Dubai's Fascinating Sights And History

CEBU, Philippines - While it is true that the must-see tourist sights in Dubai are the modern, fabulously luxurious and maddeningly expensive hotels represented by that famous symbol of Dubai, the Burj Al Arab 7-Star Hotel or simply, the Burj, which when opened, will be the tallest building in the world, Dubai has really a lot more to offer curious tourists. Shopping for instance at the Gold Souk offers great prices for gold, if gold is your passion. Then, of course, Dubai is also a Duty-Free paradise and as they claim, has the best Duty-Free bargains in the world!

Dubai also has a rich past and history and you can see this at the Al Fahidi Fort, smaller than our Fort San Pedro, which also houses the Dubai Museum. Since the fort is small, what the City of Dubai did was put the museum underneath the fort – yes, underground! Fort Al Fahidi was erected in 1787 to defend the settlement of Dubai against marauders or invaders. Today, it is the oldest remaining structure of old Dubai and one of the most visited as it features various dioramas depicting Dubai’s commercial districts, the life of Bedouins in the desert, their life on the sea and how people used to live in those times when the Arabs were living simpler lives, including exhibits of old swords, guns and weapons.

One of the must-sees in the museum is a huge room that features Dubai’s dhow making industry. A dhow is the hull of a vessel that is unique to this part of the Middle East because it is constructed with teak wood, which is imported from India. Teak doesn’t crack or split in seawater. This is a life-size diorama with a half-finished dhow that is supposedly being constructed. These dioramas show Arab pride in their boat-making industry. Dhows are still being used, but they no longer sport a mast for sails as they are now powered by diesel engines. Perhaps you ought to know that when Conquistador Magellan arrived in Cebu in March 1521, there were Arab traders with their boats anchored off Cebu. These were probably dhow vessels.

Another unique attraction in Dubai was rather unexpected, when we went shopping at the Kempinski Hotel and Mall of the Emirates, where Dubai’s high-priced designer items are available. While the rest of the Cebu travel agents went shopping, I explored this mall and ended up watching a free documentary in 3D of Dubai’s Metro Rail, which is Dubai’s way of educating its people on the benefits of using their modern mass transportation driverless rail-based system, inaugurated only last Sept.9, 2009 or 9-9-9.

But what the Kempinski Mall had was something unexpected in the desert, as it is the world’s third largest Indoor Ski Resort, which is a huge cavern with five snow-filled slopes available for the kids, novices and expert skiers that have a capacity to take 1,500 visitors inside. Ski runs differ from a beginner at a 62-meter drop. The longest run is 400 meters with snow lifts to bring skiers back to the top of the slope. Temperature inside is maintained at 1 degree to 2 degrees centigrade all-year round. This even beats other ski resorts as skiing here was all year round. So when you meet someone at the Dubai International Airport wearing winter clothing, don’t be surprised. He just might be heading for Dubai’s Ski Resort.

Most cities with great rivers always feature a River Cruise, something like Bohol’s Loboc River Cruise. Well, apparently Dubai too has their famous Dubai Creek, which actually snakes from the coast and goes a few kilometers inland. This is actually part of the old port of Dubai where sea merchants from Iran dock their wooden-hulled cargo vessels and cross the Straits of Hormuz back to Persia. Surprisingly, it was spotlessly clean.

So on our final night, we took the Dubai River Cruise, where you can enjoy a truly Arab cuisine on board an air-conditioned dhow and sail quietly to the mouth of the Dubai Creek for a two-hour ride, passing by the beautifully lighted Grand Mosque, then passing through the National Bank of Dubai building, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and their great ruler Sheikh Saeed’s house and heritage village. The cruise package includes a buffet dinner, soft drinks and various entertainment. But since it was the holy month of Ramadan, there was no entertainment on board. Next day we all huffed to the desert for the Desert Safari, which we shall feature in our next article.