Dubai

Jumeira Rotana Hotel. Trip to Abu Dhabi

We patiently wait for the Boeing 777/300 of Emirates 433, which takes off at 3:05 for Dubai (DBX). It's a crossing of 5850 Km lasting seven and a half hours, which we spend for the most part sleeping. When we get off the plane we find ourselves in front of a construction site: in fact the construction of the new terminal is underway. Meanwhile we observe the splendid dawn and the rising of the sun. We change some money into local currency (Dirams) and at six thirty in the morning we're in the taxi area. We wait for one booked from the internet (as an extra service requested from the hotel), but it doesn't show up. So we take one at random to reach the Jumeira Rotana Hotel, which is located in the Bur Dubai area, behind the famous beach where all the most famous hotels rise.

Just to start off well we remain stuck for a few minutes in heavy traffic, in front of an accident with a car literally flung onto a pole beyond the guard rail. We know that here people drive very fast and driving is quite reckless. The ride comes to 50 dirams in all. The Jumeira Rotana Hotel is located behind an alley parallel to the main street, where few cars pass, and therefore it's fairly sheltered and quiet. Moving on foot is in any case an arduous undertaking to consider. The exterior facade is refined and shiny and the internal hall is also quite luxurious. Despite the morning hour, our room no. 225 on the 2nd floor is already ready. It's enormous, with two double beds, a semi-furnished kitchenette corner (but there are no stoves) and a spacious bathroom: it's the size of an apartment! We meet Felice, Erika's father who has lived here for many years now.

He takes us for a drive around Dubai along Jumeira Beach. The city appears an open construction site, from skyscrapers under construction to the streets themselves. We reach the 'Mercato Italiano', a shopping center in our own style with paintings and architecture reminiscent of dear Venice. Here we have a quick breakfast at Costa. We continue to the coastline reaching the Burj Al Arab, the most famous hotel of today's Dubai, considered the most luxurious in the world and the only one to be classified as a 7 star! We just look at it for a moment from the outside and leave the city to reach, after an hour's drive, Abu Dhabi. It's here that Felice works and lives. Twenty years ago this city in full expansion was just a simple village of huts.

Everything was born with the radical political changes and the new balances in the Middle East, which identified the United Arab Emirates as a safe meeting place between East and West. Funds arrived, capital to invest, and the economy (especially in the field of construction) grew exponentially giving rise to an unprecedented expansion. Today an apartment costs an arm and a leg and yet they're all sold even before being built. Including the extra-luxury ones that will shortly rise in the "great palm" on the sea of Dubai. Felice takes us to the beach of the Intercontinental hotel where, paying the entrance, we can use sunbeds and umbrellas. The beach is beautiful, nestled in a small cove protected by a pier that embraces it creating almost an internal lagoon. The sun is very strong like we've never seen in two weeks in Malaysia...

now yes it's time to bring out the sunscreen! For lunch we stay at the restaurant of the beach itself, of a certain class and style. It's circular in shape, with the counter in the center where you choose the fresh fish (and the way to cook it), the fruit, the vegetables and whatever else. The tables are instead all around. We make our choice and the result is a first-rate lunch: service and food are excellent! We spend the whole afternoon at the sea relaxed, getting our well-deserved tan, and around 18:00 we go to the Marina mall, another of the many immense shopping centers that are very busy and renowned here. We visit various shops and pavilions, including an endless one entirely dedicated to furniture. We stop at a bar having a fruit juice and some nutella crepes, then we go for a visit to Felice's apartment.

Finally we return, extremely tired, at 22:00 to the Jumeira Rotana hotel in Dubai, after having wasted a bit of time in vain driving around countless road detours due to works in progress.

Jumeira Beach Park.

At 8:30 I go up for breakfast on the top floor with Ste in the dining room of the Jumeira Rotana, while Erika goes out with her father to take a trip. For the first time during the trip we'll be separated! The room is very beautiful, refined, with a decent panorama over the city, and the buffet breakfast is also excellent and varied. On the same floor there's also the outdoor pool, which we only glance at. It's small and surrounded by concrete: better to go to the beach! We go down to the reception to ask for information and we're told that the hotel has a free service to reach the public beach of Jumeira Beach Park. It only has two runs a day and we're right on time to catch the first. In about a quarter of an hour we're dropped off at the entrance of the park, which is accessed all day with a paltry ticket of 5 dirams.

You cross the green and spacious lawn until you reach the white sand beach, very organized for tourists: there's a dining place with outdoor tables, bathrooms, showers, the possibility of renting sunbeds, umbrellas and the kiosk for booking boat trips and parasailing. We rent two sunbeds at 15 dirams each and an umbrella at 5 dirams. There are many European tourists and some locals, but the place isn't crowded. The sea is beautiful, calm and clear: perfect conditions to deepen the tan. Despite however having desired this sun and a bit of rest for the whole trip, now after Malaysia everything seems too calm: Jurgen and Azam had imposed much tighter rhythms on us! We have lunch with fish and chips and sandwiches followed by a tray of fruit, spending 50 dirams.

