Dubai experiences? - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

engatwork · #31 11-03-2011, 07:55 AM

Ya'll have a good time Tom

.

strelnik · #32 11-03-2011, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

It looks like I will be traveling to Dubai with my youngest daughter end of next month. I invite any comments or suggestions. We will be looking around, her gathering information for her thesis project, me tagging along.

I am interested in good but inexpensive places to eat and rent cars, along with sights to see and general suggestions such as how she should dress to avoid stirring up the Muslims.

You may want to check the State Dept travel sites for info on customs, addresses of US consulates and a lot of other useful info.

Good luck!

t walgamuth · #33 11-03-2011, 09:05 AM

Thanks guys!

I have prescription suns in ww2 Aviator style frames so raybans are out.

I have registered with the state department too.

We will be off this afternoon!

I am not looking forward to 17 plus hours in the air.

t walgamuth · #34 11-05-2011, 09:29 AM

We survived the flight just fine and have spent the day wandering the warf area and visited the dubai museum. most of the museum is under the plaza. There are a slew of what appear to be old ocean going wooden ships which have been converted into night eating spots and or sightseehing boats.

the food in the hotel is prohibitively expensive so we are eating from a nearby grocery store and eating at mom and pop local restaurants. The one we ate breakfast at measured about 10' x 25' including the kitchen. It had three four top tables. The food was nutricious and inexpensive though.

I communicated wiith the owner through pidgen french and sign language.

It is very warm here once it warms up. mid eighties to nineties I estimate.

chilcutt · #35 11-05-2011, 09:51 AM

89f-77f currently. Thunderstorms monday.
What foods specifically are you eating?

kerry · #36 11-05-2011, 10:26 AM

Keep up the travelogue.

t walgamuth · #37 11-07-2011, 02:32 AM

I have to pay to use the internet here at the hotel so my comments will be brief for the moment. We have found some local hole in the wall restaurants where we can get a nice filling meal for less than $4 for both of us. I had a prawn burger yesterday. we have also had calamare and lamb and mutton. I want to have some camel but won't pay extra for it. the mango juice is like dessert. today I bought a dress for the lovely Mrs w. the negotiating was fun.

yesterda y we rode the train nearly to the border to the southwest. the train is the nicest i have ridden on yet. brand new. our biggest problem is not having a decent map to get around and trying to figure out which stop to get off on the train. we also rode on a watertaxi which is basicaly an ancient wooden sailing boat which has been reppowered with something that thiumpa and shakes a lot and makes plenty of power. the old wooden ships here are still in use to a high extent and some have been rebuilt above the waterline to accomodaet restaurants and bars.

people are friendly and a lot speak english and dont' mind amaericans. those that don't speak english are intent on understanding what is needed so it is no limitation to getting what is needed.

we watched a cat catch and kill and eat a pidgeon yesterday morning early. we have noticed the coloring of the cats here is quite diffferent from anything we have seen before. they also have very short fur.

its raining today but lightly and nobody seems to notice. it makes it cooler too.

more later.

t walgamuth · #38 11-09-2011, 11:27 PM

We're back safe and sound. It has gotten very late though and I will have to write more tomorrow. We went up in the tallest building though and drove around the Palm. It was a wonderful experience but I will probably never go back.

t walgamuth · #39 11-10-2011, 11:39 PM

We hooked up with a German who got his Architecture degree from Ball State (my alma mater and my daughter's choice) who is teaching Architecture at the Canadian University in Dubai. He drove us around on Saturday night and showed us the sights from a car at night. He had a running commentary of all the whys and wherefores. He says the economy of Dubai is completely unsustainable due to its dependence on extremely high energy usage. He predicts that all the high rises will become spectacular ruins in a few decades. In the construction of the "Palm" island development it turned out that the process of building it cost so much more than originally thought that the people who pre-purchased lots to build on got told that their lots shrank from whatever size it originally was to (after several adjustments) about 1/3 the original size with no refunds. They sucked sand off the ocean bottom to construct them until they have used up all the sand available and are now unable to proceed with the "earth" island complex. Some of the islands are also sinking.

There are in the neighberhood of the Burge Kalifa Dubai (worlds tallest building) about fifty or so high rise apartments built on postage stamp lots. It gives the impression of Gotham city from the batman movies. Each of these (or at least a high percentage of them) is an excellent Architectural Gem of a design with no expenses spared in the construciton, design and materials being clad with Stainless, Glass and Granite. I did not see any Fake stucco used anywhere there. Real stucco on masonry is used a lot though.

The Burge is accessible from the Dubai Mall (the worlds largest). You park in the Mall parking garage (one of many) and go inside and follow the signs to the staging area for the Burge Kalifa. Tickets for going to the observation deck are $36 if ordered on line, $125 if you just show up and have to go immediately. It is well organized and a great experience going up. The walk to the elevators is probably nearly a kilometer and there are many pictures and displays along the way.

From the top the view is spectacular. I suspect you can see fifty miles or so. Both North and South of it are cities with a huge cluster of high rises shimmering in the distance. It is very very surreal.

Around the base of the tower is an enormous Lagoon which has a half mile long array of water jets which go off to music at night, shooting water in an unending parade of patterns and at the completion of each tune shooting twenty jets up about 150'. The sofistication of the arrangments and the hardware of it are staggering, as well as the cost of operating it. In the morning we went by and there were six men in the lagoon three of them in scuba gear doing maintenance on the jets and or cleaning the lagoon.

Everything there is super clean including the toilets in all the mall, the train stations, and our hotel. We did stop at a filling station once for the lovely daugher #4 to use the toilet though and she said was unspeakably filthy with no soap or towells, a broken door lock. She said she had to hover over the toilet to do her business.

