From Desert to Mega City in 25 Years S06 EP.95 | MIDDLE EAST MOTORCYCLE Tour
That's the entrance. Check out the building of this hotel. One more thing...
I've removed the camera from my helmet. Left the helmet here. The jacket is also here. Assalam Alekum Everyone and Welcome Back to the Channel from Dubai. Right now I'm in the famous Al Marina area. You can see huge buildings with beautiful walking ways in between.
We are also taking a stroll here. Today I plan to show this area to all of you. Thank you so much. Well... People do recognize me now.
We'll cover the Marina area... Also there's the famous JBR beach here. We'll visit JBR as well as Al Ain. And eventually Palm Jumeirah.
We'll try to cover these areas as well as we can. One more thing... We'll start our day with short motorcycle tour and follow it with walking tour.
I do feel that you guys will understand things better with the motorcycle ride. Bismillah... In the name of Allah... *Prayer for the journey* May Allah make our Dubai ride a trouble free and memorable one. Hopefully you are gonna like this as well.
At first I thought not to go on a motorcycle. But when I visited the Museum of Future, I realized something. No doubt the metro is great but you still have to walk a lot. So I decided in favor of motorcycle as I'll be able to capture all the great shots. And moving around in a taxi is no fun. When Rangeeli (motorcycle) can take us anywhere, what's the point in using Uber or Careem.
Also, I understand that you guys appreciate a motorcycle ride much more. Motorcycle enables you to capture amazing shots not just within cities but also in intercity ride. The camera angle on motorcycle gives the feeling of sharing the experience of doing that ride. The skyline of Marina area has begun. I can now see Palm Jumeirah on the map. That means we are not too far away. Hardly 9 km away.
I've entered the address of Atlantis in navigation. We'll cover the whole area, going as far as the road is available. A lot of construction is still happening here. You can see cranes on top of the buildings on both sides of the road. Well... A lot of things are written on these signboards.
I don't think anyone can read all the info on these boards. Need to take a right from here. Looks like we have reached our destination area. Just look at the construction style on both sides of the road.
It has completely changed in this area. I think this architecture is either French or Italian. These buildings have sort of minarets on their sides; just like we have in the mosques. So except for these minaret things... the style of windows on these buildings remind of France and Italy.
And if you look towards the right side here, you see a small section where all the construction has been done in white color. Along with a light blue hue... by the beach side. Anyways... moving forward... Well, metro doesn't operate here but... This must be the sky train or tram service.
Looks really beautiful. Its shape looks similar to what we see in space based science fiction movies. I've started to see Atlantis now.
This tram goes straight towards that point. Possibly they must have connected it to some metro station. In this area, most of the buildings you see are residential villas.
There aren't many high rise buildings here. I did see high rise hotel buildings though. But overall the villas here are wonderful. Even the very first glance suggests that it's an ideal location to live. Must be really expensive for sure.
We are passing through an underground tunnel between two islands. I'm just concerned if they have banned motorcycles at some point. But I haven't read it on any signboard so far. I did see a signboard forbidding cyclists and pedestrians though.
We are now at the back side of the hotel. That's the entrance... even though we don't need to go inside. Don't wanna get kicked out of here.
However, you can take pictures from a distance. I may as well take some pictures too. But I'll have to park at the other side. We'll go over to that point .... as far as the road goes. And from there, we can turn around. As you can see, the tram that we saw before, comes this far. Check out the building of this hotel.
This is the best thing about Dubai... You won't find this sort of architecture at many other places in the world. I remember having seen some similar buildings in the Netherlands as well. In Amsterdam probably, they had laid one section on top of another... just like this one. You can see Burj Al Arab on the left side. After the construction of Palm Jumeirah and Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab has lost its place as a tourist attraction.
Previously people would just come here to get a picture by the great building. We have almost reached the end. I think it's time to turn around and get to the other side.
We have a Mazarati in view... Should we race with him? Wow Abrar... You wanna race people with your 310. Mostly tourists come to see this pat of Dubai. But only the ones with reservation can go inside.
