[Amrik Singh]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Their history seems to be from humble origins and it could really be the discovery of oil that changed the fate of these Arab nations - but then again, the progress afterwards is also unbelievable.

History, unfortunately is not too respectable. They used to be bandits, looting pilgrims travelling to perform Haj. So the pilgrims dwindled and feared travelling. Then these bandits changed their operation to charging money for safe travel through the area they dominated and hand over to the next group. This way they organized their own territory and reined over it.
During WW1, battles were fought in the region of Persia - Basra. Even Indian Army was deployed here and we have folklore of this. As the Oil was discovered in the region, British developed the region in full recognition and cooperation of the Local Arab Rulers (surprisingly). UAE was given full independence in 1971. Indian Rupee was the currency traded in the region.
As most of the trade was with Iran, just across the gulf, most of the traders are of Iran origin.

[abhi_tjet]

Wonderful travelogue Crazy Driver. Dubai is all about glitz and beauty. Thanks for the beautiful captures, especially of the cars in museum.

Regarding missing the Dubai frame, I can bet you missed nothing. I visited Dubai during Christmas 2019. Booking the slot online didn't helped much since it was too much rush. All I remember is waiting in queue to go up and within 5 seconds waiting in queue again for coming down.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

But at the same time, I must admit I found all of Dubai to much artificial to my liking.

We always enjoy finding out about the history of the places we visit. Look at some of the old historical places. But not to offend anybody, places like Dubai as somewhat limited in that respect. A lot of its history took part in tents and dessert. I’m oversimplifying, no disrespect, but from that point of view it just did not have much to offer, really.

I am glad I went and I had a good time. Since I have been several more times, purely on business. And it is a good place to stay. Very safe, everything is very well organised etc. So very convenient.

Lots of Indians about, both on holiday/break as well as Indian living and working there. I did the harbour tour as well. A boat full of tourist. People were talking to one another, where are you from, where are you staying.

As it turns out everybody was Indian and so was the crew!

You stole my exact words and hence I quoted all that part! I never felt like I am out in some other country for vacation. No problem seeing lots of Indians and other border country people there. Problem was - 'they were the only people to be seen'. No Dubai natives were seen. Even if they were seen, it was very rare and only at some specific places.

Its a proper developed city with safety and infrastructure to die for but everything was just touristy and artificial.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by abhi_tjet

Problem was - 'they were the only people to be seen'. No Dubai natives were seen. Even if they were seen, it was very rare and only at some specific places.

The only Emirati you have to interact with - are the ones manning the immigration counters.

[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

The only Emirati you have to interact with - are the ones manning the immigration counters.

Lol, how did I missed mentioning this? They were the only ones and few in old Dubai area near Dubai creek.

[crazybiker46]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Day 2 - Part 1: Early morning drive with a good old friend and BHPian crazybiker46

Simple pleasures in life - an unexpected early morning drive, meeting up with some bikers, drooling at awesome cars!

When in Dubai, accelerate towards the roundabouts

Attachment 2003150

Finally the post is up after a few months!!

I'm glad that you enjoyed the morning and thankfully it was a friday, it was my pleasure to share such an experience with a fellow enthusiast. Even this was a welcome change for me as usually whenever friends visit, i end up taking them to the usual tourist destinations and boring shopping trips.

Ha ha , good observation about roundabouts, i was just demonstrating the handling capabilities of the car

Bikers and Jeepers galore!

This is quite the morning scene at this petrol station every Friday, during winters there will at least 200+ bikes and cars & jeepers meeting there

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Day 2 - Part 2 (contd): Checking out Dubai Drives Meet & Greet at Car Vault.

The car meet being an early morning one didn't attract the usual rice gang and hence it was a proper enthusiast car meet. The only car you missed at Car Vault was the exclusive Bugatti Chiron, i think they removed it due to the crowd

Fifth-generation (R34) Skyline GT-R. Drool!

The R34 GT-R belongs to a friend of mine, too bad he picked up my call only after we left, otherwise i could have arranged a short spin with car

Pure awe! The hardcore Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

Hope you remember the story about this car and how the GT3RS owner recognized me at the meet from a weekend drive to Jebel Jais almost a year back, while i had no clue that it was the same guy.

The 997 GT3 RS with 3 hot hatches Golf GTi, Focus ST & Megane RS at Jebel Jais

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

The only Emirati you have to interact with - are the ones manning the immigration counters.

And they are all 2.10m tall and look identical. It is really, really weird!

[NPV]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

What was your itinerary like? Any other places worth noting down for a future visit?

I had posted about places we visited in this earlier post (UAE / Dubai Holiday)

From what I can recall, some places you didn't visit and we did were the Miracle Garden, The Frame, Dubai Museum, walk around old Dubai including Gold Souk, visit to Marina Mall and the Marina, the Dubai water canal and of course Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, had a day earmarked for this

Basically we did a wider assortment of places since it was with family and everyone had one or more places as must-visits. Probably the next trip will be very different.

[kamilharis]

Sweet travelogue Sujai! I had never visited Dubai but had passed through AbuDhabi & Sharjah airports a number of times. Beauty of the city can be witnessed from the sky scenes itself. I had plans to visit Dubai from Saudi by road but now I have no idea when that will happen again.

Pay a visit to Saudi too later.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by crazybiker46

Finally the post is up after a few months!!

Started composing back in May! Though I'm not good with travelogues.

