ok, let’s see if I manage to write some blog posts about my travel…
My first stop was Dubai. The city of the United Arabian emirates is the first Arabian/Islamic city I ever visit. Before booking my trip, friends told me that 3 days in Dubai are more than enough. I can completely confirm that, at least unless you bring a lot of money to spend.
The young city is full of special attractions, if you want to experience them, you often need to pay a good Dinar. I’ve visited the Burj Kalifa, the tales building in the world. I’ve paid 500 AED, without realizing that it’s about 120€, to visit the “top” (floor 148). There would have been a cheaper option (going to floor 125), but I wasn’t aware of it. Compared to that, 200 AED for 2 hours skiing or snowboarding in the mall of the emirates felt cheap (but I didn’t do it).
Visiting Dubai Museum, the different markets (spice, fish and gold) was cheap or free – if you don’t count the annoyance getting the guys selling ‘good copy watches’ and ‘branded t-shirts’ or those selling ‘traditional’ (probably China made) clothes.
The other side of the coin is the workforce making this possible. Everywhere you see Indians, Pakistani and people from east Asia running the city probably for a comparable low salary. On my trip to the desert (totally touristic and organized), I’ve talked to the driver. He was from Parkistan, living 14 years in Dubai, drives every day (no weekends) with a group of tourists to the desert. During our trip back he called his manager to ask to cancel the morning shift, because he wasn’t feeling well. He had a hard time to argue to get this half day off.
Overall Dubai was a great experience, I would come back, maybe at the end of a long trip to spend the remaining money instead of the beginning, unknown how much I will need for the remaining trip.