Impressions of Dubai

On our journey out to New Zealand, inconvenient flight times on a change in Dubai (too short or too long) induced us to make a two night stop-over. The news stories concerning Matthew Hedges (the post-graduate researcher accused of spying) and Princess Latifa (the member of the UAE Royal family alleged to have sought to escape the country before being captured and returned) might have caused us to reconsider our strategy, but neither had hit the headlines at the time we booked our airline tickets.

Further, it was only after booking that we examined the UAE's customs policies in detail. The trouble with having been a solicitor in my previous life is that being on the right side of the law is an absolute compulsion to the extent of reading pages of small print that I'm sure many travellers must never bother with. The regulations have recently been updated in relation to medicines and the Foreign Office website warned about this but in the absence of further details from the UAE was unable to provide full information. The rules as promulgated on the Internet are neither easily comprehensible nor, it would seem, complete. Packing Disruption Alert: they can be interpreted as meaning that all books and medicines must be declared on entry and whilst banned lists of both were evident, they also potentially suggested that there could be penalties for failing to declare any paperback or headache tablet brought into the country.

Well, despite the obvious concerns, I am pleased to report that my medication was not removed (I was carrying the original prescriptions and packaging as I generally do when travelling abroad in any event) and nor was there any obvious interest in my copy of a Lonely Planet guidebook.

Immigration successfully negotiated we made our way by taxi to hotel, realising that Dubai is one of those cities that never sleeps. 2am their time and the roads were still jammed with 3 lanes of traffic, although we would subsequently see them empty on Friday which, as in much of the Middle-East and in conjunction with jumu'ah, is considered a non-working day  and the start of the weekend.

However, and surprisingly for a country where the official religion is Islam, the city's shops and hotels were very  much decorated in Western Christmas-style (a complete contrast to New Zealand as we later found).

Indeed those seeking an authentic Arabic experience may be better advised to head to the towns and deserts of North Africa. Dubai may be a meeting place for flights all over the world with over a million passengers passing through it each year, however a Djerba Square style melting pot it is not. There are prohibitions on drinking alcohol and displaying affection in public places but the days of a tribal settlement along a mosquito stricken creek have long since passed. There are still barges on the creek (these days a misnomer for a broad stretch of water separating old and new areas of the city), some working but many preserved as tourist restaurants whilst the traditional souks are but shadows of their former selves and indeed of their counterparts in other Arab nations.

The relentless heat and humidity have instead inspired the construction of mega buildings, many of architectural fame and sometimes beauty, including the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest at 828 metres. Innumerable shopping centres provide an air conditioned haven for visitors and locals alike complete with jaw dropping attractions like the aquarium and fountain display at the Dubai Mall.

Al Jumeirah Beach occupies a relatively small area of sand and city next to the coast with the infamous Palm Islands a short ride away but properly only visible if you want to try your hand at sky diving, although we did get a somewhat hazy view when flying out on our return trip.

The metro system is clean and, although probably underused by tourists, it is a convenient means of transport from one area of the city to another.

I am not sure what people who stay there for any length of time do, although I understand that there are a number of themed attractions none of which held any allure for Mister E or me especially as the whole city and its surroundings provided enough for us to gape at: a giant fantasy world built for the affluent to escape reality.

We crammed the best of the city's sights into a day and a half and then spent another afternoon and evening on a desert trip.

Of course it is amazing what the riches from oil can bring: not only a city that appears to defy the natural world around it but also a sanitising of that world. So whilst we went into the desert in a 4x4 convoy, rode camels and ate inside a desert fort, it was not the authentic experience of my twenties when a friend and I got to attend a genuine Bedouin wedding celebration under the stars in the Sahara, surrounded by people with whom we could only converse by hand. This time there was fluent English, electricity, running water, food served to health standards and, just over the horizon, the assurance of the big city lights and an illuminated and properly constructed road leading back to them. We were entertained by belly dancing and a mesmerising display of the swirling dervish, which still makes me dizzy to think about.

We flew out of the UAE still trying to comprehend the point of a visit to Dubai, although that swirling dervish will remain a lifetime memory.