wooden arcades and a waterfront location.
Little India, in the surrounding streets,
with its textile and sari stores and Indian
eateries, can easily absorb a couple of in-
teresting hours. Past the concrete jungle of
Golden Sands is Karama, home to a popular
mall with cheap souvenir shops and coun-
terfeit designer goods. The neighbourhood
may be made up of dilapidated low-cost
housing, but it has a real community spirit
that can be hard to find elsewhere in Dubai.
3 Sheikh Zayed Road &
Around (p77)
Dubai’s main artery, Sheikh Zayed Rd is
a super-busy highway that runs from the
World Trade Centre Roundabout, on the
edge of Bur Dubai, 55km south to Jebel Ali
Port, halfway to Abu Dhabi. The road is
flanked by a phalanx of skyscrapers, includ-
ing the 828m-high Burj Khalifa. Overlook-
ing a lake, the behemoth is the centrepiece
of one of the most prestigious develop-
ments, known as Downtown Dubai, which
encompasses the Dubai Mall, the Dubai
Fountain, Souq al-Bahar and several of the
city’s most prestigious five-star hotels.
4 Jumeirah (p91)
Before there was Dubai Marina and the
Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah was the place
where everybody went to realise their
Dubai dreams. It’s the emirate’s answer
to Bondi or Malibu, with excellent public
beaches, boutique shopping, copious spas
and health clubs, and a mix of Mercedes
and expensive 4WDs in villa driveways.
The actual boundaries can seem confus-
ing as the name crops up all over the
place, attached to hotels that are actu-
ally situated in Dubai Marina and to the
famous Palm ‘Jumeirah’ Island. In reality,
on its northern edge Jumeirah rubs up
against vibrant Satwa, while to the south
the neighbourhood encompasses Madinat
Jumeirah before seamlessly shifting to
New Dubai.
5 New Dubai (p104)
New Dubai consists of several differ-
ent areas. In Dubai Marina you not only
find bobbing yachts but also the group of
buttercream-yellow towers known as the
Jumeirah Beach Residence (aka JBR),
which flank one of Dubai’s most popular
walking areas: The Walk at JBR. North of
here, Al-Sufouh encompasses some of the
most upmarket hotels in town, as well as
the free zones of Dubai Internet City, an
information technology park; and Dubai
Media City, home to CNN, BBC World,
Bloomberg and other outlets. Jutting into
the Gulf is the Palm Jumeirah, the small-
est of three planned artificial islands off
the coast of Dubai but the only one to see
fruition (and likely to stay that way).
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