The land of plenty-Dubai

January 29, 2010

Just a quick post about my time before arriving in India. I chose to travel to Dubai by boat from Iran, basically because I chickened out of crossing Pakistan by road and entering India across its land border. The situation in Pakistan just seemed too risky for me, as bombs were going off on a daily basis. The safest way to go, seemed by the short and cheap flight from Dubai to Delhi.

It was a beautiful sea crossing from Iran to Dubai on a fast jetfoil similar to the ones I am used to in Jersey. The sun was beating down on the beautiful calm sea and yet again the Iranians didnt fail with their hospitality; halfway through the journey news obviously reached the captain that there was an Englishman on board, and i found myself invited up on to the bridge for lunch and a chat with the crew. 4 hours later I was staring out from the bridge at the impressive skyline of Sharjah and Dubai. 2 hours after this I was still sitting in customs whilst the only customs officer on duty (public holiday) carried out his leisurely task of issuing entry visa’s to each and every one coming off the ferry, women first. Luckily the time spent waiting was quite pleasant as i sat chatting with a New Zealander backpaker and a friendly Malaysian, complete with his white robes as he was returning from pilgrimage to Mecca. When the 3 of us finally obtained our Visas we headed out into dusty Sharjah. By now it was becoming late and dark, so I decided to stay in Sharjah. my companions kindly helped me to load my bike on to a rickety wooden boat to cross the creek to downtown Sharjah where the hotels are. We then said our farewells and parted as they headed to the bus station.

Sharjah is very built up and such a contrast to the cities of Iran where nothing is allowed to compete with the height of the Mosques minarets . Iwas absolutely dazzled by it all. When I ventured out for an evening stroll, the lights the bustle and the huge variety of restaurants that seemed to occupy every intersection. after months of falafel sandwiches and yoghurt I was absolutely drawling at the anticipation of food. Needless to say i prompty found a decent Indian restaurant and had the works, much to the amasement of the staff i just kept on ordering and stuffing myself. an hour later I flopped on to the hotel bed stuffed and content.

cycling from Sharjah to Dubai the next morning was not fun. It was hot, the road was a major highway which was very busy with very big and expensive looking 4 wheel drive /SUV type cars hurtling along at a terrifying pace. For 40km’s I struggled along this road as the remnants of the night before s banquet sloshed around inside me. On nearing Dubai things became very difficult as the place is absolutely vast and I didnt really know where I was going. Eventually I gave up trying to aim for any particular suburb and decided to stop at the next reasonably inexpensive looking hotel. My luck was in, the place i found was cheap enough, had wi-fi a gym and the room was pretty swish, also when I later looked on the internet at its location. it was pretty much perfect for accessing everywhere I wanted to visit. what a result.

Dubai- what can I say , its known as the Las Vegas of the middle east, i cant disagree with that. It is a huge metropolis, it is a marvel of modern engineering and architecture, the buildings are absolutely breathtaking in scale. The shopping malls are vast, some contain ski slopes others skating rinks ,one an absolutely huge aquarium tank filled with sharks and all manner of other marine life. There are race courses, theme parks, and opportunities to take part in every imaginable type of sport or activity. It really is quite an overwhelming place. The contrast to Iran could not be greater. Once again i could walk into a supermarket and find variety, not be faced with one type of bread or the choice of canned goods being between that of haricot beans or stewed eggplant. and once again to be faced with western outlets, Macdonalds, Levis, Starbucks, Marks and Sparks. It was just so weird. It was great for a few days but to be honest the novelty soon worn off and I really yearned to be back in Iran. For all of Dubai’s extravagances and modernity, I could find little depth to the place, no history,identity or culture and since shopping was unfortunately off of my agenda I soon became quite bored. I was eager to continue cycling and get on to India but my Visa would take at least a week to process. My days seemed to revolve around visiting Malls and sampling as many different cuisines as i could, luckily i religiously spent an hour a day working out in the hotel gym to try and keep trim . I did try and venture out for a drink one night, but there were no discernable hip n trendy quarters in the city unlike most normal cities and I along with everyone else it seemed were reduced to drinking in the many hotel bars. These were OK but as with the rest of Dubai lacked in atmosphere. In one hotel bar i was treated to the experience of watching a russian tribute Abba band, two very tall, top heavy and heavily made up russian girls singing hardly discernable Abba hits, without once cracking a smile between them. I actually found it quite comically entertaining after a few beers though had to leave when they started getting requests for songs in russian and lost their comic appeal.

after 7 days wait and 3 consecutive days visit to the Visa processing centre I finally collected my Indian visa. A bit of a dissapointment since the visa was for only 3 months when I had requested 6. My query on this led me to be informed that siince the Mumbai shootings visa regulations had changed and 3 months was my max. Oh well my grand tour of India would have to become a mini tour, thats bureaucracy for you. I was still over the moon at the prospect of getting on the saddle again and leaving the ultra modern world behind me . So with bike dismantled and boxed ready for my early morning departure for Delhi I spent my last night in Dubai camped on the airport terminal floor restless in anticipation of a new country and the days ahead.