The Arab World Part 1: From Tbilisi to Dubai

On 10.11.21 we left our beloved Tbilisi and packed our bicycles into a cardboard box and took a cab in the middle of the night to the airport for our onward journey to Dubai. Now you may be wondering why on earth anyone would get the idea to leave a culturally rich country like Georgia and fly to Dubai, the most artificial world you can imagine. And that’s indeed a good question.

Under other circumstances, we probably wouldn't have ended up here, Dubai being a destination that never appealed to either of us. Our original plan was to stay in the Caucasus until December and then travel to Switzerland for a visit over Christmas, but suddenly the borders opened to Oman and even Iran, offering us new opportunities. Since we still wanted to travel to Switzerland over the Christmas holidays, the time frame for an overland trip through Iran became too short, as we would like to stay longer in Iran and travel as little as possible by public transportations. So we decided to postpone Iran for a while and instead travel to Oman first and the most convenient flight option was taking a direct flight to Dubai. And after almost missing our flight and a sleepless night, we land in Dubai and a futuristic skyline and numerous artificial islands in the sea appear under the clouds. We see glass towers and multi-lane highways everywhere and can hardly imagine that only 20,000 people lived here in the 1930s. We meet our friend Dave from Switzerland, who immediately helps us to mount our bicycles. Still very tired, we squint into the warming morning sun and we cycle the remaining 10 km along a big road and arrive in the historic part of Dubai: Bur Dubai.

Neon temples, noisy abras and delicious Indian food

Our first impression of Dubai (3.4 million inhabitants) has nothing to do with the usual pictures of Dubai. We don't see any modern skyscrapers, no shopping malls and end up in Little Asia instead. From our wonderful boutique hotel (very recommendable if you’re looking for something different in Dubai: https://mazmi.me) we look directly onto the Dubai Creek, an inlet of the Persian Gulf. The Creek divides the city's older neighborhoods of Bur Dubai and Deira. The creek that we know today was constructed in 1961, although it has been the lifeline of the area for centuries, serving as Dubai's main connection to the rest of the world. This is where the city was founded as the water and the trade routes connected with it have always played an important role. Even before the discovery of black gold, Dubai was an important trading center in the Gulf region and the city experienced an enormous economic boom during the 19th century due to pearl fishing. A new rule granted tax exemption for expatriates and this led to a huge influx in the number of foreign workers entering the city from India or Pakistan.

However, the invention of artificial pearls in Japan ended this expansion and the trade collapsed. Magnificent houses in the old quarter still tell of the wealth of that time. Dubai Creek was also an important transshipment point for spices, textiles and gold, and today many workers from Asia make the district probably one of the most authentic places left in the city.

The many traditional wooden water cabs, called abras, cross the Creek and provide a constant soundscape even at night and we somehow try to arrive in this new world.

We stroll through the traditional Spice Souk and inhale the smell of cardamom, saffron, cinnamon and dried lemons. For decades, people have been trading here in Hindi, Farsi, Urdu and with us, of course, in English or German. Even the vendors, who have seen us with our bicycles, try to sell us carpets all the time and can't quite understand why we have no need for them. But of course, we become weak anyway and buy some completely overpriced spices.

We sit down on the bank of the creek and enjoy cheap Indian street food and a chai (Indian spice tea) and then walk through the Textile Souk. Merchants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and India sell the most beautiful fabrics here and in the middle of it all is a Shiva temple. We take off our shoes and follow the stream of people along narrow alleys into the temple, which with its neon lighting and loud music does not create a spiritual atmosphere at all. We take another exit out and are handed a milkshake with rose water. We look at each other and we both feel the same - somehow we are totally overwhelmed to be so suddenly in Asia. We are no longer used to being transported that quickly from one culture to the next, although we used to fly regularly before this trip. But now it was suddenly too fast for us, since we only visited two countries in the last 12 months, Turkey and Georgia, and got to know them intensively. At the same time, it is totally exciting to now suddenly be on the Arabian Peninsula, in this megacity where we never wanted to be.

