A Morning in Dubai | Dubai
Dubai Skyline
It was just before 5:30 AM when I woke up in Dubai, my internal travel clock finely tuned to seize the early hours for a run before the city's pulse quickened. There’s something about greeting a new city on foot before it fully wakes. The streets are quieter, the light softer, and you get to know a place in the way only your feet and breath can reveal.
Burj Khalifa image courtsey by Mohit Agarwal@theagarwalmohit
I started, as always, with an espresso. The hotel lobby was sleek and chilled. With the warm cup in hand, I stepped toward the exit, ready to begin my morning ritual.
Suddenly, a group of uniformed police officers stormed toward me. Before I could even process what was happening, one grabbed my arm, and my precious espresso spilled, splattering across the polished floor. “You cannot have this,” one of them barked. I was stunned. What had I done? It turns out I had committed a cultural faux pas. I did not know it was Ramadan, and in Dubai, during this sacred time, eating or drinking in public during daylight hours is not only frowned upon - it’s illegal. My public sip of espresso had inadvertently crossed a line.
They weren’t unkind, but the moment was terrifying. And I had no desire to become a cautionary tale on Locked Up Abroad. After a few stern words and some clarification, they let me go, rattled, but free to run.
I shook off the encounter, took a deep breath, and stepped outside.
And that’s when Dubai greeted me, properly. A wave of heat smacked me in the face like a furnace door flung open. It was barely dawn, and already the thermometer flirted with 100°F. It was as if the desert was the one caffeinated on espresso, the desert doesn’t wait for noon to get serious.
My long run plans evaporated quickly in that heat. I adjusted: three, maybe five miles. Enough to experience the city without melting into the pavement. As I set off, I aimed for the Burj Khalifa, still reigning as the tallest building in the world, at least for now, since someone somewhere is always building higher. The tower shimmered in the morning haze, a needle piercing the sky, surrounded by pristine streets and gleaming architecture that made the city feel like the set of a sci-fi film.
Dubai image courtsey of Junhan Foong @jhfng
But it wasn’t the skyline that caught my attention most. It was the people. The men moved calmly through the streets in crisp white kanduras, their clothing billowing like sails catching the desert breeze. The women, in contrast, were draped in flowing black abayas, elegant and dignified but striking against the sunlit concrete. As a chemist, I couldn’t help thinking about heat transfer. White reflects. Black absorbs.
