A Dabble in Dubai

 Tuesday 13 - Sunday 18 January 2026

My time in Dubai has been quite brief, so this blog entry will be a series of impressions rather than a blow by blow, day by day account as per my usual MO. And some of the photos I have to credit to old Uni chum Keith, when I was too lazy to get my phone out, or had a glass in my hand.

It was a fairly spontaneous decision to come out here, a combination of wanting a few days of winter sun and an old university pal coming out here to work because he doesn't want to retire yet! Having secured a £500 return flight with Emirates and a Lonely Planet from the library, I came out on a reasonably pleasant overnight flight, managed nearly two films, all the food put in front of me, and I think a couple of hours' sleep. Arriving at 7.30am, already there was a bad omen in that Keith was half an hour late coming to meet me because the traffic was so bad, and that's set the tone for my stay here.

I have to say right at the start that I know I am extremely lucky to be able to go on nice holidays, eat nice meals and drink nice wine. But part of the joy of travel is being able to move around with relative ease in order to make the most of one's time, and never have I been so frustrated in my efforts as here. Read this with the lens that Dubai is not for me - I had suspected as much, but my visit 20-odd years ago was very brief and I thought it only fair to give it a second chance!

The traffic in Dubai is appalling. I'm quite sure the Emiratis would not want to be worse than London at anything, but London is a breeze in comparison. Six-lane carriageways criss-cross the city and traffic lights at key interchanges put the flow on hold for quite a long pass at the time. Drivers use the horn constantly to berate the queues and the other drivers, even when sat in stationary traffic, and very few cars are electric so you can almost taste the pollution at junctions (not to be confused with the appearance of smog which is actually composed of desert sand in the atmosphere.) 

As I write this, it's just taken me over 2 hours to do a journey by hop on/off bus (limited stops) and taxi which Google maps opines 33 minutes by road. There is a metro, but the nearest stop to the hotel is over 30 minutes' walk away, and because there is so much construction going on, walking anywhere (and crossing roads) is extremely challenging because whole areas are cut off. I've spent a fortune on thankfully plentiful taxis despite the fact that they're actually quite cheap (apart from getting stupidly stung by a snap decision to get into the wrong kind of cab.) I have only seen a couple of buses which appear to be about every 40 minutes and they of course get caught in traffic too.

So that's been a massive bugbear for me. That and the fact that I didn't come here to shop, but that appears to be what passes for culture here! However - what else happened?

Keith is staying in the Barcelo Business Bay Hotel (an area which is still very much under development) until he sorts out an apartment. The17th floor location of my room was a little unnerving when you look at the ants and Dinky toys below, but the red bars lighting up the roof make it easy to spot from a distance after dark. 

Despite its modern concrete and glass exterior, its designers have attempted to create an alpine vibe with some weird decorative animal shit. It has a lovely big pool and loungers, a bijou gym, a very nice bar, and staff who are helpful and charming. 

                           
                 

(The squirrel is attached to the corridor wall!)

After arrival, breakfast and a little sleep in Keith's room while he went to work (a whole 3 minutes' walk away in an office on the 37th of 53 floors), I spent some time reading and dozing by the pool, during which time my room became ready so I was able to sort myself out. I went for a little stroll - there's a pedestrianised area out back, but you can't go far before hitting the main road and/or some construction hoardings (the work goes on even after dark), and then retired to the bar as it was already after sunset - yard arm and all that.

Keith joined me and after a drink we got a taxi to Dubai Mall, heading for the Time Out food court (there are a few of these now - I visited the one in Lisbon a few years back.) The traffic was gridlocked so the driver suggested we walk the last bit of the way, but we got a bit lost and ended up walking in a big circle. (The Mall is so big, there are lots of different entrances and levels.) We did however get to see the spectacular  laser light show that lights up the specacularly silver Burj Khalifa every night, though by this time we were too hungry to stay for the fountain light display that was to follow. Currently, it's the tallest building in the world.

