “palace” doesn’t do it justice – it’s basically a city to itself.

Our first meeting point for all the 4wd operators was a stop at a service station whilst the guides went to a prayer room at the service station. Literally in the middle of nowhere. From there, we headed to our dune bashing spot. Dead donkeys lay by side of the road – if you reckon a kangaroo could do some damage to your car – consider hitting a fully grown donkey at 120km/h!

At the next meeting point, we’re in the desert about to dune bash. I got to hold an eagle which was pretty cool. Quite the imposing bird! Huge talons and fairly weighty.

We then got stuck into our dune bashing! The convoy of 10 or so cars tore up the sand, riding the crest of the dune and then spearing down the other side. Sand was flung up against our side windows and over the bonnet and we tilted from side to side, wondering if we’d topple. Apparently it does happen, but not today thankfully.

Another stop and we got to do some sandboarding. Snowboard and a sand dune was all that was needed to have a go. Watching Japanese tourists faceplant and eat the tasty sand was a free bonus.

Some more dune bashing and we ended up at the purpose-made compound for dinner, belly dancing, henna tattoos, Sheesha (smoke pipes) and belly dancing. Bloody good fun!

Back to the hotel, quick shower and went to the hotel bar with the Swedish couple and met up with the Polish guys from the tour.

So we are in a Dubai bar, 3 young Russian female singers on stage singing Russian polkas with a bit of Amy Winehouse thrown in whilst drinking an Indian beer nibbling on the complimentary popcorn with the AFL grand final on one of the TVs. Strange, strange night, but awesome fun!

Day 2 started with a (very) hearty buffet breakfast. Glen tried basically everything on the menu with much of it being, well, different. Things like spicey rice, beef bacon, chicken sausages, feta along with the usual eggs, toast etc. It followed nicely after my Iranian dinner from the night before which was delicious.

We booked our desert safari for the evening and then taxi’d to Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world. For 100 dirham, you can take a tour up to the observation platform some 632m up. The whole presentation was fantastic, very informative with some odd stats, such as the building weighs as much as 100,000 elephants and is 10 soccer pitches in circumference.

The lift takes about 40 seconds to get up to the observation deck traveling at 10metres per second. Our ears popped about 4 times each way but it was the smoothest of rides.

On the observation deck, there you could see almost forever. With Dubai being so flat, the only interruption to the view was the sand haze. You go up to the glass barrier and look through empty sections which made it a touch scary, even though it was only 30cm high. Poking the camera lens through it freaked me out so gave up on that!

The ability to see Dubai from that perspective really helped us to make sense of it. Basically, the city is built like you would in Sim City the game. Housing block, housing block, housing block – build a multi lane road around it. Same for business and throw in a bit of landscaping for good measure. The thing is, it actually works. The highways are very efficient and they’re everywhere (6 lanes in each direction in some spots). It’s not the urban sprawl of most cities and there’s designated areas for each aspect of life – home, work, shopping (huge factor here) and entertainment.

We made it to Dubai safe and sound, albeit weary. Newborn babies on an 11hr flight? Yeah, they don’t like it!

Anyway, we’ve had about 5hrs sleep in the past 56 and it’s only 1pm on Monday, so we’ll tough it out. Not hard to do in Dubai!

We’re currently having a coffee at the Dubai Mall, home to 300 stores, an enormous aquarium, an ice rink and a huuuge Sega games world. The place is incredible as is the heat outside. Only 39 today so a bit cooler according to our taxi driver. You’d never know it though being inside, they know air conditioning do the Emirates!

So far we’re both big fans of Dubai. Every nationality known to man is here and we’re having fun playing “what the hell is that accent”.

Battery is almost dead and no free internet at hotel, so we’ll update when we can.