BACKGROUND INFO:
I find this part of the world very fascinating. Back in 2013 our cruise spent a lot more time in the Middle East. We had two days each in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, two ports in Oman, a port in Jordan, and one in Egypt. This cruise we are spending one day in Dubai, one day in Abu Dhabi, one stop in Oman, one in Jordan, and two days in Egypt.
Dubai, the most populous city and capital of the Emirate of Duhai. It is one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. It is known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture, and a lively nightlife scene. Oil revenue did not begin until 1969 which helped accelerate the city’s early development. Today less than 5% of Dubai’s revenue comes from oil. Its main revenues now come from tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services. The city is well known for its skyscrapers and high rise buildings. The world’s tallest building is the Burj Khalifa, 2717 feet high. Another place of note is the Burj al Arab, a luxury hotel frequently described as “the world’s only 7-star hotel”. The cheapest room here goes for $3000 a night. Breakfast costs $195 per person and dinner $295 pp. In 2013 we visited the Dubai Mall. It had every luxury store you could imagine from NYC to Paris. There was a huge aquarium that you could actually walk through the middle of, plus ice skating, a water falls, theater, and outside a huge fountain that shot water 300 feet in the air. There are 70 other malls in the city!! Markets in the Middle East are called “souqs”. There is a gold souq with 250 gold shops. Dubai is referred to as the “the City of Gold” and shopping capital of the Middle East. Just saw on FOX NEWS that there was a big fire in Dubai last night. No sign of it when we arrived this morning!
WHAT WE DID TODAY:
Our tour, "Sharjah Heritage Tour", departed the ship at 10:45 this morning. First everyone on the ship has to go into the cruise terminal to have a face-to-face with immigration officials. Today we are visiting Dubai's close by neighboring emirate, Sharjah. Many refer to Sharjah as the Pearl of the Gulf. It is the 3rd largest of the 7 emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates and is recognized as the cultural capital of the Arab world. Sharjah is known for its souqs (markets) both new and old.
Our guide said there were 1200 mosques and I think we drove past many of them. Sharjah was full of high rise housing. It was less expensive rent wise to live here than in Dubai. Actually the Emirate of Sharjah is like a Dallas suburb, very close by. The streets of Dubai and Sharjah were clean enough to eat off of. Absolutely the cleanest place on earth, city-wise. Totally opposite of what we saw in India.
Our guide said there were 1200 mosques and I think we drove past many of them. Sharjah was full of high rise housing. It was less expensive rent wise to live here than in Dubai. Actually the Emirate of Sharjah is like a Dallas suburb, very close by. The streets of Dubai and Sharjah were clean enough to eat off of. Absolutely the cleanest place on earth, city-wise. Totally opposite of what we saw in India.
It is going to be very challenging for me to get my photos uploaded for the next couple of days as we have a VERY busy schedule. We will get back from today's tour around 3:30 in the afternoon. Then we will be departing the ship again at 5:45 pm for a special event for only the full world cruise passengers. We will be bused out in the desert to Al Sahara, an Arabian fortress, for an Arabian 5-star barbeque feast under the Saharan sky. There will be lot of entertainment and maybe even some camel riding. Then then next morning I have an 8 hour tour as we will be in Abu Dhabi. I will have lots of photos from our tour today in Dubai, the desert experience, and tour in Abu Dhabi all within a 30 hour period.
Here is the link to the photos I took here back in 2013 on our "Discover Dubai" tour. We are doing something totally different today.
https://goo.gl/photos/TNRDqYMstkik8e4A8
We got back from our tour at 3:30 and I have been working on photo upload every since. Not looking like I will have them ready to post before we have to leave for our desert dinner event. Will post them separately on another post.
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