Places are like people . Some places appeal to everyone and some places appeal to select few . To tell frankly being a hardcore nature lover and a history fan i was not very keen to see an "artificial " place like dubai . Of course having my relatives there my visit had a purpose but i never imagined it would combine a relative visit , friend visit and surprisingly a touristy visit bundled together .
Again i hate malls . I still do however big they are . But in dubai each mall has some key attraction attached to it . Be it the ski dubai in the mall of emirates the entire day can be spent at minus 2 degrees skiing, playing with snow , helping people who slip on ice :) (more on that later ) etc . This place is phenomenal and for an absolute beginner they have a package with ski lessons ( we did that ) . The icing on the cake is taking the ski lift and going to a cafe inside sipping coffee while outside is freezing .. All of this is in the middle of a desert country which makes you awe not only in the engineering marvel but also the vision of the rulers of dubai .
Equally amazed that i chanced upon history in dubai . I was walking in a mall when suddenly an object which was born before history stared in my eyes .It was a dinosaur full skeleton purchased by dubai from USA and kept as a free exhibit , They had put it a cute name as dubai dino . It was huge and it was kept inside the mall . So history buffs visit dubai as this dinosaur is much much older than alexander the great .
9mm handgun the same thing which police around the world use for peacekeeping purposes . Though USA has an open gun culture for an indian to try his hand at firing this gun is a rare opportunity . Dubai has three or more shooting clubs and a visitor can go and shoot these amazing guns with training lesson included . Its an amazing feeling handling a real gun and shooting 50 bullets with it . Place sharjah shooting club . things needed : passport or national card . and money (little on expensive side ) .
Dolphinarium also was a cute place with the jumping and intelligent dolphins putting up an excellent show and there were even trained seals in the show . For me , having seen both only in animal planet tv it was a delight to the eyes .
A must visit is the dubai museum which shows just in 40 years what a country can become if there is a vision . Lot of beautiful exhibits of arab life before a few decades and what is now . Actually thats history .. the development of a people from almost nothing to one of the most happening places in the world . In short history neednt go back centuries even if you are a history buff ..
Lastly the burj khalifa . I went in it and looked down at the phenomenon called dubai . its the tallest building in the world and it was again illuminating to learn about the vision of the rulers who wanted not the tallest but much taller than any existing or even future building .. Like usain bolt aiming for 5 seconds when all others aim for 9.9 seconds .. (forgive my sports rudimentary knowledge ) ..
This visit to dubai not only helped me to see this city which was different from munich , shanghai etc but gave me some perspectives of arabs especially emirati arabs (different from other GCC arabs in some ways ).. More on that later in next blog ..
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