In a day we got on and off a flight, took a coach back and forth , used the subway twice , roamed on the red and blue line hop on hop off buses, cruised for an hour on a wooden Arabic dhow on the Dubai creek and used a water taxi. Forgot to mention the Arabian treasure walk. Whew!
For the past year I have had this urge to visit Dubai, our long transit at the Abu Dhabi airport made it possible.
Dubai is shiny. I love shiny. Opulent is the word I would use to describe it.Each building surpasses the next. The hotels are magnificent , helicopters seem to be the norm. Each mall has something unusual from the indoor ski slopes ,the Olympic size ice rink or to being part of the tallest building in the world.
Only 20% of people living are locals( the government has huge incentives to try and increase that number) and oil makes up 7% of it's economy( was surprised with that). Ladies beaches/ clubs/taxis were also new to me. As were the air conditioned bus stops ( it is a rich country).
Near the end of the day our camera fell and broke, glad we are on our way to India.
Love the people we meet along the way. A man( South African/ Kiwi ) we asked for directions was happy to give it even though he himself was new to the place and had no clue, looked at the map with us and started guestimating the distances. As I was carrying a bright yellow vuvuzela ( bought at the airport for my nephew) he thought we were South Africans. Another man that brought a smile to our faces was a desk attendant at Etihad Airways. One of the terminals is under construction so things were really haphazard like our flight missing from the list. When I asked him if the flight was on time , he replied - it is Etihad airways, we are never late; the pride in his voice was like he owned the airlines, quite funny considering our first flight had been delayed.
Hectic day but I am glad I got to see Dubai.
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