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Crossing the bright face in Dubai
Dune bashing:: Toyota Land Cruisers slip, slide and yaw on a dune-bashing tour in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve
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Dune bashing:: Toyota Land Cruisers slip, slide and yaw on a dune-bashing tour in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. Tires are partially deflated for the trip so the vehicle will ride lightly and not sink into the sand.
'The desert is like an ocean,' Faisal says, driving a Toyota Land Cruiser as it disconcertingly slides down a sand dune's face. 'You have to remember your tracks.'
The 29-year-old Pakistani came to Dubai to work in import/export and got hooked one of the most popular local pursuits, dune bashing. Now he's a lead driver, shepherding a convoy of visitors on a tour across the bright face of the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve.
As the Land Cruiser yaws down another dune, Faisal ' one hand on the wheel, the other hand capping a water bottle ' diplomatically overlooks his alarmed passenger and casually nods to the east, toward the Hajar Mountains in Oman ' where he says that the dunes can top 300 meters.
Later, when walking up a dune to watch the sunset, the truth of Faisal's earlier words was borne out. Shifting sands and wind completely fill your footsteps well before reaching the top of the dunes, which, fortunately, don't exceed 10 meters on the tour.
After dark, the tour group begins a dinner at a man-made oasis in the conservation reserve, only part of which is open to tours.
Most of its 225 square kilometers ' about 5 percent the size of Dubai ' are given over to mimosa and tamarisk trees and animals like the Arabian Onyx, sand cats and gazelles.
As is seen everywhere in Dubai, the tour mixes old and new.
There is the expected at the dinner: camel rides and shisha; roast chicken and lamb; camel ice cream; bitter traditional Arab coffee tempered by sweet dates; and belly dancing.
There is also the surprisingly contemporary. The man in Bedouin garb who leads camel rides after dinner is Pakistani ' an expatriate, as is 80 percent of Dubai's population. The dancer is Brazilian. And on the way back to your hotel, there's a camel racetrack. The jockeys have been replaced by robots.
As Emiratis and expatriates tell visitors, members of Dubai's ruling Al Maktoum family were not aiming to build extravagance for the sake of extravagance after oil was discovered in 1966.
The sheikhs wanted to improve the lives of local residents, they say. Emiratis (as local residents are called) receive free education, healthy stipends and huge houses from the government, according to one tour guide, Moez, from Tunisia.
However, while improving the commonweal, the Al Maktoums built a city of superlatives ' a phrase often used when talking about Dubai's hypertrophic development.
The Dubai Mall, for example, is the world's largest with 502,000 square meters of retail space (the entire Senayan City complex in Jakarta, including apartment towers, comes in at 48,000). Downloading the mall's smartphone app, which can be used to GPS-navigate to its 1,200 or so stores, is a life saver. Or you can hail a golf cart taxi inside the mall to take you around for about 20 AED (US$5,44).
Join the crowds in the mall and see the DubaiDino, a Jurassic-era Amphicoelias brontodiplodocus, whose fossilized black bones are dramatically bathed in purple light; or the Las Vegas/Bellagio-style Dubai Fountain, with shows every 30 minutes after dusk, accompanied by Arab pop music or, bizarrely, the theme from The Magnificent Seven.
There's also the 10-million-liter Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo in the mall, featuring a 'Shark Tunnel' where visitors can walk, look up and admire grey reef sharks, fan-tail rays and giant groupers.
The more adventurous can go diving inside. It's safe, according to the Egyptian manager. Frequently fed, the sharks don't prowl on the other 33,000 animals in the aquarium. Instead they hover, ominously, in the tunnel's shadows.
Edifice complex: The spire of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, can be seen 95 kilometers away.
Immediately by the mall is the world's largest building, the 828-meter, minaret-inspired Burj Khalifa, whose spire can be seen a staggering 95 kilometers away.
The observation deck, on the 124th of 163 floors, can be reached in just a minute by the world's-fastest elevator, which travels at 10 meters per second ' and the view of Dubai from 452 meters above will delight anyone who ever built a city from Lego bricks.
One sees huge sandstone-hued modern apartments and office skyscrapers; immense blocks of desert under development with up to 30 tower cranes at work, eight lanes of highway traversed by six lanes of flyovers ' all underused by Jakarta standards.
When exhausted by the glitz, opt for a more traditional excursion instead. Take the automated metro train to Al Fahidi station to see the classical Arab architecture buildings (including restaurants and galleries) at the compound of the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding in the Bastakiya Quarter. It's one of the few chances visitors might have to speak with an Emirati during their stay.
Continue to explore with a brief walk to the docks, followed by a quick abra wooden boat ride across Dubai Creek, which divides the city into the Bir Dubai business district and Deira, the home to some of the city's most famous souks, or traditional Arab markets.
The gold souk spans about six blocks, crisscrossed by a host of smaller alleys. Streets and sidewalks are arcade-style, giving you a chance to enjoy the shade as you scope prices for 18-, 21-, 22- and 24-karat gold on digital signs that line the market.
There's no big division between the gold souk and the crowded spice souk, which offers a more cosmopolitan feel than a mall. Pakstani men wearing shalwar kameez push bales of spices as Omani merchants in dishdasha shop, while Muslim African women push their way through in buba and gele.
The souk is the place to buy silver trinkets; saffron, pepper, vanilla and a host of other spices ' as well as baklava and dates, child-sized belly-dancing outfits and stuffed dromedary camels. Prices are not fixed.
At night, stroll through the tree-lined grounds of the Dubai Tennis Stadium on the way to Century Village, a funky collection of 10 restaurants offering indoor and (surprisingly cool) outdoor seating, three live-music stages, and cuisine ranging from sushi to Tuscan.
Don't miss the ducks that waddle freely in the stadium's park just in front of Irish Village, a huge, authentic pub ' right down to its paving stones, imported from Clare County, and its Irish expatriate staff.
Irish Village attracts an eclectic mix comprising 'people looking to drink' according to one server, Sean, 19, from Bray.
People come from the upscale bohemian Jumeriah Creekside hotel nearby, from outside Dubai and from Oman. There are also expatriates ' and the occasional Arab in traditional dress.
Irish Village stages concerts ' Neil Finn, Bob Geldoff and the Pretenders have performed ' at the stadium park, which fronts the pub.
However, the best place to spend the night is still the desert. On Arabian Adventures' dune-bashing Sundowner tour, the lights are turned down after dinner for five minutes, and the stars come out to dazzle.
The writer visited Dubai at the invitation of Emirates and the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce.
' Photos by JP/Christian Razukas
