Dubai

I wrote extensively about Dubai last year and so won’t go over ground already covered. But for us, the Emirate of Dubai was the perfect stop gap between Asia and Northern Africa.

With a climate we love (the hottest place on earth on 26th August, the day I write this) Dubai is the perfect place of respite and on what was now our fourth visit we headed there in anticipation on a brand new Spice jet 737-800 from New Delhi. Ensuring we avoided Ramadan we touched down around 2pm into Dubai International airport. The flight took only a few hours and the time difference was only an hour and half. We slipped into Dubai like we’d never left and the searing, dry heat was something we had missed.

Dubai for us was going to be our holiday, and holiday it was. Back in western standard hotels, crisp white cotton duvets, air conditioning as standard, carpeted rooms, flat screen LCD Tv’s, roof top pools, world class malls and watching the sun set over one of the most stunning skylines in the world. From the kilometre tall Burj Khalifa, to walking around topless around Dubai Creek. Play areas in pristine, almost sterile parks too hot to play on, immaculate streets, brand new cars ranging from Toyotas to a sprinkling of Lamborghini’s, amazing blue skies without a cloud in sight. Kids walking around wearing Gucci and Dior with an iphone in one hand and a big Mac in the other. Dubai is one of the classiest places on earth and justifiably so, one of the most modern cities on earth it is a haven for expats living the dream, cheating footballers looking for forgiveness, and me and the kids looking for a holiday.

The thing about Dubai is that its like Marmite. So called ‘real’ travellers hate the whole sterilised nature of the place, it’s the cleanest place on earth, cleaner even than Singapore and like Singapore, lacks any real history (purely because Dubai has sprung up so quickly). But for the modern traveller they love it, the best hotel on earth is in Dubai, the beaches are slices of white sand splashed with turquoise, 35 degree seas. In many ways it’s the perfect city, hotels glimmer like they have been built yesterday, every chain restaurant on earth serves up food like it was opened today and the sun shines 365 days per year. With an average rainfall of one day every three years the city basques in minimum 35 degree, maximum 55 degree daily.

For many it is paradise on earth surrounded by modernity and for us it was the holiday we needed.

We spent five days in Dubai and we literally hit the beach, the pool, the malls and mooched about the parks searching for shade.

We didn’t go to any of the attractions, the water parks, mosques, or eat street food. We lazed in the sun, built sand castles, swam in the pool, shopped in the malls, and ate fast food.

And we loved every minute. Though I would of course like to say we did this, and this and this…Literally, we did some of this:

And we loved every minute.

Dubai was what we hoped, what we needed and was 5 days of nothing but pure relaxation.

Next stop, Abu Dhabi, where maybe we’ll do something 🙂