Post #168 10 May 2018

Gentlefolk,

We were overseas from 1 - 30 April 2018, in the following places:

1 April    Dubai
4 April    Iran (Tehran, Kashan, Isfahan, Yazd, Kerman, and Shiraz)
22 April  Malaysia (Penang)
26 April  Singapore

We've visited many countries, but this was our first time in the Middle East so everything was new and interesting. All our flights were with Emirates Air; good service.

This post describes our visit to Dubai, 1 - 4 April 2018.

I will do posts on each of the cities we visited in Iran 4 - 22 April, followed by a post on our 4 days in  Penang, and finally a post on our 3 days in Singapore. Lots to do!

Dubai

Dubai is one of seven Emirates which, in December 1971, joined together to create the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with its capital at Abu Dhabi.  The population of the UAE is just over 6 million, with the main centers Dubai 2.5m, Sharjah 1.3m, and Abu Dhabi 1.2m.

The UAE is unusual because only about 15% of the population is local Arabs (called Emiratis) - the other 85% are 'guest workers' mainly from India, Pakistan, Egypt and The Philippines. The Emiratis have it good: free housing, health care, education, government jobs and no tax. I want to be an Emerati in my next life!

Another unusual aspect is that everything is relatively new, built on oil & gas discovered in the 1960s.  It's hard to believe that in 1960 Dubai was a small town of just 40,000 inhabitants; by 1995 the population had increased to about 700,000; and now it is about 2.5 million. Maybe only Shenzhen in China can match that phenomenal rate of growth.

Dubai's limited oil & gas resources didn't last long (Abu Dhabi has much larger reserves and is the rich cousin) and forced the Government to focus on developing Dubai as a regional center of finance and industry and tourism, which it has done with impressive success.

We had three days in Dubai and did three tours: a half-day Traditional City tour, and full day tour to Abu Dhabi, and an evening Desert safari tour.  We also had a look at a beach and drove around The Palms, a huge development on reclaimed land in the sea.

We were lucky with the weather. It was Spring so the maximums were around 30C, quite comfortable.  But we were told that between May and October the temperatures are 45+C and it is too hot to be outside during the day.

We stayed in the Rove Downtown Hotel, a comfortable 4 star hotel. It was a 10 minute walk to Dubai Mall, the biggest shopping mall in Dubai (maybe in the world?). The malls in Dubai are amazing - this one had a skating rink and an aquarium, another Mall features a real ski slope - crazy - they are like airconditioned oases in a very hot climate, and attract crowds of locals and tourists.

It's a pretty weird place, everything is artificial / new, where life centers around shopping malls.

Here are some photos of our time in Dubai.

Dubai skyline. And remember there was literally nothing here 40 years ago. Wide avenues cris-crossing the city. Lots of traffic, even traffic jams at rush hour.  What was particularly striking was the modern and unique-design architecture.  They seek the unusual - Aussie design seems tame in comparison. Lots of construction going on.  Who buys all these apartments and occupies the offices and shops????

View of the Rove Hotel swimming pool, with the Burj Khalifa in the background.

The Traditional City tour stopped at the attractive Jumeirah Mosque.

Then the tour took us past Zabeel Palace, the residence of Sheikh Maktoum (the Maktoum family have ruled Dubai since it was first settled in 1833).

We visited the Dubai Museum which is housed in the old Al Fahidi Fort.

A view of the inside of Al Fahidi Fort. God to see that they are utilising and maintaining some of the old buildings.

The tour arranged a crossing of Dubai Creek in a local water-taxi (abras)

We visited the old Spice Market, and the nearby Gold Market. Amazing to see shop after shop of solid-gold ornaments; one can only imagine the wealth.  50 years ago this area near the water-front would have been the commercial center of the city - now the malls have taken over - but it was good to see that these markets were still well patronised.

We did a one-day tour of Abu Dhabi, about 2 hours drive south of Dubai. There is a Formula 1 race track on Yaz Island, and that was the first stop on our tour. The large building on the right is the Victory Hotel. 

We visited the old Date Market - did you know that there are literally dozens of types of dates?  If you want to now about dates, come to the Middle East, dates are part of their DNA.  A local lady advised me "That variety is best now, next week the other one will be better."

We had lunch in the food-hall of a local Mall and I saw this advertisement featuring Liu Yi Fei a famous actress in China.  But there are very few Chinese here???

Some of the interesting architecture in Abu Dhabi - a big new hotel.

