Kelsey's Travel Blog!
I travel not to escape life, but to be sure that life will not escape me! Come join me!
Burj Al Arab and Emirati Luxury
In the spirit of continuing the theme of luxury in this wonderful city of Dubai, I got the incredible opportunity to go and have afternoon tea at the world-renowned hotel, the Burj Al Arab, also known as the worlds only 7 star hotel. In reality though, we all know that there can’t exactly be a 7 star hotel on a 5 star scale, but it is said that the hotel is so luxurious that it deserves the two extra stars. Now I know what everyone is thinking, is it really deserving of the 2 extra stars? Well, in my opinion, yes and no.
is hard to actually determine whether or not the hotel was actually worthy of 7 stars since I didn’t actually get a chance to experience every aspect of the hotel. Yeah, they have their own fleet of BMW town cars, My Cappuccino did have gold dust sprinkled on top, the building itself was beautiful, the service incredible, yet I didn’t get to see any of the rooms, do any shopping inside, see any of the conference rooms, so it is actually kind of hard to determine whether or not it is worthy of the 7 stars. But in my book, it won about 100 gold stars, since I had never experienced anything like it.
First of all, there are no tourists allowed in the hotel, therefore you must either be staying there or have a reservation for afternoon tea or dinner. The building is magnificent and the hotel front desk and concierge, the doormen and the valet parking, and the hostesses and waiters are there to blow a constant stream of perfectly temperature smoke up your ass, yet in a place like this, it was actually necessary. I, being 20 years old, have never been called “ma’am” as much as I have on the Burj Al Arab property. I was a princess. Not only that, everyone was treated as royalty.
After only being in the UAE and Dubai for less than a week, I have already learned quite a lot about this country that I never knew. There are so many international people here, both tourists as well as residence. Just about every one of my cabdrivers have been from either India or Pakistan, but you see people from all over. There are many people from Saudi Arabia here both to live and to travel, and you can always point them out by the women wearing the conservative Abajas and the men are wearing their Kandora (sp) with a red and white head piece. You can also spot Emiratis since the women are less conservatives but almost are always wearing 5 inch Jimmy Cho designer heels and some sort of designer handbag. To the Emiratis, as well as the country itself, luxury and designer is the only way to go. designer shops line the halls of their shopping malls, luxury yachts line the marina, and luxury cars are not uncommon. It seems as though the Emiratis have been able to make even the most insignificant thing into a sign of social status and financial prosperity. The best example of this is license plates. In the UAE, there is such thing as designer license plates. Any license plate that has one or two numbers in it usually means that that plate cost nearly more than the car itself. If a plate has an “M” on it, that usually means that it is the car of someone in the royal family. I actually saw a Mercedes with an “M-22” license plate, so obviously that was someone important.
Although Emiratis are very few and far between, I got the pleasure of meeting two of Rob's Emirati friends in the only place that would have been appropriate to meet an Emirati: on board his 177ft Yacht.
If there was one thing that Emirati’s can do better than any other group of people I have ever encountered, it would be luxury. Everything in Dubai is over the top: the hotels, the shopping centers, the buildings, everything is grander and more over the top than the next. This is a city that has built its own islands, seven-star hotels, and gold markets. Everything is gold plated or embellished, and I have received food items with gold flakes on them, strictly because they can. It is the most outrageous and fascinating thing I have ever seen. Although Emiraties only make up 20 percent of the population in Dubai, the government is especially concerned with taking care of their own, so it seems as though every Emirati is disgustingly wealthy. Men spend their times on Yachts smoking hookah, while the women take their little black cards and go on thousand dollar shopping sprees to buy all of the latest designer clothing. It’s a different world out here, and witnessing it first hand is a seriously culture shock.
The Sky Lounge, the bar located on the 25th floor over looking the ocean, also with a view of the coastline and the city, was where we had the afternoon tea, and it was seriously incredible. It was a less afternoon tea and mroe te best meal I had ever eaten... ever. It included little sandwiches with salmon that made me think I had died and gone to heaven, with a complementary glass of real champagne, from the Champange region of France (something I had never tired before), unlimited coffee and teas most often sprinked with gold dust, more desserts than I could comprehend at the time, and I even got a rose from the restaurant.
We spent nearly 3 hours in the bar eating, drinking, laughing, and enjoying the view. I got to see the Palm, a man made peninsula to look just like a palm tree, as well as the World, a collections of man-made islands that will be made to look like the continents of the world and is still under construction.
Now, I have never actually been on a Yacht, much less a 177ft luxury with. Ahmad and Omar, Rob’s two Emirati friends were kind enough to invite us onto the Yacht for a tour, as well as a social evening. Although I was not able to see the upper deck since I was the only woman on deck and there were more traditional Emiratis, including a Sheikh (basically like royalty) and, adhering to their customs, I was asked to stay on the lower deck, yet the rest of the yacht, including the cabins, were absolutely beautiful! They have their own cook, skipper, and crew. Seriously, this would only be possible in Dubai.
Living this life over the past week, with all of the door opening and the “ma’am” calling has been a life that, even coming from a modest family, I have never been exposed to. We, in the United States, watch all of these shows like Gossip Girl (which I love) and my Super Sweet Sixteen (which I hate) and we wonder what it actually would be like to be THAT outrageously rich. So, after having a bit of a taste of that life, yeah, it is kind of hard to be unhappy on a yacht or drinking expensive Champagne, but what is unbearable is the empty and emotionless service and treatment that you receive around you. The waiters, the doormen, the concierge, they pretend to like you and they wait on your every want or desire, but I’m sure that it is not often that someone at these hotels ask them who they are, if they have children, what they like to do in their free time, etc. It’s all very fake and superficial a lot of the time, and I can see how easy it would be to become jaded.
So I guess, if I am ever fortunate enough to actually stay at the Burj Al Arab find my way back on to that 177 ft. yacht, or have enough money to actually enjoy the Gold Souks, I hope to think back to this incredible experience in Dubai as a reminder that the only thing more valuable than the number of stars a hotel gets, the type of vintage wine you drink, or the price of the meal you just consumed, is the people that surround you, all of their life stories, and how far the question “Tell me about yourself?” can go.
