Passport Stamp: Dubai

After 14 hours in the air, I looked down and my jaw dropped. The lights seemed to go on forever. Dubai from the sky is a dream of brightness and fortune. You see the things that are only available to most people on television, such as the man-made, elitist, and utopian palm islands that contain some of the worlds most luxurious restaurants, hotels, and resorts money can buy. The blink of Burj Khalifa’s summit is a beacon of opulence that sits on the throne of sky scraping magnificence. One of the richest cities in the world, the hub of the middle east, the oil business tycoon, the city built in a day is a few thousand feet below me, getting closer and closer with every passing second. When I heard that we had a whole day layover in Dubai, I was ecstatic, knowing we would have the opportunity to get out and explore and enjoy the city. I have always wanted to go to the Middle East. It is alluring to me to be in a place where culture is completely different. Instead of Christianity being the majority religion, it is Islam. Instead of Lent, they have Ramadan. Instead of English letters on the street signs, there was Arabic. Instead of steak and burgers, there was goat curry and kabobs. From front to back it was a culture upside down from ours. A whole new world. Experiencing different cultures broadens the mind and instills compassion for other people. We realize that different people are not to be marginalized, but rather embraced. We understand that while perspectives, mindsets, and culture may differ, human experience does not. The more different the culture, the deeper the love for humanity grows. We flew Emirates, one of the most amazing airlines I have ever flown, and they give you a hotel room if your layover is over eight hours. Ours was almost double that. We landed at about 8 at night. We had until about 10 the next morning before we had to return back to the airport for our flight to Zambia (which you can read about my experience in Passport Stamp: Zambia). Therefore, as soon as we hit the tarmac and we were let off the plane, we were gung-ho to experience of the craziest cities in the world.

We walk into the Dubai airport and were greeted by huge, shining pillars that seemed to move and dance in the glimmering light. There were palm trees sprouting from the tile floors as if they were organic. Water features that were five stories high pummeled the ground beneath it with architectural precision. In the customs line, we immediately looked out of place. It was all of our first times there and we were silent, partly because of travel exhaustion, but also because of the grandeur, beauty, and size of this airport. As we see in most of Dubai, the contemporary is met with the traditional. We were met by the United Arab Emirates equivalent of the TSA who were men wearing traditional Muslim thobe and ghutra, a long white robe and a white or red checkered headscarf, respectively. Passing through customs and finally getting outside into the city, the first thing that hits you is the heat. It was late May when we arrived in Dubai, and the low for the day was 95 degrees Fahrenheit. But you did not sweat immediately. It was not a humid, wet heat like it is here in Texas. It is an almost suffocating dry heat, as every drop of moisture is soaked up by the dehydrated land and the sand from nearby deserts blows in the wind. The second thing that hits you is the overwhelming wealth Dubai carries. Scholars suggest the actual name “Dubai” comes from an Arabic proverb which says “daba dubai”, which literally translates to, “they came with a lot of money”. The opulence of Dubai has not always been the case. It primarily was established by tribesmen under the ruler of the Abu Dhabi as a fishing village in the early 19th century and only had 700-800 people. It remained a port town and a trading post until the big break in 1966: they found oil. The oil boom skyrocketed Dubai’s economy and created an almost impossible amount of revenue in such a short amount of time. Thirty years later, the desert became an oasis of luxury in the midst of the dunes. Fast forward to modern day, every taxi we used in Dubai was a Mercedes Benz, lamborghini stores littered the streets, and architecture and technology is decades ahead of the western world.

We hopped into our taxi and began the ride to our hotel. It was a very short 5 minute drive and we dropped our things off to get ready for our night in Dubai. It was about 10 at night and we heard a song begin to play all across the city. The Arabic singing grasped our attention, it must be important to be heard even in our hotel room. We peaked outside and saw the mosque down the street, and lines of people piling in for the last prayer of the day. There are 5 daily prayers (called salah) Muslims observe: at dawn (Fajr), at midday (Dhuhr), in the afternoon (Asr), at sunset (Maghrib), and at night (Isha). The song was unmistakably beautiful. It was somber yet hopeful, meditative yet intense. The sound reverberated as Muslim men and women made their way to the mosques, and everything seemed to have stopped for a brief moment. And within a few moments, it was finished, and the people walked out of the mosques and went on with their night, chatting and laughing. It was a couple days towards the end of Ramadan, the holy month where Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Therefore, after the end of the last prayer of the day, the city came alive with devout Muslims finally breaking their fast. Restaurants lit their signs up, hookah bars took in thirsty patrons, and the night raged onward. We told the driver that we wanted to go to the famous mall of Dubai but he insisted that he take us on all the sightseeing there is to be done. We told him over and over “we are ready to eat, let’s go to the mall” and he said “this will be your only time in Dubai, you have to see everything” and we firmly declined and climbed into the taxi. We started driving and we hit the main stretch of road in downtown Dubai. The buildings were massive, colorful, and gives one an existential crisis as he or she realizes how small they are. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of urban extravagance in the world. Advertisements were sliding all along us promoting their product. Tram stations were in the shape of an orb, hollowed out for passengers and were etched with huge Arabic characters. Luxury cars zoomed past us honking their horns and flashing their style. There was simply too much to take in. Yet we did realize something. We had passed up the mall. Our driver said “we will get to the mall, you really must see these sites. They are on the way”. We understood he was trying to swindle us out of a few hundred dirhams, but nevertheless, we allowed him to take us wherever.

