RED BULL AIR RACE ABU DHABI
Written: 20 APRIL 2009

 

It's almost become a tradition for me to experience one Red Bull Air Race a year, and this year the trip went to The United Arab Emirates where the opening round were hosted this weekend. The race was held in the UAEs capital, Abu Dhabi, which has been the host three times before.

We flew down to Dubai on Thursday with Lufthansa via Frankfurt and stayed there for four nights. Dubai is the neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi, and it took us a little over an hour to get there in a taxi on Saturday which was Race Day.

The track went along the beach, and we found a perfect spot close to the finish line with a good view of the entire track. The temperature has begun to rise as summer approaches, and reached about 35 C while we were there.

Last years champion, Hannes Arch, won the race in front of Paul Bonhomme and Nicolas Ivanoff. Arch has recently signed a sponsorship deal with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Board and is now flying with Abu Dhabi painted on the airplane which you can see on the picture on the right.

 

Abu Dhabi was just a day trip, so we spent most of the time in Dubai. A weird place which reminds me of USA as there are many paralells to Las Vegas. Everything is spread over a vast area, all linked together with a massive road system. It's impossible to walk anywhere, and public transportation has apparently just arrived. Luckily the taxis are not that expensive, but as it is the only sensible means of transportation, the money spent of taxis can easily reach considerable amounts.

Most of the modern parts of the city is radiating a sensation of luxury, but it lacks any form of authenticity as most of it´s been built during the last decade. It leads to a sort of Disney and Vegas feel, but they should at least get credit for not wanting to build boring buildings. There were a huge amount of cranes spread around at the numerous buildingsites around town, but most of them were just standing there without any signs of activity, probably as a result of the credit crisis which has hit Dubai hard.

On Friday we stopped by Mall of Emirates and Dubai Mall. The first has a indoor ski slope and the latter has a huge aquarium and an ice rink and is one of the largest malls in the world with its 1200 stores. Dubai Mall is a part of Burj Dubai which is the tallest building in the world with its 818 meters and 160 floors. Outside it has a huge artificial lake with a amazing fountain show which supercedes even the foutains of Bellagio in Las Vegas (built by the same company).

Dubai Fountain

We also got a tast of the more real part of Dubai when we went into the old part of the city center and took a boat across the river to the gold and spice marked, called Gold- and Spice Souk. This is obviously not the main reason why people go to Dubai, as we felt pretty alone compared to the more modern parts of the city.

Our hotel was situated in the area close to Burj Al Arab which is the only 7 star hotel in the world. A bit out of our price range, but still pretty to look at from the outside.

We flew home on Monday morning with PrivatAir which operates for Lufthansa to Frankfurt.