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Dubai, August 2024

Dubai in high summer: pharaohs at Wafi after dark, abras crossing the creek, a dolphin in the pool, and a sunset on the dunes with a desert camp show.

Our first Dubai was August 2024, when the city was a shimmering oven and most of our sightseeing happened somewhere air-conditioned. In summer you learn the real rhythm fast: do things in the morning, hide from the afternoon, come back out after dark.

View through a car windscreen of the Downtown Dubai skyline on a hazy day, the Burj Khalifa rising above the other towers
Driving into Downtown in August 2024. The Burj Khalifa makes every other skyscraper look like it isn't really trying.

After dark

Which is how we ended up at the Egyptian-themed Wafi complex at night, standing between two pharaohs several storeys tall.

Inga and Dileep standing at night between two giant illuminated pharaoh statues in front of a wall of hieroglyphic reliefs at Wafi, Dubai
The pharaohs at Wafi. For scale, we're the two small figures at ankle height.

Down on the creek

The other summer trick is the water. The abras kept shuttling between Deira and Bur Dubai, past a waterfront that still remembers what the city looked like before the towers.

A wooden abra ferry carrying passengers across Dubai Creek, UAE flags flying over the moored boats and old Deira buildings behind
An abra mid-crossing on Dubai Creek, flags flying. Still the most honest ride in the city.
Coral-stone buildings, wind towers and a slim minaret glowing at dusk along the old Shindagha waterfront on Dubai Creek
The old town side of the creek at dusk: wind towers and a minaret instead of glass and steel.

Indoors, because August

We also ended up in a pool with a dolphin. This is a sentence we stand by.

Inga and Dileep in wetsuits kneeling in clear blue water with a dolphin resting across their arms at the Dubai Dolphinarium
The Dubai Dolphinarium. The dolphin was extremely professional about the whole thing.

Out to the desert

The evening that saved the summer visit was the desert safari: out past the city limits, up a dune for sunset, then dinner at camp with the entertainment.

Inga sitting alone on a rippled sand dune in the Dubai desert, a line of footprints leading up to her
One dune, one sitter, one incriminating trail of footprints.
Inga in a white top and sun hat with Dileep wearing a white kandura and red checked ghutra headdress, standing on the dunes at golden hour
Golden hour on the dunes, August 2024. One of us committed to the local dress code.
A dancer in a black and gold costume with a face chain veil balancing a curved sword across her head at a desert camp show
The desert camp show: sword balanced, audience silenced.

We came back a year and a half later, in winter, which is when Dubai is at its most likeable: Dubai, February 2026.