Quite a lot of wine and very good, extremely filling Indian fusion food was consumed over catching up before a taxi back to the hotel. On the second night we took the booze a little easier  and were joined by one of Keith's colleagues for a stroll along the canal nearby where the licensed restaurants are not quite well established yet. However, we persisted in our quest and found Occo, a very pleasant fusion restaurant (part of a hotel, as is often the case) and had a mix of mezze. 

On the third night Keith and I walked for a few minutes to another nearby hotel, where The Blacksmith kitchen and bar offers a fairly meat-oriented menu, but food and service were very good. We politely applauded the poor guy with a guitar playing covers to a virtually empty restaurant. Back to the hotel bar where I couldn't resist an espresso martini and Keith persuaded me to try smoking shish for the first time - pleasant enough, but I don't think you'll be seeing me outside one of my many local Turkish joints anytime soon. And yes, alcohol is plentiful but not cheap in Dubai, but unfortunately this didn't seem to put me off...

The next night we went to a nearby hotel and took part in a very clever quiz all done via mobile phones, though as a team of two challenged by questions on popular current beat combos, we were always going to be outdone by the young people in much larger teams. In a moment of enthusiastic high fiving when we were actually fastest finger first, Keith smashed a plate and in the whole adrenaline rush that comes with a quiz I got horribly drunk. (My hangover wasn't assisted when I found the receipt for the drinks bill. That'll teach me.)

As for sightseeing, well I didn't do much owing to the challenge of getting around. Of course though after a lifetime working in retail, I had to go to Dubai Mall which is humungous and houses all the usual high-end suspects as well as M&S, Lakeland, Boots and - now a blast from the past - Mothercare. (Didn't actually buy anything to take home, which might comesas a surprise.) The first shop I came across was actually Waitrose, the size of the Little variety we have in the UK, with excellent display standards and enticing fresh food displays, but very narrow aisles. 

The shops are actually grouped logically by category, there's a massive Chinatown area and it also houses the Aquarium, which is very well done and has one of those walk-through tunnels where you're surrounded by the fish and can marvel at the grace and weirdness of the rays. You then move on to the underwater zoo where there are many tanks of other species, and my heart skipped a beat when I suddenly came across an enclosure containing King and Queen, two extremely large crocodiles who were only a matter of a foot away from me, thankfully separated by glass. They may have been indulging in foreplay - one was on top of the other, but it seemed a bit public, especially given the level of lighting. Seahorse quota was disappointing though. Apologies for lack of photos - too much glass reflection.

I visited the Al Fahidi district where the traditional buildings feature turrets with bits of pipe sticking out called bajeels. These act as basic air conditioning and can lower temperatures as much as 10 degrees from the rest of the building. It was nice to be somewhere where there were no cars apart from a few buggies for those less capable of walking or hauling their shopping - for this was basically a souk where a lone silver-haired female like me was hassled by young men outside every shop I passed to persuade me to look at pashminas, glittery slippers or bejewelled handbags. I politely demurred every time "Thanks, I'm not shopping!" I enjoyed the smoothie - they're available everywhere, though rarely in such an elegant vessel.

 

I did buy a hop on/off bus ticket as the chappie gave me two days for the price of one and threw in a boat trip around the creek on a wooden dhow, one of the traditional boats; the other is the abra, a small boat with a canopy that serves as a water taxi. I soon learned that Dubai traffic means the timetable is just for fun, and if you hop off you'll have a lengthy wait to hop on again. Prefaced by a Turkish ice cream, the boat trip was very nice though, with some useful commentary thrown in about customs and history, and the added bonus of calls to prayer drifting over the water from several different mosques. 

Dubai is a state built on pearl diving for 7000 years (memorialised here in this modern waterfall/sculpture in the Duai Mall). before the Great Depression and the discovery of the cultured pearl caused its decline.

I hadn't realised that the UAE didn't exist until 1971, following British control to ensure trade routes to India and the discovery of oil in the 1960s. Abu Dhabi is actually by far the largest state in the union, covering about 73% of the territory. There are 750 hotels in Dubai, 200 of which are 5-star, and the Burj Al-Arab is the world's only 7-star hotel, which I can't quite get my head round. The first 5-star was the Sheraton Blue, which does now rather have the look of Stalag 13. 

