Our trip to Dubai

Dubai

We spent last week in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. D's company does a lot of aviation-related business in the region and we were there for the large international Air Show held in Dubai every other year. D had been there before, but this was my first visit to the Middle East. Dubai had been described to me as a cross between Las Vegas and Miami, and I thoroughly agree with that assessment. It's in the Arabian desert, so you get the hot arid climate of Nevada, but it is also a large thriving metropolitan city situated on the Persian Gulf, so you get the fashionable urban beach feel of Miami. It's a showplace of extravagance -- like the Strip in Las Vegas. The wealthy ruler of Dubai has a vision of Dubai as a world-class tourist destination and business hub, and he has embarked on an unbelievably ambitious "build it and they will come" effort. And he can afford to do just that. In Dubai, everything is bigger, newer, and more oppulent than the last thing. It is home to the world's tallest building, the world's largest hotel, and I'm told that it is also home to 40% of the world's construction cranes -- the amount of ongoing construction is unreal. The shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and residential communities all try to outdo one another and each is spectacular. I saw the enormous indoor ski slope at the Mall of the Emirates, the 7-star Burj Al Arab hotel built on a man-made island in the Gulf, and the planned community built on a series of man-made islands shaped like palm trees. Wow. I also saw the older part of the city, with its traditional gold and spice markets and wooden boats on the Dubai Creek. Sadly, the history and tradition of the area seems to be disappearing rapidly in the rush to modernize. (I understand that the heritage of the region is being more carefully retained in other Gulf Region locations, like Oman.) I rode on a traditional wooden water taxi -- and it was clear that my fellow passengers were somewhat unaccustomed to (and perhaps uncomfortable with) having unaccompanied Western women onboard. I enjoyed seeing the juxtaposition of old & new, traditional & modern, Eastern & Western.