Dubai

On the last day of a three-day visit to Dubai it is safe to say that my previously uninformed opinion on the city has markedly improved. I had not planned to be here for more than 10 hours in transit but an expensive one-way ticket and a very helpful lady at Ebookers allowed me to make a last-minute change to my itinerary virtually without cost.

I met up with my friend Milana who lives in Dubai and through her got a taste of the city dynamics. After roaming around in the enormous Dubai Mall for a few hours she took me outside to the lake covering the space between the mall and the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. At 6pm sharp a large amount of powerful fountains started to shoot up water and move to the tune of Arabic music. It was a mesmerising sight and because it only lasted two minutes, it also served as one of those reminders not to experience too much of life through a lens.

The shopping mall itself held a dining concept that I had not seen in Europe before. The place was called Shakespeare & Co and had a menu of reasonably priced international and local dishes in an enjoyable Victorian England setting with many colourful chairs and couches. As a bonus they served a varied all day breakfast, indispensable for the jetlagged traveller. I think this concept would do really well in Europe. For an impression, see the link to the company website.

I’d really like to revisit Dubai some other time as I only got a glimpse of the nice beaches and cultural sites. I make it a habit to try the best fish restaurant in every country that I go to but that plan went nowhere on the last day after the taxi-driver dropped us off at a remote and completely wrong location. We ended up in an overpriced tourist trap but the weather was nice, the company good and the view of the beach and Burj Al Arab hotel was magnificent. Of all the buildings in Dubai I like this the most and it is not hard to see why they market themselves as the only seven-star hotel in the world. Enough to do next time!