Originally Posted by crazybiker46

I'm glad that you enjoyed the morning and thankfully it was a friday

True. I had forgotten that aspect later when we planned - the whole Dubai Mall experience could have been kept for another less crowded day.

Originally Posted by crazybiker46

Hope you remember the story about this car and how the GT3RS owner recognized me at the meet from a weekend drive to Jebel Jais almost a year back, while i had no clue that it was the same guy.

The 997 GT3 RS with 3 hot hatches Golf GTi, Focus ST & Megane RS at Jebel Jais

Now he will recognize you as a fellow Porsche owner. Anyways since you have logged in - start typing those ownership reports.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

And they are all 2.10m tall and look identical. It is really, really weird!

Haha! True. Since we landed on a weekday, the process was extremely smooth though!

Originally Posted by NPV

From what I can recall, some places you didn't visit and we did were the Miracle Garden, The Frame, Dubai Museum, walk around old Dubai including Gold Souk, visit to Marina Mall and the Marina, the Dubai water canal and of course Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, had a day earmarked for this

Nice. I had to choose between a canal cruise and Marina boat tour. Didn't see excellent reviews for the dinner on the Dhow - hence went ahead with the Marine ride. Abu Dhabi - surely another day if God permits.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

But at the same time, I must admit I found all of Dubai to much artificial to my liking.

We always enjoy finding out about the history of the places we visit. Look at some of the old historical places. But not to offend anybody, places like Dubai as somewhat limited in that respect. A lot of its history took part in tents and dessert. I’m oversimplifying, no disrespect, but from that point of view it just did not have much to offer, really.

100% agree with you. Spent several months working there for an assignment, I found both cities (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) very fake! It's like they were portraying very hard to be something they weren't, trying to make it appealing to multiple segments of people from across the world.

Singapore was another city that kinda fitted that same 'fake' setup but it did a much better job overall.

Honestly, I find it a bit amusing for the majority of Indians who go there for tourism (no offense to anyone particular), considering the amazing choice of much better locations all around India than UAE. There's a set of jokes by Russell Peters on this aspect exactly. On the other hand, work-reasons, yes, the cities probably make sense.

[TheGearBox]

I had visited with family Dubai in December 2018. While the trip was good overall, it was quite so-so for me on the car-spotting front. I was really hoping to see a Bugatti on the road but alas, no luck. The closest I came was a Veyron flanked by a Mercedes AMG 6x6 and a McLaren 720s in a showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road, that too while passing by in a bus. On the other side there was a Koenigsegg showroom and I just got a glimpse of what might have been a CCX, not sure.
Didn't you visit this road? It is lined with car showrooms on both sides and would make for great window shopping.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by kamilharis

Sweet travelogue Sujai! I had never visited Dubai but had passed through AbuDhabi & Sharjah airports a number of times. Beauty of the city can be witnessed from the sky scenes itself. I had plans to visit Dubai from Saudi by road but now I have no idea when that will happen again.

Pay a visit to Saudi too later.

Thanks. Absolutely will visit the other states at some point too - though probably the next international visit (if and when it happens) may be to the east!

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

100% agree with you. Spent several months working there for an assignment, I found both cities (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) very fake! It's like they were portraying very hard to be something they weren't, trying to make it appealing to multiple segments of people from across the world.

Singapore was another city that kinda fitted that same 'fake' setup but it did a much better job overall.

Honestly, I find it a bit amusing for the majority of Indians who go there for tourism (no offense to anyone particular), considering the amazing choice of much better locations all around India than UAE. There's a set of jokes by Russell Peters on this aspect exactly. On the other hand, work-reasons, yes, the cities probably make sense.

Dubai is well and truly a 'fake' city - but that is an experience in itself. It is easy for people who were fortunate enough to travel a lot thanks to the nature of their work / wealth to condescend the decisions of the less fortunate who can't experience it without touristy travel!

Unfortunately, I hate the modern Russel Peter's show for this reason. He has moved on from good comedy to plain insensitive roasting of his audience with a good amount of bias thrown in.

[Dhar's]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

and finally

• Duphai / Gelf (ahem... Dubai/Gulf pronounced 'properly'!)

This got me glued in and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Brilliant write-up and beautiful photos.

I now crave for a holiday.....in Dubai.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Makes me wonder though - our beautiful country is blessed with an abundance of everything and all they had was a desert!

Very true!

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

It is easy for people who were fortunate enough to travel a lot thanks to their nature of work / wealth to condescend the decisions of the less fortunate who can't experience it with touristy travel!

On the contrary, it's far cheaper to travel to a host of other nations around us than UAE.

As for being fortunate workwise, I refused to go to Middle East after that. Always prefer to go somewhere worth traveling to. Although I was lucky (and unlucky - hardly got out of Kathmandu) to travel to Nepal next for another assignment. Although a relatively poor representation of good travel destinations as compared to other SE Asian countries, it's way better than UAE for tourism purposes. And way way cheaper. So is Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand (not talking only about Pattaya, Phuket and Bangkok), Laos, and so on...

Unfortunately, I hate the modern Russel Peter's show for this reason. He has moved on from good comedy to plain insensitive roasting of his audience with a good amount of bias thrown in.

LOL, agree. His jokes already were not for everyone. And his newer content is pretty sad.


Edit: apologies for the above OT conversation. No more posts on this matter from my side

[car love]

Lovely thread bro, thanks for that. Will be heading there in December if this Covid thing settles. By the way what watch are you wearing? Looks super