Surprising as it sounds to us, we now have completed our first year in the UAE! Belgium is not a distant memory, but we are adjusting more and more to life here. To say we’ve “adjusted” is a bit too optimistic but we’re doing well.
The last entry addressed things we’ve done that one can do just about any time during a visit to the UAE/Dubai/Abu Dhabi. This time, things that happen once a year and we have attended are the subject. Clearly there are things that are happening early and often in Dubai. We don’t get to many of them if you look at the big picture of the number of events, but what we have done we’ve enjoyed.
The Dubai “Duty Free” Tennis Championships – March
The venue is a small stadium not too far from the airport. The permanent “Irish Village” and another “Village” with restaurants are just around the corner. The tickets are apparently sold to businesses ahead of time with open ticket sales only available a few weeks ahead. Not knowing what was in store, we got tickets (on line) for the first day what amounts to upper deck seats. As it turns out there are only two (unless you go with a sponsor/corporate group) – A and B. A is a very small section with a couple of rows right in front all around the stadium. There are no seat numbers. B is the rest of the stadium. Like A there are no seats, so finding a spot gets quite cut-throat as far as trying to save seats if you need to get something to eat/leave for some reason between matches and the next one is a “big name” player. As Richard was with me, we were able to accomplish having great seats in the cheaper section for Roger Federer’s first match.
Feeling successful and with the seats still available, we went to the next day’s session (at this point it’s only possible to get tickets at the stadium) and I went to the third day on my own. The ticket prices increase each day and the last two days with the semi-finals and finals sell out quickly. I think it is well worth going the first couple of days – you get to see the best players (who may not make it to the finals). The tournament takes place in March of each year. There is a women’s tournament – again with top players – the week prior. I understand that it is even easier to get tickets for this event.
Emirates (Airlines) Festival of Literature – March
This was a wonderful experience – even the resident reader was impressed with the authors coming to speak. We got miserably lost on the way to one of the events that was off-site from the host hotel, but other than that, I really enjoyed it. The poetry reading in the desert (and buffet dinner) was an exceptional experience. Definitely need to read more during the coming year, so I can make a more “informed” choice on sessions to attend.
Art Dubai – March
This is held on the grounds of a hotel with three large areas with local, regional and international art. My first visit was alone on “Ladies Day”, the first day of the show. This means exactly what it sounds like – women only unless you are representing the art gallery or are the artists. I got a pass after attending a luncheon where Art Dubai organizers made a presentation. I went back with Richard and took a short tour of one of the displays. We aren’t really in the art market, but there were many lovely and/or interesting things to see.
Global Village – November – April – “How Can We Make You Happy?”
This was probably our favorite sign – it pointed to the information center – we never got there, so we’ll never know.
Admittedly, we knew that the Global Village was going on from the time it opened in early November, but managed to wait until the next to the last day to go. Had we been in the shopping mood, we no doubt could have gotten a lot of bargains as the vendors all had reduced prices and obviously didn’t want to take their wares home.
Restaurants had one area and food booths were scattered throughout the grounds as well. There was a large children’s area and a “5-D Prehistoric Aquarium” – both of which we skipped. At one end was a very large carnival/fun fair park. A timed lighted fountain was set up in part of a creek that also had the typical boats “abras” to ferry people about.
We concentrated on the areas dedicated to the Middle Eastern/Sub-continent countries. Each country had a walled-in marker type area with a stage for the cultural music/dances that were held throughout the event.
The areas we actually visited were: The UAE – which also had a cultural center area by the main entrance, Yemen which had a LOT of stands selling different kinds of honey – my favorites were labeled “for married only” and “for children” – who knew honey was so specialized? We also wandered through Pakistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and Egypt.
Next year we’ll probably go earlier during the event and it will be a good thing to take people who come on their second visit.
As I said, many events go on all of the time here, and we only go to a few. No place is perfect – despite best efforts, but to date we’ve been pleased/impressed with the few we’ve attended.
Judy and Richard - 1001 Arabian Nights 