On both days, the bus took me round a number of sites like the 150m tall Dubai frame (queues to go up were very long!),

and the Gold Souk area, and gave me a view of the city - however, I've failed dismally to really orientate myself and the luxury yacht sunset cruise (well, post sunset as that comes pretty early in the evening) we undertook on my last night just confused me further. I'm sure if I'd been more diligent about using public transport maybe I'd have felt more familiar, but despite the incredible variety of the architecture, the city's vast spectrum of high-rise buildings have tended to blur into one skyline for me. The name of the construction company features at the top of many of the skyscrapers which confuses things even further as names like DAMAC and EAMMA appear frequently.

Craving some green space, I went to the Dubai Miracle Garden, which is an explosion of Disneyesque petunia sculptures and fibreglass cartoon figures such as Smurfs and Disney favourites, and  what was probably a half-size Emirates aircraft. I've never seen anything which was quite so pretty, pristine and vulgar all at the same time. I think the pictures say it all, but don't go expecting to see any variety of flora and fauna - I only spotted petunias, dahlias and a variety of flowering rubber plant, and there were a couple of colourful tunnels of upturned umbrellas. Wisley it ain't!

I made the mistake of accepting a taxi ride in a limo on leaving, and was stung nearly £60 for a half-hour ride. The taxis with the coloured roofs are cheap and plentiful (pink roofs have women drivers and are reserved for female-only passengers or family groups). It dropped me at Madinat Jumeirah, which is a very nicely done retail/entertainment complex but you could only get a tantalising view of the beach and the turquoise ocean from the viewpoints - the hotels surrounding it don't permit you to enter. 

I went on via the Blue Line stretch of the hop-on/off buss to Palm Jumeirah, a massive complex built on manmade islands, with much construction still going on judging by the busloads of migrant workers. It's extreme luxury waterfront living, with the likes of Ronaldo owning property there. The bus dropped me off at the Atlantis, a huge and extremely opulent pink hotel with a sea view, themed on the lost city but definitely with Disney as its design inspiration. Again, there's an aquarium, and I sat and ate a really good salad lunch at the Poseidon Cafe (Gordon Ramsay's place there was a rip-off) while watching the shoals and rays drift around in the massive tank. The lobby is quite spectacular, and includes an extremely tall Chihuly sculpture at the centre. 

On my last day Keith and I went to Kite Beach on the hotel's complimentary bus - beautiful sand, and kite flyers were in their element with the enabling gusty wind. Unfortuately that also meant very heavy waves so the red flags were up meaning no swimming allowed, so all we had was a paddle and sunbathing was a bit chilly. The sea was a jewel-like turquoise, but the view is somewhat spoiled by the oil industry paraphernalia out in the gulf, a constant reminder of UAE wealth but quite the eyesore. On the plus side, the promenade walk and facilities are really pleasant, and you get a great view of the Burj Al-Arab, looking like a giant sail.

For my last night, we went on a "sunset" cruise (it was already dark) on a luxury yacht with a very obliging Filipino and Indian crew. The wind was bracing but it was a great way to see the city all lit up despite my aforementioned disorientation, and we circled the Sheikh's private island (well, one of them).

So what did I think of Dubai? Some words

Man-made

Hi-rise

Horns

Shiny (including steps you don't see til it's too late!)

Neon

Multicultural (but  authentic local food is hard to find alongside alcohol)

Retail-obsessed

Clean (because everywhere you look there is some poor sod pushing a pointless broom to clear virtually non-existent dirt, and in every public loo at least one attendant. But as a woman of a certain age, the plethora of facilities in most places was most welcome)

Safe (no signs of phone snatching, but being a pedestrian can feel a bit precarious)

For the rich

Modern (think Bladerunner futuristic)

Would I return? Probably only if a lottery win gave me greater access to its delights. But thanks Keith - it was a lovely reunion x