The Backpacker

If you have someone telling you Dubai never sleeps, kick that person where it hurts and embark upon the task of uncovering the truth all by yourself. It will help if you have starved the previous night, had no sleep because the tummy wouldnt stop growling and make your way to the first available sit-down hotel for breakfast.

But that is the catch! You will NOT find any such hotels eager to appease your hunger before 7 am. They remain gloriously indifferent to your quest, snobbishly announcing some wierd time of working hours. The lousy, more snobbish ones open at 7.30 am and 8 am and care a damn if you pass out from hunger at their door step. (Hope the Saravana Bhavans', Kamats', Emirtates House, Annapoorna's are reading this)

Of course, you may find plenty of alternatives at the fuel stations, the Subway, 24X7 or cafeterias (God bless the enterprising Indians and their life saving 'churrut' parathas) but not a decent south Indian breakfast comprising of idli and vada. No way no sir. And it is most vexing to go "restaurant-hopping" first thing in the morning.

Who says Dubai does not sleep? So dear readers, if you are in some corner of the world harbouring the pleasent thoughts of wolfing "Dubai-vadas" at 6 am (curtesy the info you have been given about the nocturnal status of this golden city), please be warned that "the breakfast of your dreams" does not see the light of the day before 7 am. No foodcourts anywhere open before 9 am and if you are in a hurry the best bet is the cafeterias that have sprung up precisely for this reason. There are plenty of hungry people about very early in the morning who do not have the luxury of eating a home-made breakfast, but who have to content with "paratha rolls (the roll refering to the filling of keema, eggs and tomatoes or paratha_ chai."  

The other options being the fuel stations and damp or cold sandwiches and burgers you must warm all by yourselves and that when you are very hungry is not a very good move, limp croissants from the day before and when you find all these, there is the question of coffee and finding a place to sit.

No Dubai is not friendly when it comes to giving you a good breakfast. In fact it does not encourage hunger before a stipulated time. It chugs along on its own pace. It does not give you breakfast. Not of any kind. English or Continental or Asian.