Dubai

Hey folks,

I'm just back from Dubai, and though I was only away for 5 days I'm whacked out tired. In contrast to other visits the temperature was really pleasant and even got "coolish" in the evening.

Mid 70s during the day, it was easy to have that "this place isn't so bad "feeling.The blast furnace reality of the place most of the year however is imprinted on my brain and I'm just not fooled by the weather of this trip.

My week was pretty hectic and I made a side trip to Abu Dhabi, about a two hour drive away. Its the real money in the region as it is the Emirate with all of the oil. The pace there is much slower and the skyline less about cranes and more about giant flags and palaces.This week I stayed in Deira, which is an old part of Dubai. The buildings are older and it feels much more like being in the Middle East than the shinier parts of town.

The traffic is shocking.

My hotel was pretty basic: crap internet connection and a horrible cold shower.

The call to prayer booms out 5 times a day, and a new twist ( for me anyway) was the presence of loud speakers relaying the sermon from the Inman to those outside. I don't understand Arabic, but the tone and volume of whatever the guy was saying sounded mighty pissed off. Its odd standing in the street hearing what sounds like a ranting tirade bouncing off the walls along the street. I was reassured however by the impassive expressions on the guys listening outside. There was a sort of "ya I've heard this before" vibe.

They weren't getting fired up.

I even detected the occasional smile as the voice reached hysterical levels of vitriol. Maybe he wasn't annoyed at all and I was just unable to get across a cultural stereotype, but I don't think so.

The part of town I was in is not quite a "white guy free zone", but I was very much in the minority. Despite this I never felt uncomfortable or threatened. On Tuesday night after yet another dinner, I was walking home and decided on a whim, to go into a very Arabic hotel and check out the bars there. An Iranian Club, Indian Club and Arabic Club all stood side by side as I entered, each with a little group of vaguely menacing guys sitting and standing outside the entrance. All the clubs were blasting a wall of live music as the doors opened and closed. How did I pick which one to go into?

I was on the verge to chickening out, when I was literally swept inside door number one by the guys standing outside, their grimaces turned to smiles and hands on my shoulders propelling me along

I went to the ARABIC CLUB.

I was the only westerner there.

I was a little nervous.

Being alone and clearly whitebread in a dark smoky nightclub (half empty) at 1 am is a wee bit daunting. I was ushered to a table right at the stage and a huge platter of fruit and cheese magically appeared.

I had a beer and watched an astonishing little drama unfold.

There were 6 women in evening dresses dancing and flanking a guy with a microphone singing in Arabic as he stalked around the stage. He was accompanied by a synthesizer at the back. Everywhere he went, he was followed closely by three people: two Indian bar workers and a vaguely manager type fellow who was carrying huge loops of laminated $1 bills. At certain points the singer would stop in front of tables at the stage and start dropping the loops of bills at the feet of customers. The Indian guys would crouch down and catch the loops around their arms. They would then shoot back with the money to the bar and give it to the manager guy where they would wait there until being called back by the singer to do it again. Customers would jump on the stage and drop the money at the feet of one of the woman dancers, or the dancers would do the same at the feet of customers, customers would do it to other customers....a chaotic back and forth all done at volume 11 with pretty decent singing and completely unselfconscious dancing by all concerned

" I give you respect, and you give it back to me" etc etc.

I suspect that customers paid for the privledge , but I saw no evidence of this. There were women as well as men in the crowd and everyone was laughing and smiling and smoking waterpipes.

I sat jaw open astonished as a Morrocan dancer dropped loops of bills at my feet.

A gulf Arab in full garb, with a flick of his fingers had the manager empty a bottle of Johnny Walker into a champagne bucket, dancing all the while the bottle held high for all to see. The booze was then whisked away and dumped.

What was going on here????

Incomprehensible but great fun.

I soon had glass after glass of whisky and coke on my table given to me by the tables around me. Unsteadily I got to my feet and headed home at 3 am.

Total cost $35.

Well not the total cost: I had a killer hangover 4 hours later as I sat in the back of a car on the way to Abu Dhabi.

The evenings of this trip were spent with the guys who work for me out here. Here are the cheeky chappies:

The cool evenings allowed for alfresco nights something I hadn't really done in Dubai before. The Burj hotel is as earlier posts attest, is quite a sight from the vantage point of a bar perched out in the ocean.


One of the common events when you go out in Dubai, is that you can attract the curious or mercenary wherever you go. Here is a group of Iranian girls who attached themselves to us for a couple of hours at the Buddah Bar at the Grovenor hotel. We chatted for a bit but were work obsessed in our little group and they good naturedly smiled and waved us good bye.

Thats it for now.

Not much of a post, but its all I can manage for now. I'll be in the UK until New Years Eve, with a side trip to Ireland at Christmas.


Hope all is well wherever you are.

T