Strange place, Dubai. Apparently 5-10 years ago* there was pretty much nothing here - an army base and a lot of sand. A few years and many billions of dollars later, there is a huge number of massively impressive resorts, hotels and skyscrapers, two scarily large malls, roads full of brand new gas-guzzling cars and 4x4s, and loads and loads of construction for more of the above.
* I'm not checking any of these facts, I'm on holiday. Feel free to google it in the office.
This is the Burj Dubai (as seen from our hosts' balcony). It's nearly a kilometre tall. (Actually I have just checked this - 818m apparently.) That's just ridiculous. Last night we were in a bar on the 63rd and top storey of a hotel, and the Burj still just towered above us. Even if you laid it out horizontally, it's still a ridiculous distance. For some reason I picture Batman and Robin standing at the bottom, bat-ropes at the ready, preparing to walk up the side of it. That's going to take them ages, even with trick photography.
But - I have to give them this - it's all very impressive. With people splashing the cash left, right and centre I expected a lot of oneupmanship and tacky, horrible buildings. Most of what I've seen, exteriors and interiors, has been pretty stunning. (The main exception, which Lilly has seen but I haven't, is the inside of that hotel where Agassi and Federer played tennis on the helicopter pad at the top - apparently on opening night the owner came along, said "Not enough gold", and they closed down for 3 months to make it tackier.)
Not everything works very well yet. The metro/skytrain seems very good - and the stations are stunning, they look as if they've repurposed parts of the Starship Enterprise. Unfortunately I haven't manage to take a photo of one, but here's a picture of an inflatable version that they used in a parade:
(or there's one here)
The problem is that they're still building it, but there's nothing to say which stations are working. So we checked the metro map in the station, got on, and only when the train left did we discover that the next open station was one beyond where we wanted to go. Cue another taxi ride back past all the construction in between.
Similarly, we went to the cinema a couple of evenings ago. 23 screens, very plush. Unfortunately we had to queue for more than 20 minutes to get tickets and missed the start of the film. We may never discover why that boy was wearing a wolf suit.[1]
Hopefully they'll get these teething problems sorted out. Hopefully they'll get time! Just as we arrived here the big story about Dubai's debt broke (from what I understand it's been a bit exaggerated). I think they were counting on Lilly visiting again, but they hadn't realised she wasn't shopping... [This is a rash thing to write as Lilly is about to go to the outlet mall...] It's all a big gamble, but if you're going to do it, you have to go for broke. I don't think there's potential for too many Dubais around the world, so you have to be the first or the biggest or the best. Dubai is trying to be all three.
And I can understand why people would live here. There's no tax (in fact the Emiratees get paid to live here), petrol is dirt cheap, and if you like shopping and hotel bars and restaurants you'll find almost every brand you could dream of. The weather's lovely at the moment (far too hot for 4 months in the summer apparently). And they're making a big effort to get events - we arrived just too late for the beach soccer world cup, and we're just missing the World Club Championship (down the road) and a big rugby sevens event. But it's not cheap to live here - think London prices - and getting around basically means taxis. There's construction everywhere. And it's all a bit feudal in other ways too - out of a population of nearly a million*, Emiratees make up about 25%, other Arabs 25% and the rest are immigrants/ex-pats. But cross an Emiratee at your peril - I've heard stories from taxi drivers about people getting a visit from the police for trivial things.
* 2007 figure**
** According to my desert safari driver***
*** If I remember correctly what he told me
[1] Where The Wild Things Are. This is actually a good metaphor for Dubai as it includes deserts and beaches, involves dealing with temperamental locals and the building of a ridiculous and over-ambitious structure, and ultimately it all falls in on itself. Oh, and it's enjoyable to watch once but I'm not sure I'd bother again.
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