Advertisement
Published: February 27th 2009
Edit Blog Post
From India we went to Dubai. There is a lot of buzz about Dubai these days. I've seen TV shows about Dubai that range from 60 minutes to Modern Marvels on the Discovery channel. I was interested to see it.
The first thing that struck me about Dubai is what an insane place it is. Like Las Vegas, Dubai has built itself smack dab in the desert with no regard whatsoever for the environment. It is a place with more money than brains. They are building everything you can think of in Dubai, and then some. Everywhere you look there are construction cranes. They have golf courses, fountains everywhere, man made islands in the shape of a palm tree (the national symbol) and even their own ski slope. It is just over the top. They even have the only 7 star hotel in the world. 7 stars?!? Only in Dubai. Unlike Las Vegas, they don't do casinos there because of the Muslim influence.
The Dubai economy originally started like most affluent middle eastern regions; with oil. Dubai, however, doesn't have an unlimited source of oil (unlike its neighbor Abu Dhabi) and has been transitioning over to other sources of revenue
such as tourism and finance. Once they decided to make this transition, they went in full force and never looked back. They are building like mad. In my humble opinion, they have overextended themselves and will feel the pain of that over extension in this time of economic trouble since tourism and finance are taking large beatings these days. Even though they still have some oil left, their economy will be hurt by this downturn more than most. They had about 200 buildings under construction or just plain empty. While I was there the government issued a 20 Billion dollar bond. It will be interesting to see Dubai in the next 5 to 10 years. They may have to hold off on their plans to build a theme park twice as large as Disney World (really).
While we did some fun stuff in Dubai; dinner in a Bedouin camp in the desert, watched a falconry display, went 4 wheeling in the sand dunes and skiing (yes, skiing in the desert), Dubai is fairly devoid of character and culture. The word "modern"was kicked around a lot, but whether modern means better is still up for debate.
A word about traveling
1st class and staying in 5 star hotels; I am a bit mixed about it. On the one hand, to have the finest of everything; nice firm mattresses, good water pressure and great food is hard to argue with. But on the other hand it is almost embarrassing to have all these people falling over themselves to try to help you, whether it is opening a door for you or trying to carry your bag. The constant smiles from the staff and their insane helpfulness sort of creeps me out. At the Oberoi hotel in India (rated one of the top 10 hotels in the world), there was a strange, unmarked button on the wall in my room that I pushed to see what it did (who can resist a random button?!?). 30 seconds later a guy knocks on my door asking in the characteristic Indian accent what he can do for me. I was a bit confused as I wasn't sure why he was there, but eventually we discovered that the button I had pushed was a Butler Button! This type of luxury numbs your brain and creates a bizarre reality. That said, I had the guy iron my
shirt.
The other thing is simply the cost. It just doesn't sit right with some part of me (the Jewish part most likely!). The cost of these rooms is, on average, $400 a night. While the room itself is very nice, it isn't $300 nicer than a Hampton Inn. Both places give you a roof, heat, A/C, running water and a decent bed. The Hampton even gives a complimentary breakfast which most of these 5 star hotels do not. Largely, the difference in price is in the service. This includes stuff like a turn down service at night. I personally don't care whether there is a mint on my pillow and the covers are folded over before I go to bed. And the staff constantly smiling at you is a bit unnerving. Now, I am not down playing the importance of good staff, because lord knows we've all had the complete idiot at reception that frustrates the living daylights out of you. But is it worth $300 a night? I suppose it's all relative and depends on how much money you have to burn. But for me, it seems like a bit of a waste. Not to mention, if you
are traveling alone and want to meet people, these luxury hotels are not the place to do it. Give me a good old fashioned hostel for that any day. It has been nice to stay in these hotels if, for nothing else, to see what they are like. Maybe I'll revisit them once in a while in the future, but I doubt I will make a habit of it.
Next stop - Tanzania and the Serengeti Plain
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 43; dbt: 0.039s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 3;
; mem: 1.1mb