Ralph and Karen's Tours

After months of planning our next adventure of driving around Greece and renewing what little we remembered of our long ago studied Angient Greece, we set off.

We decided that we’d fly Emirates airlines, as we hadn’t flown them before and it offered us an opportunity to have a quick look around Dubai.

The whole Emirates experience is everything people talk about, from check in to landing everything just ran like clockwork.

We were fortunate to have a vacant seat alongside us in what was a pretty full A380 aircraft and immediately we noticed the extra with and leg space the seats offered. When you do the numbers it doesn’t seem much, but physically sitting in the cabin you get a sense of comfort in an economy seat that we’d not had before.

Then flight entertainment system is just amazing. The screen literally covers the entire width of the seat in front and there are thousands of movies, to shows, music, puzzles, infotainment to keep you occupied. The aircraft noise is negligible and with the added benefit of noise cancelling headphones, it was easy to forget you are in a tin cylinder with 350 other people about to fly for 14 1/2 hours, 12kms above the earths surface.

The first 2 hours was a bit of a zoo, with a lot of families on the flight, and seemingly every person on the flight wanting to race from one end of the plane to the other…gridlock in the aisles! After a while this calmed down, and I settled into a couple of beers and a movie marathon, while Karen was lucky to be able to enter the world I can only dream about – sleep…

Food on board was way above airline expectations and before we knew it we were on descent into Dubai early in the morning.

We breezed through customs and immigration and were welcomed with 36deg at 5.30am. Nice. Welcome to Dubai.

The airport is amazingly well organised and at 5.00am it is already a hive of activity. Great signage, and wide open spaces allow you to get where you need to be in a minimum of fuss. So, out to the cab rank to get a ride to our accommodation. Now the cab situation is interesting…Regular taxis that run on a meter, are beige with a different coloured roof – pink, black, yellow, blue, green, red. All legitimate and endorsed, with the roof colour representing their specific owners. With the exception of those with a pink roof, which indicate it is a female driver. Fantastic idea for ladies traveling alone if they want that extra level of comfort.

The other taxis are more like limos – generally all black, or all white luxury brands, and their prices are sometimes double the regular cabs. They can be a bit cheeky trying to get you into their cars…watch out for this.

As soon as we left the airport it became immediately apparent how massive this city is. It is a sprawling metropolis, that looks like it is a huge construction site. Freeways run every which way, some being seven lanes wide and traffic just flows beautifully. We were staying in the Marina District, which is 40kms from the airport. The trip took approximately 30 mins and cost AED100 which is about AUD$35. Amazing.

Alongside the freeways runs an elevated train system with multiple stops en route. A very cost effective way get around if you have time on your side.

Along the way we saw so many hi-rise structures we ended up with a sore neck. There seems to be a number of smaller regions along the way, which we learned about later on.

We stayed at the Marina View Hotel Apartments, and it was fabulous. We booked a 24 hour room rate which allowed us immediate access to our room on the top floor. Nice. The staff could not have been nicer. We had a shower and a bit of a kip and set out around lunchtime for our exploration.

We walked down behind the hotel to the Marina and noticed there were very few people out and about and most shops and restaurants closed. The Marina itself is crowded with every boat type, from luxury super yachts, down to the local transport vessels.

It was hot. Ridiculously hot. 46 degrees the temperature gauges read, with a wind whistling through from the desert at 20kmh. Wow. Hottest day of my life without doubt. Uncomfortably hot.

So after about ten minutes of walking, we jumped in a lovely air conditioned cab and headed to the old town of Dubai for lunch, some tea and a wander around the old Souks (markets) which specialise in gold, textiles and spices.

We arrived at the old Traditional Arabian Tea House in a suburb called Al Fahidi, near the Deira Creek. We entered this centuries old building, and happened upon an oasis in the middle of an oven. Beautiful cushioned seats and benches in a lovely cool area draped with curtains, flowers, vines…beautiful. We ordered a Moroccan inspired iced tea, with mint and cinnamon, and as it arrived filled with ice it was the best thing I’d seen in years. And it tasted just as good.

We ordered some local food to snack on, including some falafel, hummus, fattoush, samboosa, all served with bread cooked fresh in their clay pot oven. Beautiful. But I must say, the Middle Eastern cuisine we get in Australia is very very good too.

As usual, we ordered too much, but got through most of it in the end. The lovely setting ensured we didn’t need to rush.

To finish, we decided to have a local tea, the main reason this place exists…so the tea menu came out with literally a hundred choices. “Recommendation please?” – so the Arabian Loose Leaf it was. And it was perfect; strong, sweet, refreshing..

Ready to do battle with the souks…we tried, honestly we did. But back in a cab and back to the hotel until it cooled a bit.

We had pre-purchased tickets to the “At the Top” experience of the Burj Khalifa tower for later in the afternoon – the tallest free standing structure in the world. The viewing platform is on the 125th floor, at 452m above sea level. The lift to get you up there travels at 10 metres per second.

