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There’s cruising and there’s cruising.
Tonight I am looking up at the stars from the top deck of a Dhow.
It’s January, I am in shirt sleeves, the evening air is warm, the wine is perfect and the food sublime.
The traffic on the creek is on a par with Venice, you need eyes in the back of your head as hundreds of vessels, mainly abras (bus boat made of wood), frantically criss-cross.
This is modern day Dubai, we are on the Shark boat, a traditional Arabian sailing vessel and we are making our way through the middle of this amazing state by water.
Unlike Dhows that arrive in Dubai full of wares from parts of the far east, this one is full of people enjoying the night, and we cruise for two hours, amid the bright lights and bustle of the waterway.
It is a great way to see one of the seven Emirates that are proving ever more a magnetic attraction for Brits.
Look either side of our craft and you see amazing skyscrapers – to my right is our starting off point earlier in the day, the amazing structure that is the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.
It is three times taller than the Eiffel Tower at a staggering half mile high. Your ears pop several times as you soar to the viewing platform on the 124th floor.
It is the view to beat all views, and it didn’t come cheap at a staggering cost of 1.5 billion dollars when it was completed in January last year.
If you want to reach for heaven then this is the place to do it, but it is the strangest of feelings stepping on to the outside platform at the top, it’s no place for the faint hearted and made me nervous.
Dubai is an amazing place, its malls are enough to test the resolution of even the most ardent shopper. We spent two hours sifting mainly through gold shops – it was like wading through treacle. Gold is king in Dubai . . . you can even get it from vending machines.
Relief comes in the way of afternoon tea at the seven star Burj Al Arab hotel, set on the Jumeirah beach. It kicks off with champagne and then a five course beano, again the action is hundreds of metres high in the sky. It puts us back around £70 each to dine in splendour – a stay in the magnificent hotel, though, costs thousands of pounds a night.
Yes we had an amazing but frantic DAY in Dubai, where traffic can be horrendous but a 13 mile taxi journey – bearing in mind petrol is around 22p a litre – will set you back less than £7.
We were actually on a seven night Royal Caribbean cruise, which eased through Fujairah, Muscat (in Oman) and Abu Dhabi before returning to Dubai for an overnight stay on board.
It all kicked off days earlier, with perfect planning that allowed us six hours in Dubai before boarding our ship after flying in with Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow.
Flights to the mid east tend to go overnight . . . and to hit the ground running when you arrive at 8am means you need to be prepared.
We’d never flown first class before, and from Virgin’s Upper Class Clubhouse at Heathrow, where massages, haircuts and top class food and drinks comes as part of the service, to the minute we touched down, it was perfect.
Once on the plane, everything is truly first class. Some people watched movies, read or ate.
For me, the seat that allows conversion into a bed was sublime and I slept for several hours beneath pristine sheets – I was even offered pyjamas for comfort.
It meant we were fresh as daisies when we arrived and headed straight fromthe airport on a four hour sample tour of Dubai, which gave us our bearings for whenwe returnedaweek later.
Cruises are all about planning, and utilising the limited time you have in port. We loved our ship, the Brilliance of the Seas, and can barely remember it stirring in the calmest of waters.
There were 40 different nationalities on the vessel, but more than 800 from the UK, which probably explained why sunbeds often had only a towel for company.
Ironically, in a region where it only rains five times a year, it poured down as we headed through the straits of Hormuz, by which time we had wangled an audience with the captain on the bridge so didn’t care very much.
The Emirates is a truly wonderful experience and while the area is dominated by vast acres of desert, it was with great irony that one of the best ways to see them, arguably, is via sea . . .
For more on Fujairah, Abu Dhabi and Muscat and this cruise go to www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/Lifestyle-and-leisure/Travel/A-brief-chronicle-of-a-mid-east-cruise.htm
InfoStation
For more information about Dubai call Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing on 020 7321 6110 or visit www.definitely dubai.com Dhow dinner cruises are from £35 per person. For bookings with Arabian Explorers email info@arabianexplorers.ae or visit www.arabian-explorers.com For details of flights to Dubai from Heathrow and other UK airports with Virgin Atlantic go to www.virgin-atlantic.com and for information on Brilliance of the Seas and seven night mid-east cruises check out www.royalcaribbean.co.uk Try Frommer’s Dubai (2nd Edition) guidebook, www.frommers.com, £13.99 from book retailers for advice.
