A Whirlwind Tour Through the Middle East – The Soul of Dubai
“I have never seen a place with such little soul.”
This was a comment of a friend who visited Dubai last year. It was a provocative statement. When I heard it, I took a step back and probed my memory of Dubai. Was it a place of little soul?
After a lavish time in Abu Dhabi, I returned to Dubai, and with it came a reality check. Unlike the hotels of the paid tour, this time I was staying in a dormitory-type accommodation with three Chinese ladies. I considered it a privilege to be able to experience the reality of the Chinese workers’ life in Dubai.
The church rented these apartments to serve as dormitory for the Christian Chinese workers. One lady was in the express courier business, the other worked in a bank. Unfortunately, they had to work long hours and I did not have a good chat with them. The condition of the apartment was a stark reminder of my time at the poorly-maintained, rent-controlled college apartments at UC Berkeley. The bathroom was nearly atrocious. I was glad though that the bunk bed served its purpose and I slept well at night.
My father’s friend took us to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Perhaps the most significant difference between Chinese culture and Islamic culture is the Chinese people’s daily reliance on pork as a source of protein. The Chinese restaurants in Dubai either did not serve pork, or they had to apply for a special license in order to do so.
I think the soul of Dubai was in the Dubai Museum. The excellent exhibits showed the history of Dubai, its place in the UAE and its humble beginning. During the first half of the 20th century, Dubai traded in pearls. Its people harvested pearl in the Dubai Creek. Those were hard times, and the people of Dubai did not forget the days of poverty before they discovered oil in the 1960s. When they began trading oil, wealth poured in. One of the most brilliant decisions of the rulers of Dubai was to invest in education. The enormous wealth from the oil trade propelled the changeover of the city. It continued to develop into the very modern, sophisticated and business-oriented Dubai that we see today. Surely, much of this glory was man-made, and that explained why Dubai seemed to be a place of little soul.
The exhibits of the museum were very engaging. The descriptions were concise and the English was very good. The wax statues were beautiful. They presented a historical, authentic narrative that tourists would not be able to imagine having only seen the city in its present day.
Yet the oil trade might be coming to an end soon, as the oil reserves are drained now. Dubai is at a cross-road today. The people of Dubai are once again re-making the city to prepare for the days without oil. Tourism is one direction that the city is taking, and indeed many of the infrastructure, innovations and constructions are done with the intention to attract the top echelon of world tourists.
In the afternoon our tour guide led us through many of these sites of wonder, including the river boat ride, the largest man-made island in the world, the six-star hotel with its crisscrossing waterways, and finally the tallest building in the world.
I could hardly enjoy these wonderful sites though, because after lunch I got very sick. On this very last day in the Middle East, the best memory remained that of the Dubai Museum, where I met the soul of Dubai.
