By: Rishaan Chowdhury
Dubai, United Arab Emirates is the capital of Arabia. It is an amazing city filled with vibrant engineering marvels, an exquisite culinary world, and unmatchable views. Additionally, Dubai has very unique experiences and is currently hosting Expo 2020. This article will explore the many things it has to offer, and how amazing Dubai is.
Dubai’s cuisine is exceptionally good. A wide array of Arabic food is available, some include vine leaves, grains stuffed inside a grape leaf and occasionally garnished with pomegranate seeds, grilled halloumi on lentils, halloumi cheese grilled to perfection on top of some lentils, hummus, a chickpea paste with many varieties, Arabic breads such as pita, and mezze. Mezze is a selection of small dishes that can include vine leaves, baba ghanoush which is a chopped eggplant salad, a variety of cheeses, and stuffed olives. In a lot of meals, a mezze platter is served as appetizer. Additionally, Indian food is also exquisite there. Chaat, an Indian snack, comes in many varieties. Dubai has amazing yogurt chaat, puffed dough filled with yogurt that is flavored with spices and tamarind. Dubai also has amazing Dosas, a Dosa is an Indian crepe, thin and crunchy and filled with potatoes or chicken. Moreover, Dubai eateries have incredible mocktails due to the limited availability of alcohol in an Islamic country. Creative mocktails are filled with vibrant ingredients such as passionfruit, dragon fruit, mint, and many others. That’s just one reason why Dubai is a place for all ages. But cuisine isn’t all what Dubai has to offer.
Dubai has completed many remarkable engineering feats such as the Palm Jumeirah. The Palm is a palm tree shaped island made completely in the middle of the ocean out of rock. Today it has several “palm leaves” filled with thriving restaurants, luxury resorts and residences. At the tip of the Palm, the resort Atlantis, The Palm proudly stands, overlooking the vast Arabian Gulf. The entire Palm is connected by road and monorail. The Palm Jumeirah has added 560 hectares of land and 48.8 miles of coastline to the existing 44.7 mile coastline. But Dubai doesn’t only build outwards, the entire skyline is full of humongous skyscrapers, one of which is the tallest in world. The Burj Khalifa is 2722ft tall, making it the tallest in the world. To access the many viewing galleries, you must enter through the Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world. Upon entry you take a 77 second elevator to the 124th floor and then a smaller slower elevator to the 148th. From there a regular speed elevator goes to the 154th floor, the highest a tourist can go. The top of the Burj offers a spectacular view of the city, the ocean, and a reasonable view of the Palm. Dubai’s buildings are architectural marvels, with designer holes, pure glass, and are unbelievably high. Yet Dubai offers even more!
Taking a safari out into the desert is a unique experience. A car drives you on the regular highway out of the city to a point in the endless desert that fills the UAE where it pulls over. Along the ride you slowly see the modern landscape of the city end and the older and eventually spartan desert emerge. There you disembark and board another vehicle that speeds over the sand dunes, giving the sensation that you’re flying! Occasionally the car may get stuck and can take a while to get unstuck. Then the car drops you off at a desert camp where you can ride a camel, ride a horse, ride a 4x4 quad bike in an area of the desert, and hike. Riding a camel is thrilling, first you jerk and feel like you’re going to fall off before being able to relax and enjoy the view, shortly after though, the camel’s descent is once again terrifying. Another thrilling experience is riding a 4x4 Quad Bike. These bikes are similar to ATV’s and for those who ride them for their first time, it is a thrilling experience. Upon starting the engine, the bike zooms forward, and all the air gets sucked out of you. Driving around a hill for the first time, the bike slides and you feel like you’re going to fall off, unless you use more speed. After riding a quad bike, a much calmer experience is walking. Walking through the sand is a uniquely wonderful experience. You feel the tan powder envelop your toes and can really understand the strength and substance of the sand. Passing one dune the whole landscape seems different, which is why people get lost so easily. Sitting in the sand is surprisingly clean, the powder does not stick to your bottom like beach sand does. The only flaw that the desert experience has is the repetitive moneymaking scheme. Everyone is trying to sell you stuff and bargaining is completely necessary. But on the other hand, it is very unique.
Another amazing experience in Dubai is the Expo. Expo 2020 is currently being hosted in Dubai until April tenth and is a very fun experience. An Expo is where every country sets up a pavilion about themselves, typically about a bigger topic such as sustainability. Some countries such as Peru had massive ones that are quite nice. Peru did an exceptional job, they have every room’s climate accustomed to the topic of the room, for example if you were in the room about a waterfall the climate would be cooler, and a machine lightly sprays water at you. Or if you were at a beach it would be warm and smell salty. All of these features are what makes Peru’s pavilion so nice. Serbia also did a great job, they have a very techy design, minimalistic and full of Serbian innovation. One of these techy things were a big screen showing a computer-generated face of a real man who lived in the stone age. By looking through a phone that they had placed you could make facial expressions that the man would repeat on the screen. Angola is a smaller country that also did a great job. Angola talks about how they will achieve their goal of carbon net zero by 2050. Angola is an oil rich country yet still is working hard to achieve sustainable goals. Many pavilions also have an exhibit about how they will accomplish the SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals) that the United Nations (UN) has created. Some SDGs’ include hunger abolishment, clean water, and social equality. The food at the Expo is also great, every country has a café of some sort. For example, Belgium’s pavilion has a chocolate shop while Peru’s has a Peruvian restaurant. All in all, the Expo 2020 is a fun, cultural, and iconic part of Dubai.
In conclusion Dubai is an amazing city filled with a vibrant mix of food, architectural wonders, and unmatchable experiences. From the Atlantis, The Palm to the Expo 2020, Dubai has lots to offer and is a well-worth place to visit.