The others are just busy taking pictures. Check out this helicopter taxi service here. I just stopped here randomly when the helicopter decided to join me. There's another one back there.
If you look at the map, this is the road in the middle. The roads branching out are actually islands. Each island is connected to the same main road. Here you'll get a better idea. Drone would have been great... but it's not allowed here. So, we'll have to content ourselves with Google Maps.
You must have noticed that the high rise buildings were only at the beginning of Palm. But there's nothing in between... There are hotels on the sides though and that's it. You'll see a somewhat modern architecture on the right side. The left side is built with some Arabic touch. This is a rather beautiful beach.
Looks like a private property though. Yep. There are villas down there. So it's their private beach. Over there, you'll notice a twisted looking building. You'll see similar style at many other locations. We have reached Marina now. This area is really beautiful.
Would be great to have a walk here. We are gonna come back here. But before that, we are gonna take another round of this area. The question is ... Where to park the motorcycle?? Is it the motorcycle parking? Lets ask this Talabat guy. He must have some idea. Assalam Alekum. How are you?
Can you please tell me where is the parking for motorcycle? You wanna park here? No, I just want to know the rule. Can we park it anywhere? You have to park it in the cut. And where to get the ticket for that? I mean the fee for parking. You just have to leave it in the cut. Okay. You mean there's no parking fee for that?
Well that's good. So I better find some cut now. I can't take the motorcycle further ahead. Can I? No, it's closed.
Okay. So here's good? So you are leaving. May be I can use your space. Following the advice of the Talabat guy, I have parked my motorcycle here. I removed the camera from my helmet and left the helmet here. I even left my jacket here. I've been told that Dubai is so safe that even if you leave your mobile phone, nobody will take it.
So I though to take the risk and see how it goes. So far I haven't had any issues throughout my travels. I never felt that any area that I visited could be unsafe. So, let's leave our stuff here. In the part of Germany where I live, I won't expect to find a helmet or jacket or even a motorcycle. That's why someone like me has to be careful.
For now, let's go and explore the Marina area together. It's a very calm, relaxed, nice and clean area. There isn't any traffic... You can just walk here. Or you can use a scootie or a bicycle. For that matter, it's a really good choice for sitting, relaxing and eating out. There are many restaurants in this line; each having an amazing sitting area.
One of the reasons behind me coming here, chilling... eating or having coffee is the location. It's because of the location that I can comfortably sit here, relax and have a good time. That looks like a good restaurant. Firstly, they have burgers... Secondly, take a look around and just see the view.
I'm considering having my meal in this restaurant. I'd like to sit somewhere here. These tables are vacant. I guess you don't need reservation at this time of the day.
That's our burger with some fries. And this is a lemonade. The burger looks quite delicious.
I think it's beef. Here are some sauces and ketchup. I paid 70 dirhams for this. I think it must be around 18 or 19 dollars. I hope it tastes as good as it looks. It's a little messy to eat but it tastes great.
Dubai is a very fast paced and hectic sort of city. I mean it with reference to traveling; based on my experience of past few days. Despite that, it's a very peaceful place during daytime. Wherever you go, most of the people are at work during the day. The tourists sleep late at night and hence wake up late in the day. That's why you can go anywhere and have a good time in a very relaxed manner.
For instance, you can observe people... You can appreciate the architecture of the buildings around you. You'll find such places all around Dubai. After a 10 minute walk from Marina, I've reached this area. It's a very different sort of area.
You get an upscale type of feel here. Secondly, there are rather broad walk ways on sides. There are some great cafes here. You can say that this feels like a posh area.
Actually we have reached the JBR beach side. If I check this location on the map, the beach must be on the other side of these buildings. We need to find the way now. I wanted to sit in some for a while but we can do that somewhere else. Actually, it's a bit noisy here because of a nearby construction site. And hence it's not the ideal place to relax.
