Crossing the border from Oman was no great shakes. The picturesque rocky hills and plateaus soon faded to flat, scrubby, sandy soil. At one dusty truck stop along the way, I could have been anywhere: a few dingy restaurants, piles of older transport trucks and some fluorescent-lit garages. After the manicured and landscaped roadways in Oman, the UAE was less than stellar.
A UAE truck stop outside of Dubai.
"It slices, it dices, it's the Mirakle-Slicer!"
Dubai is both a city and one of the seven 'emirates' that makes up the United Arab Emirates. Other include Abu Dubai (the capital) and Sharjah; Abu Dubai has something like 9% of the world's known reserve of crude. The oil wealth, however, is not as easy to spot as I imagined. Yes, Dubai does have a “magnificent mile” of glass skyscrapers, including the world's tallest one now under construction, and it has the 7-star Burj Al-Arab hotel and some swishy shopping malls but there is also a completely different side. About 80% of the population is from poor countries: a multinational smorgasborg of workers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Yemen and the Philippines. Most of Dubai really looks like it's an extension of India. This includes whole family units: parents, kids and grandparents too. Salaries here aren't necessarily so great either: a Filipina maid may make $200-300 per month with room and board. Yikes.
I spent a few hours on my first evening in Dubai at a huge, local supermarket, a little bedazzled by the sight of so much variety after my time in less affluent Arab countries. The store was packed, mainly with Indian families, buying groceries, clothes, electronics and getting hoodwinked by the same, silly Super-Veggie-Slicer demonstrations that we have. Next door was a food court, where I ate Indian food for the fourth day in a row.
The Emirati sheikhs and their Dubai mall.
The Burj-al-Arab hotel - big money.
The old part of Dubai is as dull as doorknobs. The gold souk (market) pales in comparison with Istanbul and even Tunis. The buildings house Indian fabric stores, barber shops, commercial businesses and the usual mix of coffee shops, airline offices and small corner stores. Probably the most unbelievable part of Dubai is the traffic. It is one big snarl of vehicles, some fancy and some ancient and belching smoke. I relied completely on the bus system, with my fellow, slightly dejected expat peeps - and what a gong show that was. Mid-morning, to travel 10km across the city took 1-1/2 hours. On one bus. The pollution is similarly ugly.
Indoor skiing in a Dubai mall.
Large dhows load food and appliances bound for Iran.
This part of the world is changing fast and tourism is the new official focus. According to one source though, prostitution and money laundering are now two of the fastest growing industries. Still, Emiraties may be better fed and a little chubbier than other Arabs I've met, but the generosity remains. Near the UAE/Oman frontier, I was offered a lift by a man from Dubai in his spiffy Lexus SUV: he took me to the border, across it and another 150km into the city, all the way to my hostel. That was amazing.