Glimpse into a not so ancient past

To learn more about traditional Dubai, we head to the Al Bastakiya District, better known as the Al Fahidi Cultural and Historical District, which resembles an open-air museum with its restored houses. We take a cultural tour organized by the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding and learn more about the district.

Especially striking are the chimney-like, four-sided structures with openings that rise from the rooftops and why these may look like architectural flourish, they’re much more: Those wind towers, called badgir, are the ancestors of A/C units. They are designed to capture the wind and the architecture is adapted from Iran. They have partitioned openings on all four sides, a roof, and a wind shaft to allow the hot air of the interiors to escape from the vents while capturing the cooler air and directing it through the channel in the interiors. This system cooled down the house about 6° degrees Celsius and in our opinion it’s the most beautiful way to beat the heat, just look at that architecture.

The rich merchant families lived in magnificent mansions built of mud, shells and corals. The less well off families lived in houses made of palm leaves, which also provided plenty of air supply. They built with the available material and adapted to the dry hot desert climate. Much more ecological and sensible than today's construction in Dubai, which is not sustainable at all.

Welcome to the Land of Tomorrow: An Emirate of Superlatives

After we had dedicated ourselves to the historical Dubai, it was time to get to know the modern face of the city. The Dubai that you know from advertising brochures. The Dubai with the highest Ferris wheel, the tallest building in the world (probably replaced soon by the Creek Tower, that is even taller), the fastest elevator, the largest ice rink and of course the largest mall (the list can be extended at will, just put a few superlatives together with nouns). Since Dubai lacks historical or scenic highlights, the emirate is fully focused on consumption and shopping seems to be one of the main activities.

We buy a metro card and take a ride across the city. And this probably doesn’t come as a surprise, but the metro holds the record in operation for the longest fully automated subway network in the world. A train ride only costs around USD 0.50 and fortunately, it often runs above ground and thus allows us a view of the impressive skyline. Next to us runs the multilane Sheikh Zayed Road and everything is designed to keep you indoors as much as possible and otherwise in air-conditioned rooms.

It’s hard to imagine that all this was built only a few years ago and that there is still a generation of Emiratis who knew Dubai when sand and desert still ruled here. Hardly any other city worldwide has developed as rapidly as Dubai. In the past, people lived from fishing, trade and pearl diving, until 1966 when everything changed with the discovery of oil. Dubai became a modern port city and trading center and numerous daring construction projects did not always make only positive headlines. In only 50 years Dubai grew explosively and buildings like the 7-star hotel Burj Al Arab, the artificial island Palm Jumeirah or the Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest building in the world, were built. Since 2006, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has ruled the emirate of Dubai and he has invested a lot to transform the city from a small cluster of settlements in the middle of the desert to a modern, innovative and super-rich destination that attracts tourists and businesses alike.

Living and working in Dubai

Overall, only 10% Emiratis live in Dubai, the rest of the population comes from all kinds of countries and the jobs are clearly distributed: The women from Southeast Asia work as nannies and maids, the men from India or Pakistan often run businesses or work on the numerous construction projects, and the Western Europeans are drawn here to lucrative jobs and live in gated communities in villas with pools and toast their new lives at the popular Friday brunch in the luxury hotels. You can find many articles and documentaries online about the poor conditions in which migrant workers have to live in the Emirates, and the pandemic-related closure of many businesses in the region has hit low-income migrant workers particularly hard. Yet it is precisely these migrant workers who have transformed the Arab Emirates into booming economic centers.

People don't like to talk about the dark side of the glittering world, and influencers who move to Dubai have to obtain a license and commit themselves to representing the emirate only in a positive light. Clearly desired are visitors who consume and celebrate without criticism and business people who put the business in the center and do not ask annoying questions. We read a lot about this, but since we were only in Dubai for a few days, it was of course not possible for us to get a deeper insight. However, we saw very few Emiratis and even in the big shopping malls the children were often accompanied by their nannies from the Philippines and not their parents. The Emiratis seem to lead a completely private life and in most public places the people we see are from Asia, Africa or Europe.

