DUBAI 1987.
Firstly compared to my previous posting in Lesotho there was no comparison it was like being in heaven,you could buy and do everything but as had been said before “Wherever Mike Dinnage goes there are problems” once again there were. A brief history of Dubai follows.In 1833, members of the Bani Yas tribe settled in Dubai. The Creek was a natural harbour and soon trading began. In the 20th century Dubai was a successful port with 350 shops and in the 1930s the population was 20,000,a quarter being Expats, but in the 1950s the creek began to silt up.In the1960s the Ruler Sheikh Rashid established a close relationship with Qatar and his daughter married the Emir in 1961 who gave US$ 700,00,000,000 towards the building of Port Rashid as a wedding present. The Emir of Kuwait also financed the dredging of the Creek which resulted in Dubai becoming a major trading centre. Sheikh Rashid then joined Dubai and Abu Dhabi to create the United Arab Emirates in 1971 and in 1973 Dubai joined the other Emirates to adopt a uniform currency the UAE dirham. Jebel Ali port was then established in 1979 and the Free zone was built around the port on 1985.When oil was discovered in 1966 Sheik Rashid utilized the revenue to build schools, hospitals, roads and a modern telecommunication equipment followed by a new Port and Airport. Today Dubai is one of the worlds most modern cities.
My assignment was at the Al Minhad Military Air Base approximately 17 miles south of Dubai was with a team of 2 engineers installing a modern Stratus microprocessor controlled voice switching system as well as Air Traffic Consoles, Voice Recorders and Radio Navigational Aids. There was a superb road with very little traffic and at the time I had a new Peugeot Estate and would put my foot down doing 100mph for the whole journey up and back. There was only one 3,954m runway and a parallel 38mm wide parallel taxiway. What I remember most was the incredible noise of the small Hawk aircraft when they were taking off. Ear protection close to the runway was essential. Training the Dubai pilots were the Red Arrows and their administration team. I got to know quite few of them at lunch time and would stay overnight on occasions when invited to one of their parties.
However when I was there the Mike Dinnage problems did start. There were big riots in Dubai between the Palestinians and Police who flew me down in one of their Apache helicopters (see pictures)to set up a new Command Radio Headquarters and to maintain their Mobile Radio Equipment. During this period I spent many hours in their helicopters going from place to place servicing their equipment.
During my stay I had a very nice air-conditioned 3 bed roomed bungalow in an area called the Garden city. It was amazing when putting out the washing on a line because by the time you finished you would start at the other end bringing it back in. There was a lovely hotel on the beach called the Jebel Ali. The restaurant was superb. Unfortunately the beach was not so good but there was a lovely swimming pool with fountains and we spent many hours there. I remember the staff giving us massive beautifully coloured beach towels. We were very lucky because in 1987 28ft the first Wooden Speed Boat racing with 2 crew began from Al Qwain to Dubai. They would race very close to the shore and it was free. I watched the first race of 18 boats from the beach at Jebal Ali. It was a wonderful sight organised by the Military and covered about 50km. 28 ft wooden speed boat racing is still popular today but now the boats have two 90hp engines instead of the original 75hp engines. The races are now organised by the Dubai International Marine club and are still free to watch getting a very good view from the DIMC breakwater. We would cross the Dubai Creek with others in one of the local dhows to visit the enormous Souk with well over 100 shops mostly selling jewellery. Danie managed to buy a gold necklace that she still has today.Our youngest son Leo had an interest for pretty things and we bought him a fancy dressing gown.I have included in the next page an aerial picture of Dubai as it was in 1987 showing just how big it was back then. I don’t think the page would be big enough to show how big it is today.
