Lewis has a trial run to Dubai

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Helen Molloy

Lewis’ First Adventure to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates

As Lewis dreamed about his big world-wide adventure, the truth is, he felt a little bit scared about the journey he was about to embark upon. So his wise friends suggested that he should visit a different country a bit further away to start off with as a trial run. Lewis thought that that was a great idea!

He therefore decided to test the water out by visiting a place he’d never been to before, where the culture was completely different to anything he’d ever known before. Lewis was bound for the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E)! He’d heard from his friends that this was a really “cool” place to visit as it was a centre for business, tourism and trade. He just couldn’t wait to go and discover it…

Dubai at night

So, he left on Christmas Day (of all days!), to fly off to the Arabian sunshine. My goodness what a treat awaited him! Dubai was perhaps the most magnificent city he’d ever visited in his life. Everything was bigger, bolder, sparklier and cleaner than anything he’d ever seen before. This was clearly a city where people had money or that was certainly the impression that it wanted to create as all the Ferraris, Hummer Land Rovers and Porsches crawled or whizzed by! (The U.A.E is a very rich country as its oil reserves are ranked as the sixth largest in the world). At first Lewis thought that he must have landed in New York as some of the sky-scrapers even looked like New York sky-scrapers! (See the photo below of the twin “Chrysler-copy” towers).

The copy-cat Chrysler Towers

Like New York, Dubai also had lots and lots of yellow taxis darting around that you could flag down quite easily on the street but they were much cheaper than taxis prices back in Britain or America.

However, unlike America, Dubai definitely had a sense of being an Islamic country as Lewis heard the call to prayer – the adhan – from a mosque early one morning. (The main mosque in Dubai is called the Jumeirah Mosque which is intricately designed and stunning when lit up at night).

The stunning Jumeirah Mosque lit up at night

Then there is also the traditional dress. Emirati men wear a long white shirt-dress called a dishdasha or a casual shirt-dress called a kandoura, along with a red and whited checkered headscarf called a gutra. (The headscarf depicts which Emirati state the person comes from. There are seven Emirate States altogether). For women, they wear a full-length black robe known as an abeyya, and a black headscarf known as a shayla.

Some of the Sheikhs or Leaders of the U.A.E.

In the foyer of the hotel where Lewis was staying were two silver statues of sheikhs or leaders, one of which was holding a falcon: the national emblem of the United Arab Emirates. The Sheikh of the State of Dubai is called Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and not only is he one of the richest men in the world, but he was very influential in the construction of some of the famous landmarks in Dubai, notably the Burj al-Arab (the world’s only 7-star hotel), the Palm Jumeirah (an island created in the shape of a palm tree) and the Burj Khalifa (the tallest free-standing building in the world).

The Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building

Lewis the Lion was enthralled one evening as he craned his neck to look up at the twinkling lights of the enormous skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, while in front of it there was an amazing synchronised fountain display which moved in time to some beautiful music.

However, the best night of Lewis the Lion’s trip to Dubai had to be the night when he took part in a desert safari! When he arrived in the middle of the desert, he discovered that there were lots of other tourists just like him from all over the world. He met people from Romania, Pakistan, the UK and naturally, the United Arab Emirates. (In fact, generally Lewis noticed that Dubai is a real melting-pot of cultures as three-quaters of the population are foreigners). The first thing that Lewis did was go dune-bashing in a big 4×4 wheel drive. In the car he got bounced around and thrown from side to side as the driver tried to make the ride as scary as possible. It almost felt like he was in a waltzer car at the fairground! Luckily, Lewis was wearing his seat belt but he did scream loudly at times and he had to close his eyes when he thought they were going to hit a tree or another 4×4!

The driver driving one-handed over the undulating dunes – yikes!

Click here to see the bumpy 4×4 car journey.

Some tourists were having camel rides. Lewis didn’t trust camels – they always seemed to have mind of their own! Rather, he waited with his travel companion, Helen, as she went quad-biking. (Lewis was too little to drive it himself!).

Helen goes quadbiking

However, as he laughed as Helen couldn’t control the quadbike to start off with, he then watched on as he felt the soft breeze on his golden mane and saw the sun setting across the desert. What a magnificent sight as the sky was filled with a burst of colours: pinks, ochres and blues before the night sky quickly closed in. Lewis shivered. It was funny how cold it was in the desert. Lewis didn’t realise that could happen. He had thought that the desert was always a hot place but at night time it was decidedly cold! He then realised that he would have to pack some warm clothes as well for his world-wide adventure.

The desert at dusk

As it was now dusk, he then enjoyed some Dubai entertainment: a dancer who kept spinning and spinning, followed by a belly-dancer (see the video clip). Lewis also admired the dexterity of the Heena artist as she quickly created works of art on people’s hands. There were also traditional Emirati selling bottles which contained pictures made of sand and a falconer. Lewis was scared of the falcon as it was at least three times his size and he didn’t want it to think that he was its prey!

Lewis keeps a safe distance from the falcon

When it was time to eat, there were two separate queues: one for the men and one for the women. Lewis was pleased he was with Helen on this occasion as the women’s queue seemed to go much quicker than the men’s! The barbecue was simply delicious. There was a range of salads, pitta bread, houmous and lentils along with a range of barbecued meats: chicken thighs and lamb kebabs. Needless to say, there was no pork as the U.A.E. is a Muslim country although Lewis noticed that tourists could still buy pork in the supermarket in a well-divided off section clearly labelled with big writing: Pork – for non-muslims.

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All in all, Lewis simply loved Dubai and hoped that one day he would get the chance to go back for there were so many things that he still wanted to investigate, e.g. Skiing in the desert, visiting the “World-Islands” and visiting more of the souks (Arabian markets). Maybe one day, he would even have enough money to stay in the Burj al-Arab? Who knows…!

Here are some more pictures of Lewis enjoying himself in Dubai. Don’t forget to click on the Country page to find out some facts about the United Arab Emirates and on the Lewis Loves Languages page to learn some Arabic: the language spoken in the United Arab Emirates and generally throughout the Middle East.

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