The Mumbai terrorist incident forced us to abort our original plan for an ayurvedic spa holiday in Kerala during the Chinese New Year week. So we took up our friend's ' the boy from dungun' invitation to visit Dubai instead!
pakdokter with Ryo, boy from dungun's 6 month old son...
The Dubai I remember was a small town with its landmark Burj el Arab as its only highrise way back in the early 2000. What a change it has undergone over the past 10 years! For a city of about 1.4 million people, the development is mind-boggling. From its massive downtown financial district to the sprawling Dubai Marina and the reclaimed Palm development, our KLCC project with its surrounding expensive condominiums is a pale comparison indeed.
pakdokter with Ryo and his 3 year old brother, Russo...
And who on earth are going to occupy all these residential development? 1.1 million of the Dubai population are expatriates 80% of whom are of the Asian working class ( mostly from the Indian subcontinent and the Phillippines) who are involved in the construction and service industries of the city. I dread to think that this is another 'bubble' waiting to burst!
Anyway we took this opportunity to tour the city and its many massive shopping malls currently carrying out its month-long DSF i.e. Dubai Shopping Festival. We also spent an evening of Dune-Safari, bashing up the desert in a Toyota Land-Cruiser, which turned out to be quite an exciting experience.
Winter in Dubai is a pleasant 20 degree celcius during the day and somewhat more chilly in the evening. Except for a rainy first day of our arrival, the rest of the week was bright and sunny except for one foggy morning which caused delays at the airport and a late start to the Dubai Dessert Classic at the Emirates Golf Course.
Below is a pictorial potpourri of some of the things we saw and did on the first day of our Dubai Escapades...
Burj Dubai, the tallest erection in the world, stands more than 200 metres taller than KLCC twin tower...
The Dubai Mall, the newly opened shopping mall at the Burj Dubai is the largest shopping mall in the world..
the large Aquarium is a tourist attraction at the Dubai Mall..
the Gold Souk within the Dubai Mall complex...
a water feature (waterfall with sculptures of divers..) at another corner of the Dubai Mall..
the Dubai Museum, a must see attraction of Dubai...
crossing the Dubai Creek on a water taxi for 1 dirham...
the Gold Souk at the Deria, the old town of Dubai...
a view of the Deria from the water taxi on the creek...
1 comment:
Nice one, Doc.
Pics on the abrar (boat) are most interesting esp the one of you with two chinese (tourists)?.
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