In the evening we stand in front of the Burj Khalifa, which rises 828 meters into the sky, a masterpiece of engineering with two viewing platforms on the 123rd and 148th floor. We are content with the view from below and watch the dancing fountains in front of the Burj Khalifa. Synchronized and matching the music, the fountains (of course the world’s largest performing fountain) shoot up into the air and thrill the audience night after night. We watch the famous water fountain show next to people from all over the globe, who stand here peacefully and share the experience with their families on the other side of the world via Facetime. We’ve been in such a multicultural city and are always amazed at how friendly everyone is. But are those who come here truly happy? The migrant workers far away from their families, working without benefits at starvation wages are certainly not. But even the expats from Europe we meet seem to be here only to earn good money in a short time and then to fulfill their real dreams, far away from the Emirates.

We take the monorail out to the artificial island of Palm Jumeirah to the famous luxury hotel, which bears the visionary name Atlantis, as in the future the climate-induced rising sea level threatens to flood the numerous artificial island projects of the Emirate. We sit down on the stones and try to watch the sunset in peace, which is not so easy, as jet skis roar in front of us and drone taxis fly above us. Brave new world.

Cycling through Dubai

After three nights in our hotel by the Creek, we can’t wait to visit our friend Dave (https://www.facebook.com/dave.muhlemann). He cycled all the way from Switzerland to China and is currently working at the Swiss Pavilion at the Expo 2020. He generously offered us to stay at his place and visit the Expo with him (thanks again!). In advance, he mentioned that unfortunately we can’t take the bikes in the metro. But that didn't matter to us, we wanted to ride our bikes through the city to the Expo grounds anyway. We thought that this wouldn’t be that difficult. But it meant riding 60 km through a city that is only designed for cars. It was going to be a pretty exhausting day that would cost us quite a few nerves.

But we start in good spirits and want to do a little sightseeing on the way. We plan a route along to the design district Alserkal Avenue. Once an industrial area in the center of Dubai, the Alserkal Avenue now comprises around 40 warehouses, converted into galleries, artisanal cafés, boutiques and more. And even though it all reminds one of similar spaces in Europe, it is clearly located in Dubai and therefore one can see luxurious cars driving between the art galleries and not that many pedestrians. Nevertheless, it’s refreshing to see something different than luxury stores and shopping malls in Dubai for a change.

After a short stop in the Dubai Marina with its glittering skyscrapers, we enter the highway as there is no other way to get to the Expo site. A policeman warns us that we will have to pay a huge fine next time, as bicycles are not allowed on the highway. Only a couple of meters further, another police officer stops us and points out that we are only allowed to ride our bicycles when wearing an orange safety vest and he even gives us tips on where we can buy such a stylish piece of fashion. Completely exhausted, we finally reach the residential area, the Expo Village, where Dave lives with his roommate Damian for half a year.

A residential area has been built here with modern, spacious apartments, swimming pools and fitness centers for the Expo employees. Only the infrastructure is still a bit lacking, but every week a new store opens and of course there is also a brand-new metro station that opened just for the Expo. After the end of the Expo, the site will transform into District 2020, a new city district. The playgrounds and public parks are already in place.

Two days at the Expo 2020 in 2021

With Dave, we immediately have the ideal tour guide for the Expo 2020 World's Fair. Dubai's government has spent an estimated $7bn and it's the largest event worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic and all visitors must be either vaccinated or tested. A total of 25 million visitors are expected to attend, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) wants to present itself in the best possible light and boost tourism. Until the end of March, 192 nations will present their innovative ideas in a variety of creative ways, with only two countries missing: North Korea and Lichtenstein. Was Lichtenstein simply passed over? We study the map of the pavilions and the names of the participating countries and come across "The Holy See", oh yes, that would be the Vatican, which is also participating.

