It is Dubai (Not Kuwait) (II)

Last week I went again to Dubai, although this time for pure fun and together with my girlfriend, the best person whom I could share this experience with. It was a short trip, just one day and a half, but quiet enjoyable as you will see in this post.

We arrived on Wednesday morning and, after a short rest, we went for lunch to Bastakiya quarter, the oldest part of the city. We found a very recommendable place in a kind of balcony next to the Creek, the restaurant Bayt al Wakeel. From here we could enjoy a view which reminded us, differences aside, the Bosphorus area in Istanbul but on a lesser scale. To reach here you need to go through the old souk, more visually attractive than the one in Kuwait but also with more vendors pursuing the tourists (you will need to be patient enough). For just 1 dirham (20 cents of euro) it is possible taking a ride by a small boat to the opposite shore of the canal, where you can continue the walk around the wharf.

Back in the shore of the souk, we continued walking towards the Al Fahidi cultural district, probably one of the best place to know more about the history and the culture of the Emirates. First, we visited a ancient fort of the 18th century which hosts the Dubai museum, with several chambers reviewing the historical tour of this city. There are archeologist remains of the first civilizations here, around 5000 years ago, however, we can’t talk of Dubai as a city until the 19th century, when a tribe, Bu Flasa, settled around the Creek area. At that time no one knew nothing yet about the oil fields and few people could imagine that Dubai could become such a metropolis.

Inside the museum

In the evening we planned to find a good spot to watch the sunset near the iconic hotel Burj al Arab, but we didn’t have time to get there, so we went to Barasti beach, no far from our accommodation. What we saw there had nothing do with a typical Arabic country. That place looked like Ibiza actually, with people (most of them foreigners) drinking beer and dancing electronic music. I didn’t hear yet about places like that in Kuwait. In the night we met Maria, an old friend I met in India 9 years ago. We were in Dubai Marina area, a kind of fair with a lot of restaurants and all kind of pubs. Due all of this, it is not surprising that Dubai can be one of the most favorite cities for foreigners in this part of the World, although I don’t know till when I could live in that kind of bubble.

The next day we wanted to go to the observation deck of Burj Khalifa, whose surroundings I already saw the first time I went to Dubai. Maria recommend us to avoid the tourist entrance and go directly to a restaurant called Atmosphere, on the 122th floor of the famous skyscraper and order breakfast there, what was worthier. We arrived there at 11am, already late so they didn’t let us enter. As we saw that the tourist queue was too long, we decided to walk a bit around the area. Later, before going to the airport, we went to Madinat Jumeirah, a kind of mini-city with shops, restaurantsm a hotel, etc., near to the famous Burj al Arab, one of the landmarks of Dubai.

It is interesting to see how many efforts people make to take a entire picture of Burj Khalifa

Short but intensive. One more time I could notice the huge differences between Kuwait and Dubai, even more after exploring the leisure areas. I don’t think I would like to settle down there, but it is not a bad place for escaping time to time. It is good to enjoy sometimes of certain “temptations”, difficult to find in the country where we live. There will be more episodes for sure discovering more corners in this city.