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What to Buy in Dubai
(and What to See & Do)
By Kelly Watkins
www.KeepCustomers.com
www.LeadershipArabWomen.com
 On my recent vacation to a cosmopolitan city, I felt very
safe, and the taxi drivers spoke English. Where was I? Oh, just the
Middle East. Dubai to be
exact.
Now, before you freak out like my mother did when she
discovered that her only two children were going to a place that was about 1
millimeter from
Iran on the map, let me assure you that Dubai is currently the hottest vacation
spot on the planet. If you go in the summer, it is also literally hot, about
100 – 120 degrees. The humidity is steamy, but their air conditioning works
great.
What makes
Dubai hot, other than the temperature? It has everything. And,
everything is the biggest, best, or most.
Soon to be completed are the
world’s highest tower and the biggest shopping mall. It already has the only
seven-star hotel (Burj Al Arab - shaped liked a sailboat) and the eighth wonder
of the world (The Palm Islands). My unscientific observation is that Dubai also
has the longest rush hour traffic times (from 4:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.).
Dubai also has great shopping.
If you’re looking for upscale clothes, then Burjuman (Big Bus Tour - Stop #9) is
the destination for you. Dubai is considered the “new Paris,” and all the hot
designers are here.
If you’re a budget shopper and interested in bargains and
“genuine fake” items such as knockoff purses, watches and sunglasses, then try
the Al Karama area (Big Bus Tour - Stop #10).
In Al Karama, the shops are tiny. There aren’t even doors
– just two sheets of heavy clear plastic overlapping to keep the air
conditioning inside.
In the first two stores, the salesmen asked me, “Want to
go upstairs and see purses?” I look around the store. It’s not as big as my
bedroom closet. There is no stair case. I’m a little nervous.
At the third store, my curiosity wins. I answer
affirmatively to the “upstairs” question. The salesman walks to a wall of
shelves. I’m staring at him like he’s an idiot. Maybe he’ll pull out a magic
wand? Instead, he pulls on a section of the wall. Ah! It’s a small door on
hidden hinges. When opened outward, this door reveals a miniscule landing and a
set of stairs. Now, my mouth is hanging open, and I look like the idiot.
The stairs are so narrow you can barely put both feet side
by side. Every inch of wall space is lined with genuine fake purses.
What about the real stuff?
Dubai is famous for its Gold Souk
(Big Bus Tour - Stop #6), featuring 22 karat gold. There are hundreds of little
shops – all selling different gold designs.
At the Deira City Centre Mall you can buy a Big Bus Tour
pass, or your groceries for that matter. As I shopped, the Arab men (in white
robes) and women (in black robes), would occasionally give slightly disapproving
looks at anyone not similarly clad. It was never mean or harmful, but I did
feel a little uncomfortable. Of course, there were far more people not wearing
robes than those who did.
Leaving the mall with all my goodies turned out to be an
adventure. Imagine my dismay when I joined a taxi line that stretched down the
entire wing of the mall.
This taxi line looked like a UN meeting on a busy day.
There were representatives from dozens of countries. It was a melting pot of
beliefs - on everything from religion to clothing, as evidenced by the
scantily-clad, the heavily-clad, and everything in between.
Amid all this diversity, the people were co-existing with
peace and tolerance. (Is there a lesson to be learned there?) I was focused on
the differences among the group, until I saw something that proved the oneness
of the world. A boy started crying loudly. He was obviously lost.
The din from 200 people speaking 20 different languages
stopped instantly. The sea of cramped people parted, and the boy walked
forward. During his trek, no one said a word except to murmur concerned
comments to their companions. The crowded room stayed quiet long after the boy
arrived at the Security Guard.
Tears welled up in my eyes and threatened to leak out.
Forget the differences! Some issues are universal.
Despite my enthusiasm for shopping, there is lots more to
do in Dubai. How
about some snow skiing? No, I’m not delusional from the heat. The Mall of the
Emirates (Big Bus Tour - Stop #23) has an indoor ski slope.
What’s it like? My sister had the quote of the day. She
said, “It makes
Paoli Peaks look like Colorado.” (No disrespect to Paoli Peaks [located in the
hills of Southern Indiana] intended.) On the positive side, there wasn’t a line
at the lift.
After spending a few days in the lush green areas of the
city, it’s easy to forget you’re in the desert. I took a tour into the
countryside. Trust me, I was immediately reminded that I was in the desert.
There were even camel crossing signs along the road.
About 70 miles from
Dubai is the small town of Hatta.
It contains the Hatta Heritage Village, an authentic restoration of a fortress
originally built in 1896.
