CEBU, Philippines - On our first trip to Dubai last September, we were able to see famous sights like the Burj Dubai Hotel along the shore that looked like a sail and the famous Palm Island where the fabulous Atlantis Resort is located. We did a lot of shopping and yes, we had lots of fun in the Arabian desert in a 4X4 Safari adventure, including a camel ride.
Despited the things we did, we never really saw all of Dubai due to our limited time and schedule. If at all Dubai is unforgettable, it is also because of the 40 plus degree heat, which was quite unbearable. But then, a month ago, we got into an unscheduled and unexpected trip to Dubai for a business conference. This time, we would be in a district in Dubai that we never visited in our previous trip.
Call it luck that the Al Morooj Hotel Rotana, where we were billeted, was a short ten-minute walk from the Dubai Mall, a very high-end shopping mall that featured a huge aquarium or as they call it an Underwater Zoo at the center of the main lobby. Best of all, in just a couple of months, the temperature in Dubai suddenly plummeted from the 40-plus heat to a very comfortable 26 degrees. It was indeed a joy to walk along the streets and not get bothered by the heat.
What’s remarkable about the Dubai Mall is that its aquarium allows people to dive with the fishes and sharks for a fee, of course, with all the shoppers looking at you like you were some kind of strange marine animal. Even more remarkable is the lagoon behind the mall, which features a world-class dancing fountain that plays every 20 minutes. In true Dubai fashion, they beat the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas with a longer and bigger dancing fountain that money could buy!
I was able to get a vantage (with terrific photographs) view of the Lake Fountain from the Souk Al Bahar Bridge that spans between the Dubai Mall and the Souk Al Bahar mall across it. Just behind the Dancing Fountain is the soon-to-be tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai. Another tall hotel building complex sits just across the Burj Dubai’s Lake Fountain called the Address Downtown Burj Dubai.
While most of the skyscrapers within the business center have already stopped construction, the Burj Dubai is on its finishing touches and is expected to be inaugurated next year. With the weather so pleasant, people are out in the open, drinking coffee in sidewalk cafes and watching the dancing fountain. Yes, even the news about Dubai World’s having to default its loans had not affected the people as these buildings are not yet finished and therefore not yet occupied. In short, no jobs were lost except those construction workers who were already laid off last year.
It was the first time for my travel partner Mr. Dondi Joseph to visit Dubai and he wanted to visit a friend in Abu Dhabi. We decided to drive all the way to Abu Dhabi and rent a car (it costs 250 Dirhams) for the 130-kilometer trip to another major United Arab Emirates (UAE) city. We found out, however, that our Philippine driver’s license cannot be used in Dubai. Much to our dismay, we also learned that getting a driver would cost us 900 Dirhams more. So we decided to take the bus to Abu Dhabi and were grinning from ear to ear when we learned that the bus ride would only cost us 20 Dirhams one way. Since it was a freeway ride all the way, we reached Abu Dhabi in less than two hours.
It turned out that Dondi’s friend was also an old friend of mine - Stefan Kapek – whom I first met when he was with the F&B of Hotel Intercon and later he moved to Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa. He is now the General Manager of the Traders Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Stefan picked us up in his car on the bus stop and we went to visit his family in his home and met his wife Jocelyn. Later we drove to the Shangri-La Hotel Qaryat Al Beri Abu Dhabi just beside the Traders Hotel where we had a sumptuous dinner. I wanted to see the Yas Island Abu Dhabi racing circuit, which was the last leg of the F-1 race last month, but it was already late in the evening.
After dinner, Stefan dropped us at the bus station for our return ride to Dubai. Good thing we brought along our passports because while in the bus, a man wanted to know our nationalities. He couldn’t believe that Dondi Joseph is a Filipino citizen because he looked like an Arab. Dubai is a great place to visit for as long as you can literally take the heat, or do your visit during the winter months where the weather is very pleasant. You can fly to Dubai from Cebu via Cathay Pacific Air.