I woke up in Dubai feeling dazed and out of place. That's the problem with hotels - especially when traveling alone you just feel lost and isolated in a foreign world sometimes. But the feeling quickly turned back into adventure as I headed down for the free breakfast: toast, odd cheese and bologna? Good O.J. though!
Adventure I got as I walked out into the morning sun. Just opening the door was enough - like walking into a sauna. No "but it's a dryyyy heat" here, this was 100℉ of sweltering, not-semi-arid, thick, sweaty heat. But after Thailand and Tallahassee summers I felt ok about it.
I started off toward my hostel, which I was partially walking to and mostly taking the subway toward. I got about four blocks before I realized I was going the wrong way, and it was disheartening looking back down the street in the blazing desert sun. I got spoiled in Alaska and the winter in Peru and South Africa.
Eventually I made it to my "hostel", which was in fact just a bunch of bunk beds in a studio apartment. Hey, but $15 in Dubai, I wasn't complaining! I very quickly made friends with the gang there, some who had been there for several weeks. I guess only specific people would tolerate being crammed in a tiny room for so long. Also the $15 in Dubai part. Salud!
One of the guys was from India and told me about how Dubai is mostly Indians and they built the city with German engineering and Arab money. A result of the Indian population is a ton of Indian restaurants, so we went to one and it lived up to it's reputation. Man I love Indian food.
Side note: I chose the last two days of Ramadan to come to Dubai, an extremely Muslim city. Among other things, for example a rich and diverse set of religious customs going back thousands of years and forming one of the five pillars of Islam, during Ramadan you are restricted by serious law from eating, drinking, smoking or having relations with your wife (another law - no sex until marriage) in public until the sun goes down. Another side note, if you are gay and engage in relations with another man, let alone during Ramadan, the penalty is death.
Anyway, the point is, eating was difficult. The end result, however, was you sleep late, eat late, drink late, rinse and repeat. Not so bad really. I am glad I got to experience it, seriously, as it's a fundamental part of Islam and a huge part of the world lives this way. Hey, pop quiz - what country has the most Muslims? If you said Iraq, you're wrong. Iran? Saudi Arabia? Nope. My answer was India, but that's still wrong, they're #2. Right answer? Indonesia. Now you know!
During the heat wave, which grew to a blazing 46℃ (115℉, and the low was 34℃/90℉!), I found a nice air conditioned museum to spend the afternoon. Dubai is not very old, so there isn't a lot of history, but it was still interesting to see some Arabic history and watch the development of Dubai over the past century. I also met an American couple there, and the young woman was from Tokyo. Loving these free travel debriefs!
After the sun started to set, the group was going to an Arabic Christian church and I was invited. In Dubai the "day off" is on Friday, in contrast to the Western Saturday. This makes Saturday a primary day of worship, and hence our travel to church on Saturday evening (after sundown during Ramadan - no holy bread during the day!).
This time the church was the real deal. It was an Orthodox service, complete with iconography all over the walls and ceiling, and lots of chanting and kneeling and very solemn. I noticed the kids behaved the same as back home - running around and occasionally squealing in happiness, before quickly realizing you're interrupting the adults' super serious business!
Not being baptised an orthodox Christian, I did not partake in the breaking of the bread. But in an act of seriously touching cross-denominational (and cross-cultural) sharing the priest gave us all some bread to take with. It is, according to the faith, for all.
I was very glad and honored to have experienced their worship ceremony. And I'm sure they must have thought us quite the group too - two from Germany, one from Egypt, an Indian, an American, one guy from Malaysia and another bloke from the U.K. All on the pilgrimage of a lifetime to their little church.
After the service was over we went to arguably the opposite of Christian places - the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, a monument to human greed and wealth and a symbol of our desire to reach the heavens with human technology. All that pessimism aside, the building is legitimately AWESOME.
We ate at a Lebanese place in the Dubai Mall at the foot of the tower where we could watch the fountains.
These fountains eject water 40m into the sky, as high as a four-story building. Wow. The food was also incredible (but not cheap) and came like tapas, small individual plates we all shared. Oh, and shisha. We felt like kings, and to most of the world probably looked like them too.
After our night of culture, religion and blasphemy we took a cab back and crashed. Time for more Dubai in the morning. Or evening. Whatever.
What is the name of the structure with the cannons? Any idea where the cannons were cast?
ReplyDeleteThe cannons were right outside the museum, which used to be a fort as part of the old city of Dubai. The signs told me most of the cannons are replicas but at least one was used at the fort. Not sure where they were cast!
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