When they commenced building this tower, they averaged completing 50 floors per year. It’s just amazing. You can actually go to the absolute top at level 148, but the cost is prohibitive. When you exit the elevator on level 125 after approx 60 seconds, the entire floor is surrounded with floor to ceiling glass, providing a 360 degree view over Dubai – out to sea in one direction and toward the desert in another. Unfortunately it was a particularly hazy day today, and the visibility was poor; but still good enough to get an uninterrupted view of the Emirate.

A highlight of this experience is an outdoor viewing platform which for those with height issues could be a problem. Amazing.

After a good amount of time to take it all in, we descended in to the “Biggest Mall in the World” which lives up to its reputation. Now THIS is where the population of Dubai obviously hangs out! In the comfort of air conditioned shopping excellence. What a mall. We were gobsmacked at the number of banks and financial insitiutions, and the myriad food supply stores and restaurants from all over the world with French delicacies prominent. We had to taste some, so the French cookie shop was our choice.

In front of the Mall, there is a water fountain show that operates every afternoon/evening in the man made lakes. We were just in time to catch the show just on sunset and while not spectacular by Las Vegas Bellagio standards, it was pretty cool.

Back in a cab and across to Deira again to try our luck with the souk now that the temps had dropped to a balmy 35 degrees. First to the Gold Souk – We expected an indoor marketplace with a few dodgy jewellery stalls – the reality being stacks of streets, laneways all lined with shop after shop after shop filled with GOLD. And typically, hundreds of touts on the street trying to get you the “very best gold at the very best price”. How would you know? It was quite overwhelming. The money in this area is frightening.

We wandered through the streets, jaws opened at the sheer opulence of all this bling, and a little uncomfortable at the number of people on the streets.
The spice Souk marketplace was closed for a holiday, however there were many local shops overflowing with any and every spice imaginable..saffron being the most popular by the sound of things. The colours, scents and textures are brilliant and beautiful. Nuts, dates, fresh and dried fruits overflow onto the streets with every shop keeper wanting you to indulge in their product.

And all the while, every single person is offering Rolex, Rolex, Cartier, iPhone, Rolex…special price for you, only you…Come with me, best gold 75% discount for you my friend….The only difference between here and Asian cities is they aren’t offering Viagara, speed, ice, weed…….

Through the gauntlet of the spice area, and we found ourselves cloth deep in the textile souk and Karen was in creative heaven. Again, every single type of material known to man is available here – for the right price….tailors on every corner, stores devoted to buttons, appliqués, and every accessory you can imagine separate literally thousands of material houses. From what we could see, it was all very very cheap. Beautiful dresses for 10 Dirham (about AUD$3.50), purses, leather goods, bags, jackets – everything and anything.

Having wandered around earlier in the day in deserted streets, this was the buzzing atmosphere we’d heard Dubai is renowned for. Shoulder to shoulder people – heavily dominated by men – this is the place the locals congregate every night to ply their trade, smoke their shisha and trade stories. Scented smoke smells fill the air, mixed with spices, perfumes and freshly cooked BBQ threatening sensory overload. What to look at next, what’s that smell, what did he say? Is that the call to prayer over the loudspeakers? An amazing experience.

We popped out the other end of this maze of Criss crossing streets and lane ways and ended up at the Deira Creek, which again was crowded with locals catching up in the cafes and shisha joints along the waterfront. Here, old timber trade ships sit berthed awaiting the loading of any and everything imaginable..we saw hundreds of refrigerators, tv sets, food, water, clothing – all just waiting to be loaded. The destination of these craggy old ships is anyone’s guess. And there are hundreds of them tied side by side. I wouldn’t get on board to save my life.

The other side of the creek is more of the Old Town, where we’d been earlier in the day at the Tea House. The creek is teeming with tiny little timber boats, holding probably 20 people at a time, with no side walls, no seats, just a bench running around the deck. These vessels are called abra, and are the locals version of public transport to get from one side of the creek to the other. The system works and is very basic – the driver of the abra stands yelling out that he is leaving in a minute and people just climb aboard. You sit wherever you can, the driver walks around and collects 50 Dirham cents (about AUD 17c) per person then reverses out of the dock, dodges his way between arriving and departing abra before trying his best to reach the other side…

It’s exciting. By this time the sun had set, and darkness is all around, with the exception of a tiny light on the top of each boat. Somehow they all know where they are heading, and manage to get to the destination. The trip takes probably ten minutes and it’s awesome. The temperature on the water is lovely, and the sights and sounds of the Old Town from the creek is lovely. The driver bashes his way between other boats and eventually pulls in at a berth of kinds. All in a days work.

We wandered through another Textile Souk in the Old Town, wandered along the creek and grabbed a cab back to our hotel. A couple of beers in the hotel watching a bit of Wimbledon – A fantastic way to end a very busy and enjoyable day.

Back to Dubai airport on Saturday morning and we get to really check out how amazing this airport is. It’s massive, clean, efficient. Typical of pretty much everything else here in Dubai .

Sitting on the plane now, heading on a short 4 1/2 hour flight across to Athens, where our road trip begins……..