I recently had a vacation after a very long time and it was the first one outside the country. It was to Dubai this time and the fact that I was traveling alone made it all the more exciting.
The so-called business visa, valid for 14 days, was obtained with great difficulty and after numerous visits to agents. Anyways, thanks to my cousins there, it arrived and I traveled.
The first notable encounter was at Dubai International Airport where, apart from the splendor of the airport itself, I became a witness to Dubai’s cosmopolitan nature. There were people from almost all nationalities in the world. Another incident at the airport was with one Arab immigration officer. After waiting for about fifteen minutes in a long queue, I approached his counter only to discover that the officer had conveniently fled for a quick tea break or a chat with fellow Arab and appeared to be totally nonchalant when he returned after another ten minutes. I had heard about how Arabs consider themselves as a superior race over others; this incident, coupled with the demeaning tone in which he and other officers spoke at the airport, confirmed it.
The best thing to overcome the airport encounter was the drive from the airport to my phuppo’s home in Sharjah. The well designed roads with the grand cars on them and the high-rises on the way immediately caught my attention.
July is not a good time for a tourist to land in the desert. With the intense heat both in day and night and temperature clinging along 50 degrees Celsius, most outdoor activities are out of question. But there are a whole lot of indoor places to see and enjoy. The foremost are the artistically designed shopping malls, each having its own unique design and features. From the gigantic City Centers to others focusing on aesthetics rather than size, the malls have everything to offer. For shopaholics and brand lovers, you will find all top brands there. Most were offering sale on their merchandise owing to the holiday season.
However, even if you do not like shopping, it’s still a pleasant experience to visit the malls. Most of them are designed around a particular theme or civilization and tend to reflect all aspects of that in their architecture. The Wafi Mall, for instance, is based around the Egyptian civilization and the Mercato Mall tends to capture the streets of Italy in its design. The Madina-tul-Jumeirah takes you back to old Spanish days. In particular to visit is the Ibn Battuta mall which is named after the famous Arab traveler. This mall is a series of seven courts connected together, each of them portraying a theme of a country. The countries are the ones Ibn Battuta traveled to in his life time.
Apart from the malls, another major attraction is the Wild Wadi, a water park located in Jumeirah right next to the infamous Burj-Ul-Arab. The Jumeirah beach itself happens to be a great place to beat the heat, but if you are crazy about adventure and water-rides, Wild Wadi is just the place. Built over a large area, the park has all sorts of water slides that take you up and down and toss you around. The artificial beach and surfing are itself a fantastic experience. Needless to say, it’s worth spending a whole day at Wild Wadi. However the hefty entrance charges and the expensive food and drinks inside do put you off a little.
Another major activity to do is skiing at Ski Dubai, an artificial snow-park and ski ground built inside the Emirates Mall. Snow inside a desert itself seems a novel concept and the park lets you experience an exciting snow adventure. For the daring ones, there is an artificial snow hill for skiing and the ones, who are contended with spending time in snow, can roam about the park or take lift-chair rides.
If you happen to be a movie fanatic, Dubai will entertain you a lot. Almost all the malls have cineplexes showing the latest Hollywood and Indian movies. There’s also the i-Max screen at Ibn Battuta mall which was showing The Dark Knight recently. Considering the hype of the movie, the shows were all full and I couldn’t get tickets to it.
If the skyscrapers, hustle and bustle of the city and overcrowded malls create a longing inside you for experiencing some nature, Al-Ain is where you should visit. Highly in contrast to Dubai, the small state is a quiet, peaceful town with neat villas and lots of greenery. Traveling on the highway connecting Dubai with Al-Ain amidst multitude of date trees, is itself an enjoyable experience. Surprisingly the weather there was much pleasant than in Dubai with slight drizzling on the way. The major attraction at Al-Ain is a drive to the top of Jabal-e-Hafeet, a mountain located at the end of the city. Despite all its charm, it is still no match for the scenic beauty covering the northern areas of our land.
Another feature at Al-Ain is the motion theatre at Fun-City Park. Though it is not as good as motion theaters in our countries, it still was a nice experience for me.
Other places worth seeing that I could not visit include Desert Safari, Dubai Museum and a cruise journey over the sea.
To speak about the sites and not describe about state of affairs and economic conditions there would be unfair. Undoubtedly the UAE has undergone massive development in recent years and is still pursuing a whole lot of it in all areas. However, considering a few factors, the expansion and economic growth might seem hollow from inside. The financial breakthrough in the gulf has come about with the discovery of oil. Export of oil is the sole source of bread and butter for these countries. And, according to experts, the oil does not have a long life. Thus, despite the huge economic progress and revenues generated from tourism, the economies of these states might come to a collapse if the oil vanishes.
Moreover, the Arabs themselves are useless people with little or no talent of their own. Their economy is being run by immigrants from India, Pakistan, Philippines and from almost every corner in the world. No matter how long the immigrants live, they can never get the nationality of UAE and are always looked down upon by native Arabs. The rules and visa policies are ridiculously stupid and are aimed against the immigrants. On the other hand if you happen to be an Arab with little sense, it is very easy to get a good job in the government with a whole lot of facilities. Thus, the feeling of a united and fraternal nation is far from existence there.
The UAE government has so far been ignorant of investing on military defense and weaponry. In today’s world where defense holds extreme importance in every country’s objectives, the states are quite vulnerable to attack. The attack might seem unlikely considering the strategic importance of the states for the West, but we all now how quickly the Godfathers’ policies sway.
Thus my 14 day memorable trip finally came to an end. The experience was truly amazing and would have not been possible without immense hospitality by my phuppo and her family. I am indebted to my cousins Khurram Bhai, Adnan Bhai and Danish Bhai who took time out of their busy routines and wanted to show me every corner of UAE. Their enthusiasm was far greater than mine. Cannot thank them enough for this.
