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Next morning, my driver is there waiting for me, bright and early, smiling and happy to help. I have been given a list from the ship of all that everyone needs: it is a long list, so a new trip to the shopping mall is required. I am shown to yet another gigantic shopping centre where it takes me hours to locate all I need. The only item on the list I failed to bring back was for the captain: he wanted a U.A.E football shirt, there was none to be found. I tried all 15 sports shops in the mall: they all had Manchester United, Liverpool, England but all were surprised that anyone would want a U.A.E football shirt.

Dubai, 17/09

Degrubenc
2005-12-09 16:22:04

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Next morning, my driver is there waiting for me, bright and early, smiling and happy to help. I have been given a list from the ship of all that everyone needs: it is a long list, so a new trip to the shopping mall is required. I am shown to yet another gigantic shopping centre where it takes me hours to locate all I need. The only item on the list I failed to bring back was for the captain: he wanted a U.A.E football shirt, there was none to be found. I tried all 15 sports shops in the mall: they all had Manchester United, Liverpool, England but all were surprised that anyone would want a U.A.E football shirt.

I collapse, exhausted, back in the car after all this shopping and am taken to the Gold Souk. Sadly, it is not the dirty, smelly dark souk I had imagined but rather a very smart souk with uniformed assistants, A/C and escalators.

I am invited for lunch by the other GM of the agency. He takes me to the terribly smart Hyatt Regency. The hotel has a turning restaurant on top of its building, overlooking the city with a deliciously large buffet. It takes an hour for the restaurant to go round a full circle and even less time for me to inflict serious damage to the buffet. The lunch is pleasant. I am happy once again to be in the presence of someone who knows the region very well and all that is happening. I am given a full and comprehensive briefing on the history of the country, its potential and the ways in which it is trying to diversify its income away from oil.

Dubai is surprisingly free for an Arabic state: women are allowed to go out on their own, wear the clothes they like to wear (within reason of course) and, to a certain extent, live a normal life. Alcohol is available in the hotels and bars and prostitution is very high in the city, mostly white girls from Russia and the ex-Eastern block. Religious fanatism does not seem to be very strong here: they are too wealthy to concern themselves with religion, this is kept for the poor.

After this delicious lunch, I am shown round the offices. They are spacious, comfortable and well appointed. The Operations Manager is kind enough to supply me with Port information and the driver takes me back to the city. It seems that the only thing to do here is go to the shopping mall, and so I am taken back to yet another one.

I think Dubai, overall, is a very comfortable town to live in, provided you have the financial wealth necessary. It has all the amenities, cinemas, restaurants, shops one could hope for. The roads are clean and large, the police effective, the standard of living is very high but as a tourist it is miserable: there is nothing to do, the shopping malls are impressive but do not justify a trip to Dubai. The city is trying to outdo itself in every possible way. It is currently building what will be the tallest tower in the world when it is completed in 2008. It has the biggest malls, the only ski ramp in the Middle East, the most expensive hotel in the world, etc… The culture reminds me very much of America: all comforts and amenities, constantly needing to hold records in a bid to impress, but culturally it is a great blank.

I spend the afternoon on the internet and finally succumb to the temptation and go to see a stupid film at the huge Cineplex at the shopping mall.

The driver takes me back after dinner to the ship. Dubai has three ports, all next to each other, during the day my ship has changed harbour to dock at Sharajah instead of Jebel-Ali, this in order to discharge some project cargo for the port. I go to meet it there. Discharging is still going on as we have some problems with the crates that were damaged on the way to Ras Laffan but the agents are efficient and deal with it quickly. We are set to set sail the following morning