Dubai, United Arab Emirates

I am thinking what nice thing I could say about Dubai… still thinking…

Well, OK, here it is – everything about Dubai makes me smile. This is a positive thing, right? I cannot help it, but all the stories about the highest, the tallest, the biggest, the richest just make me smile. It seems to be the core thing about Dubai – wherever you go, whatever you see, there is always something the -est about it.

Maybe Dubai is not my type of destination, but it is definitely worth visiting once. It is impressive what humans are capable of. I mean, to build such a super modern city in the desert and keep it always supplied with sufficient water, and everything else for high quality of life, requires not just a huge amount of money, which apparently Dubai has, but also superior scientific achievement and human creativity.

When I travel, I want to see something original, something cultural, something with history and not just material things – and I could not find this in Dubai – but if my primary interest were modern architecture, futuristic glass and metal constructions, enormous shopping centers, high-class service and world-class hotels, I would probably list Dubai on my favourite list. It offers luxury comfort. It’s incredible that this is available in a climate zone where so few species can survive.

This time in Dubai we had just a half-day layover on the way to Madagascar. I think that this is a perfect way to see Dubai – just a few hours or a one-day stop on the way to somewhere else. The airport is close to the centre – one hour and you are in front of Burj Khalifa, which is one of the tallest buildings in the world (830 meters). It is like two Empire State Buildings or almost three Eiffel Towers. I could not fit it into my photo. You understand its height better when paying attention to other tall skyscrapers around it.

Dubai Airport is impressive. We have spent the half-night there when returning from another trip. At 2 a.m. the crowd of people around was similar to peak hour in the centre of a town. Most of the shops and bars are open 24/7. There is no concept of night in this airport. It is enormous, and always awake. You can shop, eat, do sports, pray, get a massage and use other spa facilities any time you want.

Subway trains have divided zones for men and women. I found it very surprising when, after getting on a subway at the airport, a local lady kindly pointed out that I could not stand together with my boyfriend. Tourists or not, it was a ladies’ carriage and Adriano had to leave to the men’s carriage. If I understood correctly, men are more flexible about their zone; when I was standing there during the return trip to the airport, nobody told me anything. However, I felt a bit weird being the only female surrounded by men.

Another quite funny memory I have from Dubai is the freezing air-conditioned public areas while it was over 40-50°C outside. Local people were wearing sweaters and jackets. As crazy as it sounds, I missed my sweaters and scarf in August in Dubai.

I am still not sure how to behave in Arabic countries, but it seems that you cannot look other men in the eyes. I am not talking about any weird staring at somebody, but referring to those meaningless short exchanges of glances when passing by a stranger on the street. I did not even know that I do that before. It probably lasts for about 0.001 second, I don’t notice it, nobody in Europe ever told me anything about it, and I have never seen any reaction from others, but in Dubai, men were embarrassed and slightly shocked if our eyes met for a moment. It is an international city, so it’s not as if I would have been the only blonde, blue-eyed girl seen there. Sorry, Dubai, for my misbehaviour – very embarrassing.

My main impression of Dubai is that parade of all the tallest, the biggest, most luxurious and other -est. To name just a few: the biggest aquarium in the biggest shopping mall in the world, the largest indoor ski resort (somebody must have had a good sense of humour to build a ski resort in a desert, right?), the most luxurious hotel (Burj Al Arab Jumeirah), and many other golden examples, which we did not have time to see in our few hours. After a walk around the Khalifa the alarm was ringing for us to get back to the airport and head towards Mauritius/Madagascar. By the way, to get to the top of the Khalifa is not as easy as it seems – you have to book tickets in advance, be ready for long queues and have a lot of time at your disposal (people say that the absolute peak time is just before sunset).

I will come back here someday for a desert safari, sand-snowboarding and dune bashing in a 4X4. Maybe I will get to the top of the Khalifa to see a sunset from up high, but I will search carefully for more original places than modern skyscrapers, and definitely for a trip to Abu Dhabi. I believe that Abu Dhabi will actually be a very interesting place to see.

So see you in Abu Dhabi next time.