Going Global at the Village

Talk about Dubai and you cannot complete the story without mentioning about Global Village (GV). The GV is Dubai’s longest-running cultural entertainment destination with 12 years of history and boasting of millions of visitors so far.
It is basically a concept where pavilions representing different countries are set up to sell goods from around the world. This year’s 31 pavilions include Europe, India, East Asia, East & West Africa, China, Czech Repubic and Palestine.
The new attraction includes a Guinness World Records Pavilion, which allows us to learn about past world records. Try to break the record for the loudest scream, fastest text message or longest coin spin here.
There are also daily performances from around the world to bring the flavours of the globe.
Having said all this, your question is: Did you enjoy? Forgive my bias, having visited the place for quite a few continuous years, I find it lacking in variety. I am a person who loves such outings, but the same shops, same faces, identical settings and lack of new product range have left me bored. Most of my friends were often repeat visitors earlier, but now some of them have not even thought of a visit as yet.
For example, entering the Europe pavilion I would have been glad to say “bochano” to a Hungarian or a “Profovur” (forgive my spellings if wrong) to a Spaniard, but I ended up saying “Entha sugganthanne” in Malayalam.
Add to this the problem of ever-increasing entry fee. What was once free is now rated at Dhs10 per entry. With recession making residents think twice even for basic necessities, such high entry fee proves to be a deterrent.
A total of 40 fun fare rides scream for attention and the kiddos did have excitement. After all, they knew it was their “baap” (dad) who had to shell out the dirhams. Hey, joking boy.
Do I recommend a visit? Yessss, if you are a first timer.

Dune bashing & belly dancing

Around Dubai in three days with family was fun, but lemme not exaggerate by calling it ultimate fun.
The first experience was the Desert Safari.
We were supposed to have been picked up at 3pm (Sharp, mind the word), but as a Tunisian family arrived late, the Land Cruiser left Sharjah City Centre only at 4pm. The charge was Dhs150 ($1 equals Dhs3.67).
The vehicle was wonderful and the Indian driver (Incidentally from Mumbai, the city I love) was smart. Hence the bumpy, bouncy dune bashing experience turned out to be enjoyable. Up and down went the cruiser while sand splashed all around the vehicle. Well, it went on for nearly 20 minutes.
We were told there was a free camel ride. Believe me, the animal was forced to sit and rise every 5 minutes and cover a distance of hardly a few feet. The creature glanced at me as if warning “Do you want to try, you villain?” Naturally, I opted out.
There were traditional costumes with which we could take photographs. Again I managed to resist the temptation to try it out because it looked overused by people.
We stopped to watch the beautiful sunset before reaching our camp site. The hot tea proved to be a cup that cheers and my daughters did manage to try out a henna design on hand.
I sheepishly waited for a stunning belly dancer to arrive. And arrive she did. Unfortunately, she did not turn out to have the looks of Pamela Anderson or Madonna or Aishwarya Rai. The poor old lady tried to cheer up the crowd, and in the ten minutes she performed her show, she made more people dance to her tune than dance herself.
Even before I could say hi to her, she had disappeared among the crowds.
In less then six hours, we were back in Sharjah where we had started.
Oh well, I had forgotten to mention that we did enjoy a wonderful dinner, part of the package.
Over to another experience tomorrow.

Dubai world records

Here's a report on world records in/by Dubai. Happy reading...

Dubai’s underwater wonderland

Having clinched the Guinness record for the world’s largest acrylic viewing panel, Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Centre has been pulling crowds to the recently- opened Dubai Mall. The aquarium showcases an enormous diversity of ocean-species - above 33,000 aquatic animals in due course, representing more than 85 species including sharks and stingrays. It’s an underwater wonderland, with a 270-degree walkthrough tunnel that allows for some incredible close-encounter experiences to delight mall visitors. Dangerous Pirahna, giant catfish, playful Otters and water rats are just some of the species one will meet.
Here are some excellent photos taken by my friend, Kamal Kassim.

Eye on Qasba