By Sonia Isaacs
AS a child I was always fascinated by stories of Arabia. I would pour over tales of Arabian Nights and dream of visiting this middle eastern wonderland with its enticing mix of mystery, exotic glamour and history.
Recently I answered the call of the desert and travelled to Dubai, the second largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sharing borders with Abu Dhabi in the south, Sharjah in the northeast, and the Sultanate of Oman in the southeast.
Located on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, this city pulsates with power, wealth and world class facilities. If you like luxury, the Arabs do it well. Everything is fancy. Shopping is a national past-time, and Dubai, also known as the ‘city of gold’ is breathtaking in it’s abundance of wealth.
Its a beautiful cosmopolitan city that features opulence at every opportunity. The buildings are modern and magnificent, the streets in the central city district are spotlessly clean and top of the range luxury vehicles buzz along the motorways.
The city boasts the world’s tallest human-made structure Burj Khalifa (over 828 metres high) and one of the biggest shopping malls on the planet (complete with colossal aquarium, an Olympic-sized ice-skating rink and the largest candy store in the Middle East.)
One of the highlights of my three day stay was visiting the extraordinary Museum of the Future. With a stunningly distinctive silver and black egg shaped exterior, this ambitious installation gives visitors a fascinating glimpse into breakthrough technologies and ideas of the future.
I stayed at one of the exceptional Taj Group hotels with views over Burj Khalifa; the epitomy of modern luxurious elegance. Similar to how I would sum up a visit to Dubai.