Our first stop was the famous Burj Al Arab hotel on the Jumeirah Beach, one of the most luxurious hotels in the world. It was ludicrous. Our driver claimed that rooms are 2000 USD a night and came a with personal butler, access to an infinity pool, and a landing pad for your helicopter. The famous sail shape of the hotel catches the eye of anyone passing by, and at night it lights up with alternating blues, purples, and greens. We stopped to take a picture and marveled at the building. A man tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I could take a picture of him and his wife. He was dressed like many men in the country, with traditional Muslim robes and headdress, while she was in an abaya, a common garment for Muslim women where it covers the whole body except for the face and it garnished with beautiful patterns and embroideries. I smiled and agreed to do them the favor. After I took the picture of the lovely couple, they smiled at me and said in english “thank you”. They saw us and assuredly knew we were not Muslim, we were not middle eastern, and we were probably American. Yet there was no sense of malice or prejudice at all. We were simply people enjoying the city. It was a beautiful reminder of the lines we sometimes put into the sands of this world. We say “you can’t come over here unless you meet these qualifications, follow these practices, and observe these laws”, and the world constantly reminds me there there is no line in the beginning, and we were the ones who drew them. We drove around the hotel and returned to the highway towards the mall and the driver, after collecting a nice taxi fair from his new American friends, showed us the next stop. Next door neighbor to the mall of Dubai is the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It had lights blinking all over the surface and the top seemed miles away. It is a staggered building that moves its way up into the atmosphere, as if a modern day tower of babel. In the narrow shadow of the Burj Khalifa is the Mall of Dubai, a huge superstructure where one can see the whole of Dubai’s culture within a stroll. The mall was populated to the brim it seemed. Since Ramadan was about to end and the Muslims were broken from their day long fast, the devout went out into the night to shop, eat, drink, and smoke shisha, a type of tobacco with juices and aromas meant to be smoked with a water pipe called a hookah. We arrived and walked into a giant golden entrance to be met with a rotunda with a man telling stories to children. He said “come and let me tell you a story about you, about all of us!”. While entertaining, we pressed forward. There was a giant corridor celebrating Muslim culture and wares called The Souk. It had beautiful Muslim architecture lining the sides, with statues of camels, seating areas, and stores specifically design to cater to the modern stylish Muslim, which seems an oxymoron, but I assure you it is not. We think of Muslims here in the west as dogmatic and fundamentalist, being absolutely modest all the time. While parts of that assumption is absolutely true, there is a population of Muslims that are less than devout, who enjoy the luxuries of the world rather than the quiet meditation of the prayer mat. There were jewelry stores where the average price of their products were 15,000 USD. There were sport car venders inside of the wall with a garage on the other side where you can drive yourself after your purchase. We walk past all of the extreme wealth and I stopped looking into stores and starting looking at people. Again, Dubai is a place where Muslim tradition meets modern opulence, and we saw a plethora of traditional Muslim men and women carrying name brand clothing store bags, Louis Vuitton purses, and rolexes. We marveled at the wonder of what all the Mall of Dubai contained. We saw an aquarium, an extremely large cheesecake factory, and an indoor ski resort (yes it is exactly what you think it is). But our objective was food. We pressed on towards the food court and found a beautiful restaurant, a land of milk and honey. Actually it was curry and kabobs but nevertheless, we sat down and ate. I had lamb kebab, goat curry, rice, and naan. One of the most classic middle eastern meals. It was exquisite, but would later come back to haunt me. We left the Mall of Dubai without purchasing a single thing, we are after all poor Americans, and headed back towards the hotel. At the hotel, I experienced what I bluntly tell everyone who is afraid of traveling or is traveling abroad for the first time; the weird trip to the bathroom. My stomach twisted and rumbled but the guys wanted to go to the restaurant adjacent to the hotel, and I was not about to jeopardize our few hours left in this amazing city. So I powered downstairs and ordered some tea, as suggested by our waitress. She said “if you’re having digestion problems, I suggest the Moroccan”. She brings me what looks like a shot glass and an ornate silver kettle seemed to have been transported here from the medieval Islamic golden age of conquest, exploration, and discovery. It was minty, hot, and soothing. It healed my hurting stomach in a few moments and I drank just about the whole thing, while many Muslims around me enjoyed the last few days of Ramadan smoking and drinking.

We climb back up to the room at about four in the morning for a nap and to pack and get ready for the flight to Zambia. This post cannot hold the feeling of rush and wonder that came with that night in Dubai. It was a whirlwind of “wow” and “what?” as culture shock began to embrace us like an unknown relative. I stood in the robe the hotel gave us and looked outside our giant window that took up the whole wall as the sun rose over the Arabian Peninsula. I am a total nerd, and so I thought about the history of the Middle East, the foundation of civilization. People first learned how to read and write on the other side of the Persian Gulf from me, a few thousand miles north. I thought about the Muslim golden age in the Middle Ages as Europe began to revert back to superstition in the Dark Ages, Islamic scientists discovered medical practices and brilliant tools that are still in use to this day. And Dubai, in all of its splendor, is the harvest reaped not from decades of oil business and enterprise, but rather centuries of Islamic invention and pursuit. It made me consider the current situation of Muslims around the world. The news only captures those radicalized Muslims that aim to kill and terrorize for the sake of power and to reinstate the ancient Caliphate to its former glory. What the western media does not show is the calm, devout Muslim that takes their kids shopping and enjoys late night ice cream trips and lives a life not dissimilar from our own. It is imperative for people to understand that we do not speak of people in a general sense. We do not speak of Muslims as if all of them are the exact same. That is one of the foundations of prejudice. If that were the case, Christians would be just as guilty and terroristic because of the church’s history. However, we must press forward, providing understanding that not everyone lives the way we live. It is naïve to think that the Middle East does not have its fair share of horrors and terrors, but it is also narrow minded to think that all Muslims carry the same stigma. My pondering slips through the time, and I had to pack and leave this amazing city. But the sunrise was too beautiful to not ponder in its light. I changed into some flight clothes, and walked out the door, as the Arabians sing and gather for morning prayer.