Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dubai had some great sightseeing experiences. We didn’t go up the Burj Khalifa or have breakfast at the Burj Al Arab, but we did relax.
Some describe this city as a "meh" city. Although it has an artificial flavour to it, I think with a little scratching of the surface, there's lots here to be seen and experienced. As with other hot sunny climates, it was a difficult city to shoot photos in well, without getting lots of glare. We spent a but of time in Diera - Old Dubai, which was the most interesting.
This is the early cooling systems of the older buildings. This one is likely a replica, but it was how the buildings were cooled before the air conditioning era.
It has its own version of the Hong Kong Star Ferry - a traditional Dhow boat ride for 3 AED Dirham ($1 USD).
Of course, a visit to Dubai wouldn't be complete with out a visit to the 1,200 shop Dubai Mall. And of course, in a world of conservative opposites, they would have both no kissing / touching signs, and a fashion show on display at the same time.
After several days in Dubai sightseeing, we started our UAE road trip, heading down to the Empty Quarter and Liwa Oasis for a desert experience.
On the way, we stopped at the Sheikhs’ Hamad bin Hamdam al-Nahyan’s private car collection. Called the Emirates National Auto Museum, and located in the middle of nowhere in an austere pyramid, the Sheikh has a car collection of 250 cars. It was probably one of the more bizarre tourist attractions that I had ever seen. I don't know if I'd really even call it a tourist attraction, we were the only ones there on our 1 hour visit. Who keeps a brand new 1996 Ford F150 complete with the window sticker as part of a collection? There was also a custom pickup truck scaled up 70 times normal size, a new Ford Crown Victoria police cruiser with California Highway Patrol markings (parked almost next to a Rolls Royce for that matter), and 7 Mercedes 500 SEL sedans, painted rainbow colors. Surely some eclectic tastes at play here
