Asia,  United Arab Emirates

Why would you want to visit Dubai?

Why would you want to visit Dubai, they said. There’s nothing interesting there, they said. But I’m not the one who’s taking others opionions for granted and I had to check it myself, so I went to Dubai. Ok, so this story had slightly different beginning…

May 2015, calculation of holidays in Canary Islands in progress. We couldn’t fit into the budget. So we visited Wizz air’s website for 153rd time and had 153rd thougth to give up. And then I saw Dubai. Well… Maybe one day when I win a lottery, I thought. And I was wondering how much I have to win to actually go to Dubai…

  • Hey, do you know that we can go to Dubai for the same price as to Canary Island?
  • Let’s go!

 

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So one summer evening in August we landed in Dubai, not Lanzarote and not with Wizz air but with FlyDubai. Going back to my question: why? Just because we could. And I could finish with this sentence, but I’m overly talkative. So why? Because Dubai developed during my life and I was intrigued what one can do in 25 years except for reaching 1,76m, graduating and getting a job. From to streets and three buildings to 70km long city and golden horses. Seriously, golden horses:

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There are few other reasons to go to Dubai: (too)warm temperatures, see, the tallest building in the world and it’s not as expensive as you may think (but it can be). And there are several other reasons.

  1. Dubai was basically built from scratch in less than 30 years and in my opinion without any plan (or at least it looks like that). It’s good to see it as it’s so different to what we have in Europe – cities which are hundreds years old or even more than thousand and they are still restricted by what was needed long long time ago – river or any other kind of trade rout. Dubai was a carta blanca, city built on a desert according to what someone had in mind at certain moment and what this person wanted. Something like an urbanistic experiment: what’s gonna happen if we throw a bag full of many in this particular spot. Quite interesting, isn’t it?

2. The tallest building in the world. Do I really have to convince you?

3.  See what one can do with lots of money. Everywhere in Dubai there’s water: marinas, canals, fountains. And just to remind you, it’s a desert. Artificial islands? Everyone knows about them. I’m just wondering how it will affect the environment in the future, because this desert is not in this particular place by accident.DSC_0612_1

4. Go to the beach! Sandy beaches, warm (or too warm, yes, it’s possible) sea, it’s soooo nice. If you don’t want to lay on the beach, you can lay by the swimming pool at the rooftop of your hotel and admire the city while you’re tanning.DSC_0233_1.JPG

5. See the mosque in Abu Dhabi. Ok, it’s not Dubai, it’s 160km from Dubai. Sheikh Zayed Mosque is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. My jaw dropped.

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Convinced? No? Let me add that Dubai is not expensive, girls are not walking around covered from head to toe, it’s safe and if you want to explore traditional Arab souqs, you can. In Dubai you can find everything: desert, water, hell lot of money, poverty, modern architecture, a bit of traditional Arabic world and madness of spending money. If you want to spend millions in Dubai, you can. If you want to visit Dubai on a budget, you can. Everyone can find something for themselves. Wanna know what I found? Check upcoming posts.

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