I could’ve spent hours there
looking at the displays and reading the signs (in English, thank you!). I wish
my tour guide would’ve shared some additional information.
But, he didn’t say 10 words during the entire seven-hour trip.
He was with a well-advertised tour company. So, I learned
an important lesson. Next time, I’ll use the services of Mr. G. V. Panicker,
President & CEO of Sears Tours, who has vast experience in
Dubai.
Another fun activity is eating. The food is as diverse as
the people. I stayed at the JW Marriott, and the hotel has 12 restaurants. The
chefs at the JW Marriott defined the concept of “new Arabian cuisine” and even
wrote a cookbook about it.
I have a copy on my coffee table. It makes me hungry just looking
at it.
If you want to stay at the JW Marriott and be close to all
that wonderful food, Cleo Eleazar, Public Relations & Marketing Communications
Manager, Marriott Dubai Cluster, offers some “secret” advice. Special discount
rates (up to 50% off) are often available from June 15 to August 31.
If I described
Dubai in one word it would be -
diverse. Nowhere else in the world can you visit one place and see so many
different cultures. Although the activities were great, the best part was
observing the people.
If You Go
Sears Tours:
www.searstours.com
(Offices in Dubai and Louisville 502.472.6888. They can assist with all aspects
of your trip.)
JW Marriott:
www.marriott.com
Events by JW:
www.jwmarriottdubai.com
(The events planning arm of the Marriott. See them if you’re getting married or
planning a corporate event. The hotel has the largest hydraulic lift stage in
Dubai – for your company shindig, hopefully not necessary for your wedding
party.)
The Big Bus Company:
www.bigbustours.com
(At the main entrance of Deira City Centre Mall. Tickets are $42 per adult and
are good for 24 hours.)
Ski Dubai:
At the Mall of the Emirates. ($39, includes lift ticket, skis, boots, jacket,
and bibs.)
Kelly Watkins, MBA, helps
companies develop their leaders and improve their customer service – to be more
profitable & productive in a global market. She’s traveled all over the planet
(all 7 continents)! For tips & articles:
www.KeepCustomers.com &
www.LeadershipArabWomen.com.
Reprinted from Today's Woman.
Kelly can share her world wisdom
with your company
to
improve productivity & profitability
Subscribe to
"Great Communicating"
Free newsletter -
techniques for those who lead people and serve customers
By Kelly Watkins
www.KeepCustomers.com
Within a few hours of leaving Nairobi and embarking on my safari,
I was face to face with an elephant. I was too shocked to say a word - and as a
professional speaker, not much leaves me speechless. Nothing separated me from
that massive, gorgeous beast but air and a couple of metal bars that covered the
opening where I stood.
That elephant, and the rest of his herd, had come to drink at the
watering hole behind our hotel, the
Serena Mountain Lodge. The elephants didn't just guzzle some water and
leave. They stayed and played for hours. Maybe I was wrong, but I believed
they were staging their elaborate performance just for my benefit.
Later, while unpacking in my hotel room, I came face-to-face with another
creature. Luckily, a window separated me from the Sykes monkey. He was playing
on the second-storey ledge outside my room. James, our guide from
All Seasons Safaris, reminded us to keep the windows closed, or the monkeys
would 'help us unpack.'
As our first adventure, the two-hour wildlife walk offered by the Serena
Mountain Lodge turned out to be a great investment. The walk itself was quite an
experience. It is not every day you take a walk with an armed escort. It was a
stark reminder that this wasn't the zoo. We were in the animal's natural
habitat. The 'wild' image was distorted just a bit when they served
tea in the middle of the forest. But, no one complained.
At dinner, the Serena staff visited each table with a checklist of animals that
were typically hard to spot. We selected the ones we wanted to see. The watering
hole was only 20 metres from the hotel. Every room had a perfect view. The hole
was lit with floodlights all night. So, if any of the animals on your list were
spotted, someone would knock on your door. All you had to do was roll out of bed
and take a few steps to the window. Unfortunately, no leopards or hyenas
appeared that night.
However, many other animals visited all day and night. I awoke about 1:00 am and
walked to the window, where I stood for some time, just staring at the nocturnal
animals as they went about their business. It was so tranquil - not eerie, but
peaceful. It was a quieting, calming feeling.
The Serena Mountain Lodge also offers a view of Mt. Kenya, the second highest
mountain in Africa. The local Wakamba tribe thought the snow and rock speckled
mountain top resembled an ostrich's tail feathers, so they named it Kiinyaa. One
of the early European explorers changed the spelling, and it eventually became
Kenya.
