Dubai

Dubai is one of those places that has a very distinct reputation; you’re not going for the culture, the history or the scenery, you’re going for the shopping, the money and the ritzy hotels. I mean, what is there to actually do apart from ogle at the money splashed around? At least, that’s what I thought before I went.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find pockets of history; the museum and the covered markets in the old part of town. Of course, there are a huge number of flashy hotels and massive skyscrapers as well! It’s definitely an unusual place; the people are a rough mix of expats, young Arabs working in hospitality and recent graduates working in the city. Just 11% of the population are native to the country. Can you imagine the UK with just 11% of the population being British? It is crazy.

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I really loved the old town, where we got around via water taxi (as shown in the pictures) and I especially enjoyed Dubai Museum which is housed in the old fort. It is astonishing to think the fort was at one point the capitals main building for defence: a huge fixture on an otherwise empty landscape. Today it is not even the most notable building on that street- we actually walked past it and had to double back as it is surrounded by skyscrapers.

Dubai has undergone MASSIVE growth in the last century, with the population increasing from 3000 at the turn of the century to 2 million in 2013. As anybody who has been will tell you, building seems to be constantly ongoing with a development site every which way you turn. It was really bizarre to think about what it must have been like to watch this huge modern city spring up around you in an otherwise very empty part of the desert. Have you been to Dubai, and if so, what did you think?

In The Desert

If you can cast your mind back to a couple of posts ago you may remember I was in Dubai briefly, where these photos were taken. Whilst in the desert we got caught in a sandstorm. I’ve never seen a sandstorm before and it was incredible. It looked like swirls of red cartoon smoke rising off the dunes, except very heavy smoke that moved more like a cloth in water.

We travelled through the dunes by camel, and later I tried quad bikes. Both were brilliant! I love camels; they’re very intelligent animals who always look like they’re smiling. They are also incredibly well adapted to survive in the desert; they can walk continuously for 18 hours and smell water from over 2km away. I was given this headscarf by our camel guide to stop the sand from destroying my face (sandstorms look cool but are quite painful). Between the headscarf and the fact that my camel seemed equally as taken with me as I was with him, the rest of our group kept joking about me having secret Bedouin roots.

The Bedouin seem a really interesting people despite the fact that the 20th century has seen huge changes to their culture. Traditionally the Bedouin love good deeds and followed a strict code of ethics in which everybody in the tribe needed to learn a craft (women trained alongside men). They are incredibly generous hosts, giving up their most prized possessions in order to be deemed hospitable. Despite the hardships desert life must bring there is something remarkable when you think about people living amongst the dunes, following the stars and trusting your camel to lead you to water.

P.S. If you’re thinking, “I thought she was pro-animal rights? What is she doing riding a camel?” then my thoughts have been previously documented here.

Dubai & Mauritius

I’m currently in Mauritius, a tiny island off the coast of Africa best known as a honeymoon destination. I’m not here for a holiday but sadly due to a family situation that is reaching crisis point. This trip was completely unplanned and last-minute, arising at the most inconvenient time in the way these things tend to. We had a few days stopover in Dubai (as you may have seen from this jubilant post) and I am now in Mauritius. Mauritius is one of my favourite places in the world and I’ve written a lot about it before.

Even given the present circumstances I’m grateful to be here in this beautiful country, although I feel very displaced right now. I had planned for September and October to be about recording, rooting myself in projects for the next couple months, writing round the clock and laying the foundations for next years work. Instead I’m a million miles away from home, trying to reschedule and mentally readjusting to effectively pausing my life for a bit. I feel like somebody’s taken over the reins for a bit and it’s pretty bizarre. If I don’t get much chance to blog in the next few weeks.. you know where I am, and I’ll try and share this incredible place on Instagram (@lailapictures) from time to time as well.