- Date: October 5 - 15, 2012
- Trip duration: 11 days
- SPECIAL PRICE: 2395 USD plus 535 USD tax
- Seats:
Dubai – the city out of this world and the desert infinite land of the Middle East!
The Middle East is usually associated with the endless oilfields, continuous conflicts, women in niqabs who have no rights to “normal” existence and with rich sheikhs with a lot of gold and a lot of fat. However, the Arabic world is full of surprising colours, flavours, legends and stories of one hundred and one nights.
United Arab Emirates, a small country near the Persian Gulf, born from the desert of Arabic Peninsula, is one of the richest countries in the world, thanks to banking and tourism (the crude oil supplies are slowly diminishing). The strict rules of Shariat – the religious rules of Islam which dominates here – make that a visitor from a different culture may find many customs, situations and rules not only surprising but completely shocking. There is a relative liberalism in clothing, as women do not have to cover their heads; however loose clothing which covers legs and arms will let you avoid unpleasant commentaries. Public affection is also regarded as a faux pas and any relationship outside marriage is severely punished. Followers of different religions (not Islam) are not allowed to enter the mosques. During the time of Ramadan it is forbidden to publicly eat or drink between the sunrise and the sunset; it is also advisable to avoid alcohol.
Why don’t the strict rules of Arabic world discourage more and more tourists visiting Dubai or Abu Dhabi? The cultural differences have always had the magical magnetising power. The Different, the New, the Unknown has attracted the greatest travellers for centuries. Giving up on drinking wine with dinner and covering the arms will not only make the host respect us but it will also enable us to see the unique mixture of futuristic architecture and typical western consumptionism with the traditional lifestyle of the Bedouins and morning calling to prayer by muezzin that you can hear from every minaret.
In one of the most radical parts of the world – in the sense of law and religion – you can lose a fortune on hedonist vacation! In this large area of free trade, where no taxes or customs are in force, you can buy the world’s best designer clothes, Persian carpets and gold jewellery. You can see the best cars in the world on the perfectly smooth and wide highways. You can dance until the sunrise to the music played by the best world DJs. And only here, in the middle of the desert, you can go skiing any time of the year on the artificial ski slope Ski Dubai. The city, which could easily make the scenography for the most modern science fiction movie, can be admired from the world’s tallest buildings Burj Khalifa (828 metres). If you want to spend the night in Burj Al Arab, the only seven-star hotel in the world in the shape of a giant sail, you will pay about $2,500 for Deluxe One Bedroom Suit. But if you double the price and are patient enough, perhaps you will be able to stay in the only underwater hotel in the world! Hydropolis is a project which was supposed to stagger the world at the end of 2009 and still exists only in the Dubai investors’ imagination. In Dubai you can be neighbours with David Beckham – it is enough to buy an apartment on the Dubai Palm Island!
Although the capital city Abu Dhabi was built with modern impetus and glamour, United Arab Emirates are not only the paradise for millionaires! The desert lowlands and Al-Hajar al-Gharbi Mountains with their dry valleys covered with shrub land, where you can only see desert lizards, reptiles and snakes are the paradise for the lovers of sand boarding, camel rides and jeep safaris. In the country there are no surface waters but at the coast of the Persian Gulf there are many beaches and coral reefs, and in the nearby Oman Bay you can see cliffs and mountain coast, which is very untypical for this region. Diving and boat trips are a nice change from the shopping frenzy in huge shopping malls. Summer in the middle of winter, tea with cardamom, date fruits, flavoured shisha, a huge dose of exoticism, and for the skiers – a covered ski slope in the middle of the desert! – This is United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Ahlan wa sahlan!