With great reluctance we left the Serena Mountain Lodge, and Mt. Kenya quickly
became a small dot in our rearview mirror. Our departure was bittersweet, since
we were headed for more adventures in Kenya.
Masai Mara Reserve
On a wildlife safari in Kenya, the afternoon game drives are
hot. The morning drives are cold. Everything is dusty. The non-existent roads
are rough and jarring. There are no restrooms, no snack shops, and no mobile
phone signals. And...I didn't care! The wildlife was so fantastic that I didn't
notice the discomforts.
We were still miles from the Masai Mara National Reserve when small herds of
grazing cattle began to appear in the distance. Amidst the quietly standing
cattle were…zebras. They were calmly munching grass, as if they were all the
best of friends.
After one particularly long game drive in the Masai Mara, it was beyond time to
return to camp. Instead, James, our fantastic guide, suggested we take one last
detour - to check on the lions we had spotted earlier. Sure enough. There they
slept. We were two metres from a pride of lions!
I am not a morning person. The morning we took the balloon ride
with the
Skyship Company, we awoke at 4:00 am. As my grit-filled eyes struggled to
open and my aching muscles, sore from bouncing along rutted roads, screamed - I
was wondering if it was worth it. It was!
The balloon liftoff was so gentle I didn't even realize we had left the ground.
We sailed just a few metres off the ground. It was such a different perspective
to see the animals from above. A few gazelles were skittish, but most animals
ignored us. We were at eye-ball level with the ever-curious giraffes. The young
ones would gaze directly at us.
As the balloon rose higher, we had a view of the vast bush - it was endless. We
could see all the way to the Serengeti in Tanzania. Without that viewpoint, I
never would have understood how the Mara River winds and turns back on itself.
It resembled a slightly warped, uncoiled spring. Apparently, the hippos didn't
care about the shape of the river. There were pods of them in every bend,
happily rolling in the shallow water.
'Roughing it'
Our balloon
pilot, Gelbart, said, 'It's a great job. I get to make people smile.' And, yes,
I was doing a lot of smiling. And the joy continued even after we landed. The
Skyship Company hired a professional chef to cook breakfast. It was such a
pleasant paradox to sit in the middle of the wild bush, eating off china plates
and drinking from crystal glasses. That was my idea of 'roughing it.'
On another early morning (ugh!) game drive, James found a cheetah lazily resting
in the shade of a bush. She occasionally swatted flies with her tail, but
otherwise she didn't move.
Throughout the trip, our eyes were eagerly searching for an elusive leopard.
They hang out in trees. In fact, a leopard can leap into a tree while holding
its kill in its mouth.
When we returned to camp that evening, we discovered a leopard had been spotted
at the edge of camp. Our tent was also located at the edge of camp. How ironic;
we spent all day hoping to see a leopard, and we spent all night hoping NOT to
see one.
People keep asking me - what is the key to a successful safari trip? The answer
- don't share the van with strangers! I love meeting new people. We met lots of
people at meals, around the hotels, etc. But, this was my dream vacation, and I
didn't want to miss something important to me just because a stranger wanted to
do something else. The best thing I did was let All Seasons Safaris design a
private safari for us. We were the only people in our van for the entire
week-long trip.
By the end of the journey, I was accustomed to seeing exotic wildlife. Although
I no longer reached for my camera as we passed each grazing giraffe or graceful
gazelle, I also never grew complacent. Seeing such majestic animals in their
natural habitat never lost its magic.
Kelly Watkins, MBA, helps
companies develop their leaders and improve their customer service – to be more
profitable & productive in a global market. She’s traveled all over the planet
(all 7 continents)! For tips & articles:
www.KeepCustomers.com.
Reprinted from AMEInfo
Kelly can share her world wisdom
with your company
to
improve productivity & profitability
Subscribe to
"Great Communicating"
Free newsletter -
techniques for those who lead people and serve customers
A Dream
Comes True in Antarctica
By Kelly J. Watkins
www.KeepCustomers.com
Antarctica is the land of blue tabular icebergs the size of
aircraft carriers; penguins by the hundreds of thousands emitting the pungent
smell of guano; seals perching silently on ice floes; and skuas screeching
overhead against a backdrop of jagged, ice-covered mountains.
It is also the land of one more thing—my dreams. Or, more
specifically, the land that let my dream come true.
Since I was a little girl, it’s been my dream to visit all 50
American states and all seven continents. Now, I have. I’ve placed a check
mark beside an item on my life-time to do list – at the age of 34.
