sweating on the roads of "Manhattan of Dubai"

It was an all paid trip to Dubai, last week, when one of our clients wanted to meet us for a creative presentation at Dubai, for their entry into the airlines business. The meeting was scheduled strictly for 45 minutes on a Monday Morning, we were in TIME at the ETA House. After waiting for an hour or so, the meeting got postponed to the evening and it went on till the end of the day 2.

DAY 3 was my Day. Kept the alarm for 4.30am and believe me, 4.30am is not dark and days are always long in Dubai. The Idea was to visit “The Manhattan of Dubai” aka “The Sheikh Zayed Road”. So walked down from the guest house in the Deira Dubai, till the “Al Moradabad Police Station” Bus stop to catch a Bus/Taxi. After waiting for 20 minutes, got into the BUS No.10 (Thanks to an anonymous Bangladeshi, who guided me till i get down in front of the etisalat building on the Sheikh Zayed Road).

Though i checked with couple of my friends and colleagues about “photography in Dubai”, i had a basic doubt, whether i can take pictures of these buildings, as i don’t wanna get screwed after clicking some skyscrapers. When i got down from the bus, i could see a forest of bricks and cement towers everywhere, all these, must have more than 30-40 floors. Cranes, Bricks and Cement all across, Lot of construction. And Real Estate is contributing at least 15% of the GDP of Dubai.

I was walking on the road, like a small ant, when all the cars and other vehicles, flying on the road at 100km speed. I don’t remember most of the building names, though Etisalat Tower, World Trade Centre, Emirates Office Tower, API World Tower and City Tower are few to quote here. Thats when i felt the need for a 10-20mm lens and my 18mm was not at all sufficient to cover these skylines. They were huge, tall and almost touching the skies of Dubai, though the visibility is less in the locality cos of summer winds.

I was Sweating and completely Sweating, but walked at least to a stretch of 5kms on either ways. It was already 9.00am and my mind said “don’t miss the flight”. I was looking for a taxi, for more than 10 minutes on the road, and luckily got a taxi, which was playing a Malayalam song. The driver of the taxi, originally from Calicut, living in Dubai for the last 15 years, shared his unhappiness of living in Dubai, cos of the price hikes on all products, left, right, top and bottom. He was a very nice person indeed, dropped me in front of the “United Hypermarket”, Deira Dubai and I felt happy after paying an extra 4Dhs for the ride.

A quick wash. Pack. Airport. Fly. Landing in Chennai. Rest is the history.

Couple of frames from the trip here.

More Info about the Highway….
In Dubai, E 11 is known as “Sheikh Zayed Road” (in Arabic: شارع الشيخ زايد). The highway runs parallel to the coastline from Trade Centre Roundabout to the border with the emirate of Abu Dhabi, 55 kilometres (34 mi) away in the area of Jebel Ali.

The road was formerly known as Defence Road. Between 1993 and 1998, 30 kilometres (19 mi) of the road was expanded. Along with this improvement came a change in the name. Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai at the time, named the road after the then president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

The first stretch of the highway between Trade Centre Roundabout and Interchange 2 is home to most of Dubai’s skyscrapers, including the Emirates Towers and the Burj Dubai. The highway also connects other new developments such as the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina and Dubai Waterfront. The road will soon have most of the Red Line of Dubai Metro running alongside it.

Some more information on wiki.