Sunday, January 4, 2009

Going Global at the Village





Talk about Dubai and you cannot complete the story without mentioning about Global Village (GV). The GV is Dubai’s longest-running cultural entertainment destination with 12 years of history and boasting of millions of visitors so far.
It is basically a concept where pavilions representing different countries are set up to sell goods from around the world. This year’s 31 pavilions include Europe, India, East Asia, East & West Africa, China, Czech Repubic and Palestine.
The new attraction includes a Guinness World Records Pavilion, which allows us to learn about past world records. Try to break the record for the loudest scream, fastest text message or longest coin spin here.
There are also daily performances from around the world to bring the flavours of the globe.
Having said all this, your question is: Did you enjoy? Forgive my bias, having visited the place for quite a few continuous years, I find it lacking in variety. I am a person who loves such outings, but the same shops, same faces, identical settings and lack of new product range have left me bored. Most of my friends were often repeat visitors earlier, but now some of them have not even thought of a visit as yet.
For example, entering the Europe pavilion I would have been glad to say “bochano” to a Hungarian or a “Profovur” (forgive my spellings if wrong) to a Spaniard, but I ended up saying “Entha sugganthanne” in Malayalam.
Add to this the problem of ever-increasing entry fee. What was once free is now rated at Dhs10 per entry. With recession making residents think twice even for basic necessities, such high entry fee proves to be a deterrent.
A total of 40 fun fare rides scream for attention and the kiddos did have excitement. After all, they knew it was their “baap” (dad) who had to shell out the dirhams. Hey, joking boy.
Do I recommend a visit? Yessss, if you are a first timer.

9 comments:

Maria said...

I'm more of an outdoor girlso I think the GV in Dubai would not be my favourite place. Have a nice week!

The Phoenix said...

Yeah! I remember visiting GV about 9 years ago...loved it that time, (being my first time). Dunno how it is now. I do know that you get some amazing things there. Might visit when I am in Dubai next.

humanobserver said...

A nice presentation and nice snaps...Friend, I get energy from bloggers like you...thank you very much and keep posting.....

Jayashree and Just Jay said...

Was that your photography? If yes, Its Nice! Yeah! i know visiting places quite often is real boring..

Nicely Narrated!

Cheers,
Jayashree

Fida said...

Now that’s a place I could feel lonely :)) “Try to break the record for the loudest scream, fastest text message or longest coin spin here “– you really know how to discourage me:D But glad you visited for me and wrote a wonderful peace about it, and added some great pics. Tks a bunch!

Aviral said...

sounds like the trade fair(IITF) in pragati maidan!

Priyanka Khot said...

I liked the screaming woman and if a place can inspire me to scream in that fashion then the place would be a sure winner.

May you get plentiful dirhams and get no opportunity of cribbing about shelling money on your kids (even as a joke) in the year ahead. :-)

Happy New Year!

Kadri Luik said...

I find the concept interesting, but you are right, if there is no change it will become dull after the first visit.

Tantra Flower said...

As someone who has never been, GV sounds and looks like a lot of fun to me. However, I can certainly relate to your sentiments. We have an annual state fair here in North Carolina and every year it is the same old thing.

I loved the photographs. Thank you.