Let me tell you about my tour of Dubai! (Warning: this is a long post!) First off, there was some miscommunication between the company and me about transportation to the tour. So we had emailed several times back and forth trying to figure out a place for me to meet them and a time. I also gave them my correct phone number. In the emails we had come to the decision that the driver would pick me up outside the lobby of the suites part of the hotel at 3. So I went down to the lobby 5 minutes early just so they wouldn't miss me. I got a call at 3:05 from the company telling me the driver would be there in 10. I waited and 3:20, no driver. 3:30 still no driver. 3:35 I decided to go back up to my room, thinking we had miscommunicated again and I wouldn't be going on the tour. 3:40 I get a call from the driver. He's outside. I went down to the lobby, walked outside, no driver. I called him back and asked where he was. He was outside of the hotel lobby, not the suites lobby. So I walked up to the hotel and there he was. They weren’t professional in that regard. We drove to the Dubai Creek near Old Dubai where we met up with the tour guide. It was a small group. There were only 8 of us. He let us walk around and take pictures of the Dubai Creek for about 5 minutes. The Dubai Creek separates old Dubai from new Dubai and is known for its floating restaurants. (I also lost my camera case here. I really am not having much luck with cameras lately, but at least it wasn’t the camera too!)

Then we got in the car and drove to the Dubai Museum. He gave us 25 minutes in the museum. I had heard that the museum was really cool. It was a little informative but not too impressive. I learned that Falconry is a big sport here. Falconry is where you train the bird to hunt. The falcon is the national bird of the UAE. And Falconry is one of the major sports. Camel racing and horse racing are two of the other big sports here in Dubai. I have seen camel racing on TV here. Many people use children jockeys but because of child abuse laws, the UAE banned children jockeys in 2002. Now they use robot jockeys. The robot jockeys were later designed to be more human-like because early versions of the robot confused the camels that were used to children jockeys. If you watch camel racing on TV, you will see the little robot jockeys on the camels, and then you will see the cars driving alongside the camels with the people controlling the jockeys. It’s pretty interesting! The camel is the national animal and the Palm tree is the national tree. Pearl Diving was also a big thing in Dubai. The ancient pearling industry provided the only real income for the people of what is now the UAE. Some fisherman could happen upon a pearl wading in the shallow parts of the water but to find a lot of them they had to have dive deep in the water. Bartering was a way of trade and allowed the people of the UAE to make a living. As we were leaving the museum, the tour guide pointed out the King’s court which is across the street from the museum. It’s where the king’s office is. Right next to the king’s court is the Grand Mosque, which is the biggest mosque.

As we headed to Jumiera, our next stop, the tour guide gave us some more facts about Dubai. There are 1.8 million people in Dubai and only 20% of those people the local people. The rest are people from Europe, India, Russia, Australia, United States and other places who came to work in Dubai. Another interesting fact is that the UAE does not give nationality to anybody who comes over and lives. Even if someone lives here for 50 years, they are not given citizenship. Also if you are born in Dubai but your parents are not local, you are not given citizenship. And if you marry an Emirate, you are not given citizenship but rather their citizenship is taken away. You can also not buy property in Dubai. You can rent or lease and you can lease for 99 years, but you can never own a property. We approached Jumiera and the tour guide told us it is the richest neighborhood in Dubai. There are 40 mosques in Jumiera; one every 500 meters. It’s also where all the celebrities and government officials live. You will not see any police or guards in Jumiera. It is monitored only by cameras and radars. There is zero crime in Dubai and is very taken care of. If you are seen littering, you can be fined 100 dirhams or you can get sent to jail for a night. Although they have physical punishments, most of the time the punishment is financial. There is no tax in Dubai, so they get some of their money from fines. Also, everybody is rich in Dubai. Because there is no tax and the culture is very centered on work. It is normal for somebody to work 70-80 hours a week. And also work 6 days a week, if not 7. You can also see a lot of expensive cars in Dubai because there is no import tax. There is a guy who actually has a gold plated Ferrari. The whole car is made of gold. There is also a guy with a Porsche of silver! Crazy! Gas is also very cheap here. It’s about $0.27 a liter. Water is more expensive than gas here! Next stop was the Islamic Art Center. It was a high priced market/museum. They had the gold and jeweled elephants and camels, lots of pashminas and rugs, and painted marble tables.

After the art center, we stopped at the beach by the Burj Al Arab. (Burj just means tower) It’s the world’s most luxurious hotel, the only 7-star hotel. It’s incredible. They only have suites and they have a reception desk on each floor for more convenience. They also have a Rolls-Royce fleet and several other luxury cars for use of their guests. They have a helipad. Tiger Woods has golfed off the helipad. There is also a tennis court on the helipad where Roger Federer has played. The hotel is also home to the most expensive bar. These are just a couple of the luxuries that are included in the Burj Al Arab. Next, we drove to the Palm. On the trunk of the Palm are apartments. Oprah, David Beckham, Brad Pitt, Roger Federer, Tyra Banks and many other celebrities have apartments on the Palm. On the crest of the Palm is the Atlantis Hotel. It’s the same model as the Atlantis hotel in the Bahamas. We stopped at the front of the hotel and were able to get out and get a couple pictures. It was dark at this time so it was hard to see much of the hotel or the Palm. Our last stop was the Dubai Mall. This is the mall that is right across the street from our hotel. It was the last stop and our tour guide said he wasn’t able to take us around so he just asked if anybody wanted to go in or he would take everybody back to their hotels. I was the only one who got out! I’ve already seen the mall but I got out anyways and grabbed dinner at Chili’s and walked around a little bit before walking back to my hotel. Over all, the tour wasn’t that great. On the website, it listed more places on the tour, so I was disappointed in that. I think some of the other tours are better. I must have just picked the wrong tour. And the wrong time because, like I said, it got dark so it was hard to see. But it did give me a little idea of some places that I might want to spend some more time at and then places that I don’t care to see again! So I guess it was successful in that way.

I tried adding pictures but, for some reason, it won't let me. So I'll try another time!