Dubai Archives - Rachel's Ruminations

The Lost Chambers Atlantis Aquarium isn’t really about fish

Rachel Heller — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 14:13:33 +0000

The Lost Chambers Aquarium at Dubai’s Atlantis the Palm Dubai hotel is not your run-of-the mill aquarium. At any self-respecting large aquarium – think the Monterey Bay Aquarium or the Boston aquarium – you’d expect to see a range of species from all over the world. The Lost Chambers has that. It isn’t a big...

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Green Planet Dubai: a review

Rachel Heller — Fri, 18 May 2018 15:02:01 +0000

If you’ve ever been to a world-class zoo – the Bronx Zoo comes to mind – you’ll have seen an indoor tropical rainforest before. Visitors walk on prescribed paths and bridges, while the birds and other animals fly or roam where they choose within their building-sized cages. The Green Planet Dubai is one such indoor...

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Al Ayn UNESCO site: A day trip from Dubai

Rachel Heller — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 19:08:23 +0000

“We go to camel market?” Nishad asked, glancing over at me. I had, contrary to custom in Dubai, chosen to sit in the front seat of the taxi, explaining that I could see the scenery better from there. “No, thank you.” “Souk?” “No, not that either.” I had hired Nishad as a driver for the...

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One Day in Dubai: Things to do!

Rachel Heller — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 16:07:28 +0000

Dubai is a land of superlatives: biggest, tallest, first. I would also add: oddest. Dubai is often compared to Las Vegas, and I agree: its sheer brashness and artificiality are very like Las Vegas. Like Vegas, it’s a big, shiny city plunked down in a desert. And although there aren’t any casinos – at least...

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A Dubai Frame review

Rachel Heller — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 21:30:48 +0000

The Dubai Frame was not what I expected. In the flurry of publicity when it opened, the media showed just what its name promised: a picture frame. That’s what I thought it was: a large picture frame, outsized, like everything in Dubai. It was two or three stories tall, I figured, perfect for taking a...

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Dubai Miracle Garden: Absurdity in the desert

Rachel Heller — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 16:05:18 +0000

The taxi ride promised little excitement. It was mid-afternoon and the traffic flowed smoothly past the shiny tall buildings. Impossibly green grass and brilliant pink flowers edged the wide highway, and beyond that we saw sandy vacant lots, parked cars, huge billboards advertising the next luxury development or flashy car, construction sites spiked with tall cranes....

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Visiting Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world

Rachel Heller — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:32:56 +0000

The price for visiting Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, is - pun intended - over the top. But it's one of those things one almost has to do in Dubai. So I did.

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Old Dubai: a quick visit

Rachel Heller — Tue, 03 May 2016 15:25:52 +0000

While I didn’t do any shopping in Dubai, I did manage a quick walk around the Bastakiya District: also known as Old Dubai. Dubai was originally a small port that made its living from pearl diving, fishing and trade, especially with Iran. Besides the nomadic Bedouins, who lived in tents, the populations who settled here...

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Not Shopping in Dubai

Rachel Heller — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 16:13:38 +0000

Shopping is A. Big. Deal. in Dubai. Whenever I asked people who live there what I should see and do, the answer usually included shopping. (Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on the link and buy tickets, I will get a small commission.) I am very much NOT a...

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Emirates A380 Economy Class Review

Rachel Heller — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 13:58:00 +0000

On my recent visit to Dubai on Emirates Airline, I was pleased to discover that I’d be flying on a plane I’d only seen from a distance before: the enormous Airbus A380. The A380 The A380 is a behemoth of a plane. Like Boeing’s 747, it just doesn’t look like it should be able to...

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