Dubai, Abu Dhabi & Sharjah trip- A throwback

Had an opportunity to visit Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah recently. All three are part of United Arab Emirates. Dubai is in the center point; while Abu Dhabi is 2 hour drive by road, Sharjah is hardly 45 minutes drive. From Chennai CS Shankar Venkatraman, Mr Srikanth and self went together to all these places. 

Sharing some info about these 3 cities :

 

Dubai

Dubai is the beautiful and happening city & not to be missed. Climate is extremely hot and only from November to February (4 months) the climate will be good. When we visited in Sep, it was still hot; Chennai heat is far better as wind settles in the afternoon in Chennai; though there are many beaches in UAE, the coolness cannot be felt as humidity is extremely high. Every place including the walking paths to Metros/ Tram/ Monorail are airconditioned.

 
Burj Khalifa- is the largest building in the world- visited the mall and the fountain show which happens here every evening & it was a wonderful experience. Pl do not miss ! 

When you visit Burj Khalifa, please remember to have Pistachio Latte, a famous drinks at “Tim Hortons” shop. Delicious drink; we had it in other place as well, but it was best here in Tim Hortons.

We travelled in all the modes in Dubai- Metro train (similar to our Metro)/ Tram – which passes through the bus route in the center of the road and Mono rail (Small in size- but otherwise similar to metro). Local taxis- Uber and Careem are the apps used to book car; But taking a cab without booking through app directly standing in the road will be better. All Taxis put Meter and collect exact fare and return the balance including the coins.

Atlantis- a famous hotel and some good water games are there- while going to this place in Metro/ Tram we get the full feel of Dubai.

We visited Gold Souk; Dubai is very famous for Gold jewellery and lot of people buy gold here; Quality will be very good- cost may be slightly lesser. 

We have to buy jewels which one can wear like Bangles, Chain etc and not Gold coins as we will be charged customs duty at Chennai airport.

We also visited Deira Waterfront , Fish market, Vegetable market and Abra grand old Souk ( We can do a boat ride here )

 

Things to purchase: Dates is very famous and in very good quality; Electronic items including iphone is cheap and lot of people buy them when they visit Dubai. And perfumes too !

                                                Having lunch at a Park in Dubai...


We were there during Ganesh Chaturthi ; we were happy to see & dine at Madras Veg Restaurant at Dubai ( they have 3 branches in Dubai); we ate Very good Idly, Dosa, Pongal and Kozhukattai here and were very happy.

Every hotel and most of the apartments will have both Gym and swimming pool. People can really take care of their health in their premises itself.

Cars.. cars and Cars.. We get a feeling that whether these cities have more cars than human beings. You can see all kinds of cars in the roads and parking.

We had a wonderful friend Sadiq who was with us through out our stay at Dubai and Sharjah and took us to each and every place. Without him we would not have had all these unique experiences.

Sharjah

Though situated very close to Dubai, Sharjah is comparatively quiet and buildings are not as tall as Dubai.

 

Al Heera beach, Sharjah was very beautiful. Somehow it reminded me both Besant Nagar beach and Pondichery beach.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is a quiet place compared to Dubai and has many Government offices. The Dargah here is huge and the Carpet is the longest in the world. The paintings were wonderful.CS Friend Nishan took me to the Dargah; he was the one who took us from Abu Dhabi to Dubai in his car and shared lot of info about UAE.

Abu Dhabi Mosque with Nishan

Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai has around 10 to 12 % locals only; remaining are foreigners. Among them Indians will constitute more than 30 %;  out of these 30 %, majority will be friends from Kerala; People from other countries are also there.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai are few of the safest places in the world to live and are in the top 5 list of safest cities in the world ! There is no Income tax for individuals ! Corporate Tax is also around 8 %

Entire country is developed right from the scratch in the last few decades and they have kept the tax laws simple inviting corporates and individuals to come and do business and work in UAE.

    

 

Mostly they work for 5 days a week (Till Friday) and weekends are holidays; The hobby for most will be going to Malls because – you really cant go to any open places due to heat.

Visiting Dubai and Abu Dhabi gave lot of insights and new friends.

Probably we may visit again with family after a few years – in Dec- Feb period !