Dubai’s history can be traced  back 3000 years but don’t panic I’m not interested in that either. Today Dubai is the trading hub of the middle east. The Souks, or old trading markets, have given way to multi story buildings , financial centres and tourism. Dubai is not even oil rich, that would be Abu Dhabi which bailed out Dubai financially a few years back. Dubai is the most populous of the seven United Arab Emirates. Today Dubai owns the largest shopping mall, tallest building, and the world’s first man made islands, as well as a very flash airport for the huge fleet of Emirates air planes to fly from. In short the old Souk has given way to a new Souk and it’s as chic as a sheik.

We are here for an overnight stop and a half day tour after fifteen hour flight and a ten minute nap so I guess we might not get a lot out of it. I’ll let you know a bit later …………..

SOME CONSIDERABLE TIME LATER

Well…… first they put us on the wrong bus, then we had to convince the driver that we didn’t want to go to the beach or the Dubai Mall (even if it was the worlds biggest). We finally convinced him we needed to connect with the REAL tour so he kindly dropped us back at the hotel where we then caught a taxi to meet up with the tour. All this on Vodaphone’s special “no deal with Dubai – Pay through the nose plan”.

So the tour was good, very good in fact despite the obvious connection between the tour company and every dodgy spice, gold, and art dealer in the greater Dubai area. The guide was informative without being critical of the social structure in Dubai (they lock you up for being critical).

Dealer…. “Yes yes very cheap 50% off, very cheap” Tourist…. “Yes yes but there are no prices on anything!”

Old is new again, re purposing the the Abra for the tourist trade on Dubai Creek.

Dubai skyline from the worlds biggest man made island.

We fly tomorrow so more on today, tomorrow. Plus the “common man’s” take on Dubai as solicited from a local.