18 January, 2008

"Dubai without the bling"

An interesting article..

"Dubai without the bling"
"It's difficult to get any less bling than walking out of your hotel, turning the corner and stumbling across 15 men slaughtering a cow.

The stricken beast lies on the floor, its throat cut, as the customers chugging away on their hookah pipes in the local cafe look on nonchalantly.

Deira, it's fair to say, is the part of Dubai that doesn't make the tourist brochures.

The wealthy Emirate has carefully crafted a reputation for ostentatious opulence. But, contrary to popular belief, there is more to it than seven star hotels, mega-skyscrapers and giant shopping malls."


read more HERE

12 comments:

rosh said...

"Deira, it's fair to say, is the part of Dubai that doesn't make the tourist brochures."

Nice.

Tourists brochures need Deira, 'cause most visit to experience the unknown, not more of what they have back home. Deira/Bur Dubai shall always be the soul of DXB. As a tourist - give 'em Arouj Damascus with Deira's ambience, not just Madinat Al Jumeriah or some ice rink at some mall.

Kyle said...

I guess it all depends on individual taste.

Our family and friends that were here last summer absolutely did not dig the artificial structures and malls, which try at best to be a fallback of malls that we have back home in the States.

They did visit the old souqs in Deira and Bur Dubai where we had ourselves a whale of a time shopping and picking up classy traditional stuff at bargain prices. You just can’t do that at malls what with their dull & artificial ambiance coupled with non-cheerful-lack-of-objectivity sales staff. It’s just the contrary at souqs where everybody is at your beck and call, and not only that, they make you feel at home even if it’s for a while.

The time we spent at Al-Qasr was another disaster while the dhow cruise and chow on board; now that was a divine experience!

To sum it all up, this label theme says it best. You just can’t beat old school, which is why I'd take old school any day and twice on Sunday. Okay, make that a Friday since Sunday's a Monday here :)

Dubai Jazz said...

What is 'bling'?

rosh said...

bling bling is slang for all sorts of excessive gaudy/tardy/flashy
jewelry & fashion (paus)

Dubai Jazz said...

Thanks Rush :)

i*maginate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dubai Jazz said...

sorry i*giant...oh no
sorry i*magnet...

crap, i can't pronounce names today...

i*maginate said...

kylie, this article was prob written by an aussie leftie!

Dubai Jazz - lol ;-)

secretdubai said...

I'm somewhat confused by the cow thing. I don't know where exactly the guy was staying, but that was surely a pretty freak sight.

Particularly as butchery in the UAE is carried out (supposedly) under very strict, hygienic and halal methods.

Kyle said...

I'm somewhat confused by the cow thing.

There could be only one explanation for the cow thing. The author may have visited Dubai during the Moslem feast of sacrifice!

this article was prob written by an aussie leftie!

What do you mean by leftie?

CG said...

SD
slaughtering is carried out anywhere here in the UAE. Even though there are 'strict'rules in place, old habits die hard. The front driveway is usually the easiest location as it is sloped, so hosing it down is a quick job.

Me thinks you guys need to visit my part of town......

i*maginate said...

*kylie, y3ni leftie = lefty = "left-wing"

aussies not known to be righties...;-)

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