All the good toilets lack bidets but offer spray nozzles for cleanup prior to using the paper. An excellent setup which I plan to emulate at home.

We had french pastry and coffee at a french restaurant before going up in the tower and afterwords ate a sandwich and fries at a "Fatburger" fast food outlet in the Mall. The fries were among the best we ever had but the chicken burger was tough and tasted like dirty socks.

More tomorrow.

chilcutt · #40 11-11-2011, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

We hooked up with a German who got his Architecture degree from Ball State (my alma mater and my daughter's choice) who is teaching Architecture at the Canadian University in Dubai. He drove us around on Saturday night and showed us the sights from a car at night. He had a running commentary of all the whys and wherefores. He says the economy of Dubai is completely unsustainable due to its dependence on extremely high energy usage. He predicts that all the high rises will become spectacular ruins in a few decades. In the construction of the "Palm" island development it turned out that the process of building it cost so much more than originally thought that the people who pre-purchased lots to build on got told that their lots shrank from whatever size it originally was to (after several adjustments) about 1/3 the original size with no refunds. They sucked sand off the ocean bottom to construct them until they have used up all the sand available and are now unable to proceed with the "earth" island complex. Some of the islands are also sinking.

There are in the neighberhood of the Burge Kalifa Dubai (worlds tallest building) about fifty or so high rise apartments built on postage stamp lots. It gives the impression of Gotham city from the batman movies. Each of these (or at least a high percentage of them) is an excellent Architectural Gem of a design with no expenses spared in the construciton, design and materials being clad with Stainless, Glass and Granite. I did not see any Fake stucco used anywhere there. Real stucco on masonry is used a lot though.

The Burge is accessible from the Dubai Mall (the worlds largest). You park in the Mall parking garage (one of many) and go inside and follow the signs to the staging area for the Burge Kalifa. Tickets for going to the observation deck are $36 if ordered on line, $125 if you just show up and have to go immediately. It is well organized and a great experience going up. The walk to the elevators is probably nearly a kilometer and there are many pictures and displays along the way.

From the top the view is spectacular. I suspect you can see fifty miles or so. Both North and South of it are cities with a huge cluster of high rises shimmering in the distance. It is very very surreal.

Around the base of the tower is an enormous Lagoon which has a half mile long array of water jets which go off to music at night, shooting water in an unending parade of patterns and at the completion of each tune shooting twenty jets up about 150'. The sofistication of the arrangments and the hardware of it are staggering, as well as the cost of operating it. In the morning we went by and there were six men in the lagoon three of them in scuba gear doing maintenance on the jets and or cleaning the lagoon.

Everything there is super clean including the toilets in all the mall, the train stations, and our hotel. We did stop at a filling station once for the lovely daugher #4 to use the toilet though and she said was unspeakably filthy with no soap or towells, a broken door lock. She said she had to hover over the toilet to do her business.

All the good toilets lack bidets but offer spray nozzles for cleanup prior to using the paper. An excellent setup which I plan to emulate at home.

We had french pastry and coffee at a french restaurant before going up in the tower and afterwords ate a sandwich and fries at a "Fatburger" fast food outlet in the Mall. The fries were among the best we ever had but the chicken burger was tough and tasted like dirty socks.

More tomorrow.

Your impression of the airport?
I recall taking a bus from one terminal to another, a ride that took approx. 30 minutes. Amazeing.

Sprayers rock...just tile your bathroom, and include a floor drain.

t walgamuth · #41 11-11-2011, 11:56 AM

The airport is defiinately state of the art. Excellent. I don't believe we had to ride any busses there. A lot of moving walkways though, one which went along for 100 feet or so then just started going up as an escalator. I guess they are the same thing more or less but never encountered this twist before.

suginami · #42 11-11-2011, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

All the good toilets lack bidets but offer spray nozzles for cleanup prior to using the paper. An excellent setup which I plan to emulate at home.

Nearly all homes in Japan have these toilets now. Made by Toto. I see them for sale here in the U.S.

t walgamuth · #43 11-11-2011, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suginami

Nearly all homes in Japan have these toilets now. Made by Toto. I see them for sale here in the U.S.

Yes, Toto was the name.

The day we went up in the tower, we were outside on the observation deck and folks were shooting pictures of each other all over the place. We came upon a small group of Asian looking young men. I needed to pass through their group to get to an open window to look and one of them said "let me take your picture with my friend".... I was taken aback but agreed to it, smiling for the camera....He must have seen the puzzlement on my face because he then said "You look like Ahnold".

I said "oh thanks", I cannot wait to tell the lovely Mrs. W. I look like Schwartzenneger!

This the second film star I have been compared to.....a year or so ago a fellow at work said I looked like DiNiro.

t walgamuth · #44 02-05-2012, 10:43 AM

I am going to add some pictures. These are pictures of Dubai Creek, which looks like a river but seems to disappear from the map once it gets into the country about 5 miles. That is my lovely daughter #4, the Architect in training.

Shown are some of the wooden ships which appear to be made into restaurants from old seafaring cargo ships. The last picture shows one of the "water taxis" which appear to be old wooden fishing boats with rather large motors added and a flat platform to sit on. They are exceedingly simple and crude but work just fine. Of course, there are no OSHA rules there so they would never be legal here!

t walgamuth · #45 02-05-2012, 11:05 AM

This shows more wooden ships, some currently used for cargo, some converted to restaurants and the final picture is the "Burge Kalifa Dubar", the tallest building in the world designed by SOM of Chicago.