Antarctica is not for warm-weather fans. The temperature reached
30º F on some days, which isn’t bad, until you factor in the “breeze” you
acquire from an ocean containing large chunks of ice and a ship that’s moving
rather quickly.
At our first stop, we anchored off the coast of Point Wild on
Elephant Island, made famous by the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. Twenty two
of his crew spent four winter months here in 1916. I don’t know how they
survived. I would’ve gone nuts. This spot where they lived was nothing but an
outcropping of un-level rocks, no larger than a football field. In winter, it
would’ve been pitch black. One wrong step, and they would’ve been in freezing
water. I hope none of them were sleep walkers.
Point Wild on Elephant Island
Shackleton's crew wintered on that flat spot
Yet, Shackleton and five of his men endured worse, as they rowed
a small boat 800 miles across the world’s most ferocious body of water to seek
help. Their perilous journey involved leaking water barrels, broken rudders, a
navigator who could take only a few sightings, and a trek across uncharted
mountains.
As we were leaving Elephant Island, we spotted something floating
in the water. It appeared to be litter. We cruised toward the offending item,
only to discover it wasn’t trash left by humans. It was nature’s trash. A
leopard seal had eaten a penguin. His razor-sharp teeth had removed all the
meat, leaving nothing but the skin.
At our next stop, we went ashore. That is no small task. This
isn’t the Love Boat; there are no fancy docks. They only time we used stairs to
enter/exit the ship was upon our embarkation in the Falkland Islands and our
disembarkation at Punta Arenas, Chile.
Otherwise, we stepped from the ship directly into a Zodiac, a
small motorized boat. The Zodiac would get as close to land as possible. Then,
we would climb out and walk through the water (28º F!) to the shore.
My first landing was a complete assault on the senses. As I
walked ashore, I felt the cold water swirling around my boots. I heard a brown
skua screeching above me. All along the shore and up the sides of the
mountains, I saw penguins – 200,000 of them. And, I smelled them. When 200,000
penguins emit guano, it’s quite “fragrant.”
After adjusting to the initial shock, I sat on a boulder to
absorb the experience. Some penguins were curious and would approach my boots.
Others were cautious, observing from a distance. Still others were disdainful,
waddling past without so much as a glance.
At another landing spot, I observed a seal creeping along the ice
until he reached the water’s edge. There, he flopped in, and the ungainly
500-pound creature transformed into a graceful ballet swimmer.
Although I could have touched the seal he was so close, I
didn’t. In Antarctica, tourists must follow strict rules. This is the last
truly untouched spot remaining on earth. Fewer than 100,000 humans have ever
stepped foot on the continent.
So, animals have the right of way. Visitors walk slowly, never
getting between an animal and the ocean, because it’s stressful to the animal
and dangerous to the human.
Some other landing spots offered warm-weather sports. At
Deception Island, I donned my bikini and swam in the ocean. At Devil Island, my
husband and I shared a two-person kayak as we paddled among icebergs the size of
10-story buildings. We didn’t get too close, though, because these huge,
floating works of odd-shaped art will flip over with no warning.
One day, the eagerly anticipated cry rang out, “Whales!” The
ship stopped, as 80 passengers poured onto the decks. We watched as humpback
whales frolicked in the water. Each of their tails is unique, much like a human
fingerprint. At another time, we spotted Orca (killer whales), but they didn’t
stay and visit for as long.
Due to good weather, we not only made it below the Antarctic
Circle, we also had time to stop at a place where only a few people had ever
visited. Wow! I walked on a spot where only a few dozen human beings had ever
set foot. One of them was Bernard Stonehouse, a Naturalist onboard our ship.
Bernard spent three winters in Antarctica in the late 1940’s, and he was a
walking (and entertaining) encyclopedia.
We also saw what no other humans had seen. Our tour operator,
Lindblad Expeditions (www.Expeditions.com), was the first to have an ROV
(Remotely Operated Vehicle) onboard ship. The attached camera recorded scenes
on the ocean floor. The starfish, plants, and algae provided an unexpected
burst of color in this land known for being white.
This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation (19 days devoid of
television or telephone), a chance to turn my brain off. But, there were too
many adventures, photographs, and inspiring tales of explorers. I had to share
this experience. By the time I returned home, ideas for the motivational speech
“Leadership Lessons from Antarctica” were bouncing around in my head.
Well, how quickly we go from the glories of nature to the rigors
of work!
Kelly Watkins, MBA, presents “Leadership Lessons from
Antarctica.” For articles & tips on leadership:
www.KeepCustomers.com or +1.812.246.2424
Reprinted from The Quill
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