The tour took in the famous Sheikh Zeyad Mosque, built for US$1 billion by the first leader of the UAE.

The beautiful courtyard in the Zeyad Mosque.

This magnificent mosque attracts lots of visitors from surrounding countries and tourists,.

Women have to be fully covered to visit the Mosque.

We were surprised to find a popular Coffee Club (headquartered in Brisbane, Australia) near the exit of the Zeyad Mosque. 

One night we went to the Dubai Mall for dinner - it is always busy.

There is a lake between the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa Tower which features fountain/music shows at night - big crowd, very popular. The Burj Khalifa Tower is 828 meters high, very impressive. The Tower was a magical back-drop to the water fountain displays. 

One of the nice beaches in Dubai, best months are December to April. Dubai is attracting increasing numbers of tourists, especially Europeans, who come here during their winter.  It is safe, always sunny, with good food, great shopping and lots of hotels.  

Some of the interesting little food & drink kiosks which line Jumeirah Beach.

The famous Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Hotel with its distinctive sail-like shape.  220 suites, starting at US$1,400 per night.

We drove around the Palm Jumeirah development.  Land reclamation started in 2001 and the first residents moved in 5 years later.  It is in the shape of the trunk of a palm tree, with 16 fronds (branches) and surrounded by a crescent; a huge project: 6 million cubic meters of rock from local quarries and 100 million cubic meters of sand dredged up from the sea floor about 10 kms offshore; 20,000 workers worked around the clock for 5 years; the development totals 78 kilometers of water-front.  There are similar new developments called "The World" and "Deira Palm" being built further up the coast. Amazing.

The fronds of the Palm are private houses all with direct water access. The fronds are private roads and we couldn't drive there - had to stay on the main arteries and the Crescent. 

The Crescent which protects The Palm was built with large rocks.  There is a wide promenade as shown in this photo.  Several big hotels and resorts dot the Crescent.

There are many fancy/expensive cars in Dubai (but Hong Kong has many more!).

A highway overpass with attractive Arabic theme.

Our hotel was on Happiness Street, near the Dubai Mall - don't you love the name?

We did a Desert Safari tour. We drove an hour outside Dubai City, to a nature reserve.  There were about 100 cars, all 4 wheel drive Toyota Land Cruisers, all full of tourists.  We met an African-American lady from Atlanta, Georgia who was celebrating her 60th birthday in Dubai with her four adult children.  They flew Atlanta - Paris - Dubai and were staying at the Grand Hyatt for a week.  Why Dubai? Safe, clean, people speak English, and not expensive, was the answer.

Our driver deflating the tires of our car before we started "dune bashing"; we went up hill and down dale for about 45 minutes. Very exciting for those of us who had little experience of off-road driving. Fortunately the drivers were all very experienced and knew the terrain well.

We stopped for "sunset photos" on the desert dunes.

The tour came with a camel ride - lasted for about 10 minutes - good fun.

After dinner we were entertained by a belly dancer.  She performed for about 20 minutes We assumed she was from Turkey or somewhere in the Middle East, but our driver told us that she was from Brazil!  Anyway, she was an accomplished dancer and put on a very good show.

So ended our three days in Dubai.  The take-away?  Dubai is an interesting mix of Muslim/Arab and Western, old & new. Interesting modern architecture, many fancy hotels and shopping malls, all run by foreign workers. Where does the water come from, and the power for all the airconditioning?

The next morning we caught a flight to Tehran (1.5 hours) for the start of our Iranian adventure.  That will be the subject of my next post.

It has taken me two weeks to do this first post - I'd better get a move-on with the rest of the trip.

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Two momentous developments this week. 

On Wednesday President Trump announced America's withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement which was signed by the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the USA with Iran in 2015.

Against all advice, and ignoring that Iran had met all the conditions of the Agreement, Trump withdrew.  The other signatories have pledged to continue the Agreement but that will probably not mean much in the face of threatened sanctions by America on companies which trade with Iran. 

The Iranians are in for an undeserved rough time. Pity, because they are nice people, and things were just starting to look up. 

On Thursday (today) the results of the General Election in Malaysia were announced.  Contrary to predictions, the opposition won a majority of seats. The new Prime Minister will be Mahatir Mohamad. Yes, the same man who was PM from 1981 to 2003.  He came out of retirement to contest the election and beat Najib and his Party which had governed Malaysia for 61 years. A remarkable feat at the age of 92!!!!

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Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Alex Olah & Vera Olah
Canberra, Australia
Thursday 10 May 2018