The 483-hectare site (twice the size of Monaco) serves as the stage for the mega-show, which is divided into the thematic areas of Sustainability, Mobility & Opportunity. But the whole thing is only really sustainable on the surface, for example when you stroll along the vertical gardens in the Singapore pavilion, by far the greenest pavilion at the Expo. There are “doctor” robots that traverse the green walls to monitor the health of the plants with their cameras and sensors to check humidity and oxygen levels. It’s one of the few pavilions that did not use air-conditioning in any of its public spaces. Instead, throughout natural ventilation, deep shade, and strategically scattered dry mist fans help to fight the desert hot temperature.

Other robots at the Expo, in turn, deliver food or inform visitors about the mandatory mask policy. Promises of sustainability and consumerist gigantism seem to collide at the Expo.

Of course, we also visit the Swiss Pavilion right at the beginning, which was built for 16.5 million Swiss francs. The red carpet is rolled out for visitors and you walk up to a mountain panorama through real fog, which is a nice experience. But the next room is only dedicated to Schindler, one of the main sponsors. Unfortunately, we don't really take much with us from this visit, even though we get very excited to see our first Sprüngli store in months. The shots of the famous Swiss fog will follow in our video about the Arab Emirates.

We visit one pavilion after the other and they could not be more different. Countries with a small budget exhibit only a few pieces from the local history museum and hang up a map in a booth inside shared facilities, while the host nation UAE represents itself with the biggest pavilion, a magnificent building in the shape of a white falcon, designed by Calatrava. The Pavilion’s most spectacular element is its roof, composed of 28 movable carbon fiber "wings" that make the building feel “alive” as they continuously open and close in a synchronised series of graceful swings. On the first floor, heaps of sand have been brought from the desert and projections on it retell the history of the United Arab Emirates. In the pavilion of Saudi Arabia, an escalator runs along a kitschy representation of an old city and shortly after we are amazed by a giant multi-faceted 30-metre diameter globe and an interactive floor.

In Morocco we are amazed by the beautiful wooden design and in the Netherlands by the cone-shaped farm that creates its own microclimate. It’s a harvesting machine with over 9’000 edible plants and oyster mushrooms. School classes walk between us, eagerly following the teacher's explanations, and visitors put up with long waits to visit the most popular and spectacular pavilions. We take a deep breath and catch our breath, because the Expo is a place of sensory overload, with many films that often serve the tourist clichés and glorify their own country.

It was interesting to visit all the different pavilions and indulge in this complete sensory overload. Thanks to our friend Dave we learned a lot of background info and got some valuable tips. We are grateful, that we had the opportunity to visit the Expo, as we would probably never have come here without Dave. We wonder if this world exhibition is still contemporary at all and not just more appearance than substance. The motto of the Expo 2020 is "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future". But if we’ve seen a desirable future here remains questionable.

Goodbye glitter world

After two days we are completely overwhelmed by all the impressions and realize that you would need several days to visit the Expo in detail and try all the delicious international dishes. For us, it was just too much of a change from Georgia right into the middle of the UAE and we long to get back on our bikes and to process all our experiences with every pedal stroke and, most of all, we look forward to the tranquility of Oman. Dubai’s a strange place indeed and we can’t quite understand why people would choose to spend their vacation here in luxury hotels year after year. Sure, there’s guaranteed sunshine, good service and beaches (with the occasional construction site), but that can also be found in many other places and in addition much more authentic and affordable. Dubai doesn’t convince us at all, but we guessed that before. Nonetheless, it’s fascinating to see it once during a stopover on the way to a more intriguing place (such as Oman!!!). And now we are curious to find out what you think of Dubai and would be happy to read your mails and comments.

After 10 days in the artificial world of Dubai we leave the Arab Emirates and cycle along big highways in the direction of Musandam, where a completely different world will await us. Find out how we like it there in our next blog.