BootsnAll Travel Network

The Tranquilo Traveler

The Tranquilo Traveler is a celebration of voluntourism, slow travel, and other interesting ways to see the world. Travel writer and award- winning Moon Handbooks author Joshua Berman created The Tranquilo Travel as a resource for world trippers and international volunteers, a window to the author’s travels in Nicaragua, Belize, and beyond, and an update of his books and articles.

Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side

Username By Joshua | June 27th, 2005 | Comments 2 Comments »

dub_sheesh1.jpg

A creamy lump of hummus and olive oil, a silver pot of Moroccan mint tea, and a fat hookah packed with sweet apple tobacco–this was how we ended our first and only night in the city of Dubai. At a breezy table on the bank of Dubai Creek (actually a wide river that snakes through the city), we listened to tinny Arabian music, watched Oriental-shaped boats go by, and snuck pieces of pita to half a dozen emaciated cats.

And we sipped, snacked, and smoked the sheesh.

This is the city that a handful of billionaire sheiks built, and everything about it speaks of even more growth. Hordes of Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and others are arriving in the United Arab Emirates to fill the labor demand; a disgruntled Brit we met near the bus station, who is here to open a “Euro Cafe,” says that only 3 percent of the city’s 1.8 million people are native to the area. The airport, already enormous, is quadrupling in size, a vast mass of cranes and building skeletons; the development along Jameira Beach, it is said, will be the size of Manhattan within a couple of years.

Although a lot of the growth is fueled by business, banking, and trade, tourism is fast on the rise, although not for budget travelers. The info desk at the airport refused to speak to us about any accommodations with less than three stars, so we relied on a couple of travel forum tips and our taxi driver.

But, traveling bareback without a guidebook can be a fun and challenging experience; it forces you to interact with the people around you and to keep the night open to new experiences–like hittin’ the hookah on the banks of Dubai Creek.

dub_sheesh2.jpg dub_sheesh3.jpg

See you on the other side of the Gulf…

Category: (b) Dubai
If you found "Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side" useful or interesting, please share it with others by bookmarking it at any of the following sites:
del.icio.us:Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side digg:Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side newsvine:Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side furl:Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side reddit:Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side Y!:Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side stumbleupon:Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side

2 Responses to “Pass the Sheesha to the Left Hand Side”

john | February 10th, 2006 at 8:51 pm | comment link
top comment

Please let us know ,who is interested to open a Euro cafe?
we can help.
john

vladimimr | January 18th, 2009 at 11:55 pm | comment link
top comment

Dubai creek is sea water, not a river.. many people get tricked. :)

Leave a Reply

If you have not commented here before, please take a moment to peruse our
Commenting Guidelines.

This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots. (see: www.captcha.net)
To prevent automated spam appearing on this blog, we ask you to demonstrate your human-ness by entering the 5 character code in the space provided. If you cannot decipher the characters, click "Generate a new image" for a new set.

 
 

  

Pages
BY JOSHUA BERMAN
Categories
Travel links
My Links
Monthly Archives