Dubai - Truly Global.

I surprised my family by landing in Dubai for the Diwali holidays, it was fun to see their surprised reactions :), god I miss them so much more now spent good 11 days with them and with the cold tissues too (well there was so much temp diff between indoor and outdoor that I caught cold big time...hence could not shop for perfumes :( )
Anyways that's not the purpose of my blog, I wanted to share my views as how Dubai is truly global and why Indians like it so much.

This was my 3rd visit to Dubai, first time I’d gone site seeing, the 7 emirates (I was amazed to see that all the roads even while traveling to another emirate(state) had street lights, unlike India where the state roads are not lit at all), 2nd visit was really short and this time I truly experienced the day to day living.


Roads - they are just awesome, no potholes like in Pune...well I find all roads better than Pune roads. Besides that they have so much greenery, wonder how they grow grass on the sand, any ideas? Cars were "ek se badhkar ek" (couldn’t find equivalent English word to express this). So many hummers wow....and they can really enjoy the ride on those smooth roads of course not on sharjah -Dubai road traffic that can get annoying.


Malls - the shopping malls in Dubai are so huge, you will find all the brands there, brands from US, India, UK everything. this time I visited the Mall of Emirates and Ibn Battuta mall, they reminded me of Vegas, the difference is Vegas has theme casinos and here the malls have themes, like ibn Battuta has interiors like china, India, Persia etc. Mall of Emirates has 'Ski Dubai', they actually make ice there and people can do skiing. I am sure the sheikhs who've seen sand all the time would be really excited to see the snow. I admire the country's mgmt and culture, though being an Islamic country they are pretty liberal (except for Ramadan, when people are not permitted to consume anything publicly). Sometimes I think they are too liberal, imagine everybody talks Hindi there, every second person there is an Indian (south Indian to be specific), wherever you go you see them; I wondered whether I am in India or Dubai.



Buildings: I really salute the architectures that build the buildings in Dubai, remind me of Howard Roark of Fountain head. They just don’t make boxes or normal buildings; they make huge and beautiful structures with the challenge of building it in sand. I wanted to see Burj-al-Arab, reservations had to be done (buffet lunch or tea) if you had to visit the hotel, its a little on expensive side, but my sweetie bro made reservations for me and my bhabhi. I was so excited that I would see the hotel, when I called them to ask what all I could see, they said only the lobby and the restaurant you've reserved. I was so annoyed it was not worth the money I thought they would give a tour or something; after all it’s the only 7 star hotels in water..Alas, I cancelled the reservation.


Food: Well you get all kinds of food here, veg, non-veg, I ate mangoes in Oct. So many food chains course the usual mc Donalds, KFC blah blah but what I liked the most is US Starbucks, UK's Costa and India's Barista all at one place...wow I just love the coffee. I found Dunkin Donuts too and just enjoyed them; my bro even got them packed for me to take to India. There are so many chaat stalls and awesome chaat. My sister in law finds all the vegetables there whichever she would get in Dehradun or Ahmedabad or Pune, so all those at one place.

No wonder my bro likes it there. I had lovely time with my nephew. It’s beautiful to see how kids express and pick up things from us. (There would be a separate blog for that).
So in all I would say Malaysia --- truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuly Asia, Dubai - truly Global.

P.S: For me global refers to countries I’ve visited so far :)

P.P.S: btw my return journey was awesome, got my tickets changed for Destination Pune instead of Mumbai, and for the first time I spread my legs(actually slept) the 2 seats besides me were empty in the flight, and on reaching India, for a change my best friend Puja was on time to pick me up (she is known for reaching late all the time..Ofcourse she has her valid excuses :)).