Here you get the real tourist vibe. Because almost every other person here is a tourist. This is the most crowded tourist spot here in Dubai during the daytime. You'll definitely find a number of tourists in other places such as Museum of Future etc. People probably come here because it's very close to the beach. People enjoy the beach environment and that's why they come here during the day.
On top of that, food court, cafe and restaurants are also available. So they can have a really good time here during the day before returning in the evening. Even though it's December and winter time... But it can still get very hot during the day... Especially the areas that receive direct sunlight such as this beach area. It does get quite pleasant during the evening.
But you do feel the heat during the day. I'm having a coffee but it's the cold coffee. Because I was feeling quite hot.
I've reached Starbucks. I tried but could not find any space in other places. Because of the beach area, all the places are full. This is a really beautiful beach. It was quite crowded a while ago so I decided to come back later in the evening. Then it will be nice to have a walk here and make some videos.
I didn't feel comfortable before as many people were wearing beach clothes. It's back to normal and only few people are sitting. It's not just a beach anymore but a main tourist attraction now. You'll find almost everything here. For instance Jet Ski and water park...
There are water slides as well. Ferris wheel is over there so I'm thinking about walking over to that side. Hopefully we'll have a better view of the skyline from there. It's almost sunset time so we can expect the light to turn on shortly.
That would be amazing... And it would be a walk to remember. This is my favorite sunset spot in Dubai. I haven't found a better place to relax and enjoy the sunset. And it has a great ambiance about it. The good thing is that you can easily find some place to sit even by the walk way.
You can just sit and relax. You can witness the sun going down on one side. Lights gradually turning up over the skyline on the other side.
And ships sailing across the water bed. It's such an amazing atmosphere. Let's sit here, enjoy the sunset and lights and then we'll return to the city.
I've been told that the Ferris wheel or Eye of Dubai has been closed due to renovations. Otherwise I wanted to enjoy my sunset there. But now I'm not going there for obvious reasons. This is the outcome of our experiment to leave our stuff like this.
The jacket and helmet are both there. The motorcycle along with our stuff is exactly how we left them. So you can imagine how safe Dubai is.
Finally, we are in for our cruise ride. Let me begin by telling you that these traditional boats are called Dhow Cruise. It starts at 8 pm from Marina... Okay may be 8:30 pm... They say it'll start at 8 but it actually starts at 8:30 and then goes on till 10 pm. Actually it's not just a cruise boat... but people come here for dinner as well.
And in the meantime, they also enjoy the views of the harbor and Marina area. Let me introduce you with two guys. He is Inam and he's from my city.
And with him is his cousin who is a tour operator. They run a company by the name of Sky Gaze Tours. Today's tour is booked by them... Although they were late to get here.
And everyone else had to wait for half an hour because of them. No... I'm just kidding. About 5 minutes after the boat sailed, the buffet was started. The average price of this cruise is 150 - 170 dirhams per person.
And this dinner is a part of this package. There's a salad bar. Besides, there are many options to pick from, in the buffet.
There are many options for vegetarians as well. Let me just show you what I got for myself. This is my plate and you can see that I have some rice and lentils. It's been a long time since I had that.
Also if it's cooked by Indian chef, it's a treat for sure. Other than that, we have some butter chicken, fish and chicken kebab. Over here, we have got some fruits and salads.
You can say that you get the value for your 150 dirhams. Because you get a dinner buffet as well. We can say more about the food quality after we have eaten. Anyways, it looks okay and it's not too expensive. Hopefully our food will be delicious. Our cruise was great.
We had no idea that there will be fireworks tonight. Luckily we got to see the fireworks. Besides, it was the first time that I watched the use of drone technology to make fireworks and different shapes in the sky. It was great. I enjoyed every bit of it. Here's Irfan. Thank you so much Irfan for all the arrangements.
We are gonna have more meetings in the days to come. A lot more to see and to show you all as well. But that's all for the day. Remember me in your prayers. Do Like, Subscribe and Share. Hopefully you must have enjoyed this vlog. Allah Hafiz.
2023-01-02 20:56