Behind us settles a group of four local boys, who before leaving leave a shameful quantity of bottles and trash on the beach, with trash bins a mere ten meters away. Is this how it's done around here?? Anyway there's the beach guy who comes by to clean… an attitude, beyond any mentality and culture, completely unacceptable! If we all followed this line how would we reduce our natural beauties? At 16:00 we get an ice cream and a fruit juice at the tables at the entrance of the park, while we wait for the minibus for the return. It arrives right on time at 16:30 and takes us back to the Rotana in twenty minutes. We rest a bit and at 19:30 we meet Erika and Felice at the German restaurant inside the hotel, where we all have dinner together. They propose an interesting car trip for tomorrow which we accept without batting an eye.

We then stroll for about an hour along the main street that winds behind the hotel, discovering the traditional Dubai of stalls and small shops: completely different from the modern and luxurious one of the skyscrapers!

Desert trip. Hatta Village

At 9:00 Felice comes to pick us up at the hotel. We leave the chaotic city traffic heading towards the interior of the territory. The highway separates the skyscrapers from the desert in an astonishing contrast: it really seems like a boundary line between civilization and nothingness. Felice shows how the same place appeared in a photo from ten years ago: unrecognizable! We follow the road signs towards Hatta. The landscape soon becomes entirely desert, first rocky and then sandy. Here we stop in an organized area where they book rides with dromedaries, 4x4 jeep tours to climb and jump among the desert dunes, rollicking rides with quad bikes and a healthy dose of guaranteed adrenaline. For now we settle for a mini loop ride on the dromedary, which Erika has never tried.

Ste and I have already had the chance to get to know these animals on the camel ride in the desert of Marsa Alam on the Red Sea. We continue again by car until we reach the Hatta Heritage Village, about 60 Km from Dubai. It's a historical reconstruction in the middle of the desert of a traditional village. We visit it calmly, to savor its atmosphere and learn about the local culture. And also because it's terribly hot! It's very interesting and crafted with attention to detail: a real open-air museum, except for the obvious pretense of the 'characters' who are replaced by talking statues. A path leads up to the tower, where you can admire the entire village and the splendid harsh surrounding landscape, relieved by the small palm oasis.

On the way out, a stop at the characteristic handicraft shop is also part of our plans, with excellent and singular shopping items to bring home as souvenirs. For lunch we stay nearby and at 13:00 we reach the Hatta Fort hotel, a few kilometers further on: an incredible place, a true little oasis surrounded by the desert with a lush garden, a panoramic pool and even a golf course! There must be a fabulous starry sky at night around these parts… The restaurant offers a nice plate of tortellini and scampi pasta for a bill of 223 dirams for four. The main road continues towards Oman starting to climb into the mountains and becoming winding. We choose to turn back, and try to stop in this morning's area to experience the thrill of the Quad. Having no experience, we get on the smaller ones paying 130 dirams per person for an hour.

A succession of sandy dunes of different heights mark the area where several other quads climb and race madly. The start is quite funny between continuous bogging down and fears of rollovers. Once the main mechanisms are understood though, the fun is guaranteed!! You race among the dunes in a mix of excitement and madness, climbing over mounds and 'flying' between the crests: awesome!! It's a perfect way to forget tomorrow's departure and worthily conclude this fantastic three-week journey… There's nothing left but to return to Dubai, where by 18:00 we enjoy a spectacular sunset at the Burj Al Arab hotel, on the beautiful white and fine sand beach of Jumeira. Once at the Rotana hotel, we settle the suitcases and Erika leaves us to follow her father to Abu Dhabi.

She'll stay another ten days, lucky her!!! Ste and I remain alone in our melancholy and stroll around, having dinner at a Burger King and spending just 28 dirams.

Return

At 5:30 in the morning we complete the check-out at the Rotana reception and take a taxi to the airport for 40 dirams. At 7:50 flight Emirates 97 on a Boeing 777/300 takes off on time from Dubai towards Rome... 4328 kilometers and 6h 20m separate us from Italy, where we land at 11:30. The usual routine and lunch at 'Terrazza Mare' at Fiumicino airport. We buy again a small version of Umpa Lumpa, to give to Erika as a surprise upon her return. We patiently wait until 16:20 when our Meridiana flight will take us definitively to Cagliari. Here concludes another fantastic and unforgettable experience among the wonders of the East, documented by over 2,000 photos and 11 hours of video. Plus the indelible memories in our heart.

Despite after several weeks spent away from home it has happened to us to return quite willingly, even knowing we're leaving splendid places behind, from this vacation, which is also our longest ever to date, we don't feel this need at all. We'd like to stay out on adventure longer! But this time the adventure is really over and, as our legendary Jurgen met in Malaysia would say: "THE TOUR IS OVER…."…… At least for now…..