Dubai in 60 Hours
Our stopove​​​​​​​​r​ in Dubai en route to New Zealand, for a couple of days was to spend time with Jenni’s brother and see the sights. Is there a bigger contrast possible for a pensioner from the wet, pot-holed, back lanes of Shropshire?
Before I left for Dubai, I found a picture on the internet [Windsong: Trucial Troubles with 2006 picture inset] of Dubai Creek taken in 1946: the year I was born. ​​Now, Dubai presents as the latest, the biggest and the best. It blows my mind that in my adult lifetime Dubai has grown from a small desert trading port to being one of the world's richest cities. It embodies the life-style aspirations of many. Everywhere you look the architecture screams wealth and style.
Lavish buildings of every conceivable shape and size: nothing but the best will do. Unconstrained by history (or geography for that matter) superb transport links connect each new development around a central super-highway. If you need more prime land by the sea - just build it in the sea!
​​Everything gleams. This guy is even cleaning the wires and polishing the uprights of an 'ordinary' bridge. Dubai is a photographic pandora's box. Of all the images I have of the UAE, this is the one I would choose to tell the story.
This is not a classless society. Its wealth buys in a huge supply of migrant labour from Asia. They are bussed in daily from their quarters to clean and polish every square inch. World over, the prosperous depend for their lifestyle on the poor. It is just more obvious here.
But it is not that simple because Dubai, it is estimated, has around nine immigrants for every native born Emirate. Many of these are highly skilled and help, alongside a minimalist tax regime, to make this an incredibly rich centre of free trade and enterprise not dependent on oil wealth. With world's busiest airport it is a 'gateway city'. As a member of the United Arab Emirates it has a stable authoritarian monarchical political system. The Supreme Council made up of the seven emirs appoint the prime minister and cabinet.
Our hosts tend to eat out. After a leisurely stroll to breakfast we went along the beach and over to Bluewater Island. Failure to achieve here is unacceptable! However this 200m version of the London Eye was two years behind schedule. A bearing failed.
In the afternoon we visited the Etihad Museum that celebrates the founding of the Emirates in 1971 after the Brits left. The outside is spectacular - the third picture in this blog. Inside the spotless gleaming floors enhance the incredible architecture: staggeringly beautiful it was a photographers dream but at the same time perhaps it lacked emotional warmth. But, like beauty, does emotion lie in the eye of the beholder?
Later ​​​​​we crossed Dubai Creek where the old port used to be and which is now the Al Fahadi Historical District
Here the tourist trap souks demand attention. The Gold Souk is something else. Not quite Jenni's style... even if it was it would be no-go: she did not marry a Sheik!
A BRIEF VISIT TO ABU DHABI
On our second day we visted Abu Dhabi, 86 miles north of Dubai. It is the largest of the seven Emirates and the capital of UAE. Unlike Dubai over half its wealth derives from oil and gas. It is diversifying at a phenomenal rate. This was a simple "tourist tick-box" day: no time to take in the city, just quick visits to three architectural feasts where the pictures do the talking.
Images abounded at our first stop, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It is set on a slight rise with vast car parks for the potential 41,000 capacity. Tourists not on a group tour are parked underground and approach the mosque by way of large underground walkways before surfacing close to the Mosque.
Tiled shallow pools surround the building. The spotless, constantly polished, floors generate yet more reflection images to add to the visual feast.
The Mosque took 11 years to build and was opened in 2007. The building complex covers 30 acres. There are, according to Wikipedia, 82 domes in 7 different sizes. It is big!
There is an army of security staff: one or two, or more, at every turn monitoring the strictly controlled route. The image above, through the glass door, is marred by the ever present security guard watching the near empty main courtyard thought to be the largest marble mosaic in the world - 180,000 sqft. The evening illuminations are said to be worth seeing.
Several hundred metres away, just across a highway, is Wahat Al Karama, the Martyrs Memorial sometimes referred to as the Oasis of Dignity deliberately placed between the Grand Mosque and the Armed Forces HQ. After the entrance and visitor centre there is the Memorial Plaza with tiered seating on one side and a shallow pool in the centre that provided the stunning reflection of the Grand Mosque [picture earlier].
After the Plaza the Leaning Stones on which are inscribed national value statements and poems.
In turn these lead to the Hall of Remembrance where the names of all Emiratis who have died in conflict are inscribed in side-lit panels. The view back is through the leaning glass panels.
Our next and final stop is the Louvre Museum. No time for a boat trip to see the impressive views from the other side where the complex meets the water.​​​​​​​​​​​​The museum itself provides a fascinating world view that both complements and contrasts with our museums at home with their roots in the days of Empire.... once again so much has changed in my life time. A visit to the UAE drives this home.
The museum is housed in white 'blocks' covered by this mesmerising roof that plays with the light as it penetrates the structure.
Sixty hours in Dubai - FAR TOO MUCH to take in! The powerful forces of history, of economic and political systems; of values and religion; of justice and injustice; of beliefs and faith and of aspiration and despair: all jostle with each other.
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Amazing wealth.
A completely different culture.
A diametrically opposed political system.
Things to admire sit alongside things to despise.
The experience leaves many comments simply simplistic.
It will perhaps take a lifetime to digest.​
