Advertisement
Published: February 16th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Dubai Skyline
The building which looks like my antennas will be the tallest building in world when completed with 180 floors. Last week I was in Dubai for Arap Lab exhibition. Actually before Dubai was somewhere I have been and I have not been. During the times I used to fly back and forth to Australia when I was studying, I had to stop in Dubai for transfer. I saw the city from the sky with all lights and skyscapers and even from that distance I could feel the wealth and luxury city had. This time I had chance to get out of the airport and feel the city.
February is the coldest time in Dubai and one wonders how it is like in Summer if it is 20-25 C when it is coldest. From the time I got out of the plane most of the faces I saw around me were Indian, Pakistani and Philipino. Dubai is completely an outsourced city. All the jobs in service sector are done by these people. The ones who are serving you in the restaurants, who are carrying your bags in the hotels and who are driving you in taxies are foreigners who came to Dubai for work. So English is the common language everywhere. Most of the international companies have middle east offices
in Dubai and they get very good tax reductions if they give a share to locals. So local Emiratis people simply don't work, just count the money they get from these companies or from government jobs.
First few days we had little chance to see around owing to the heavy schedule. The city has a serious transportation problem. Trafic jams are common even the roads are built with at least 4 lanes. First day thought us not to look for a taxi between 6- 9 p.m. After waiting 90 minutes in a taxi queue, we gave up and headed for a dinner. I have not seen such madness never ever before. This high demand for taxies must have given some taxi drivers a king like feeling. In one occasion one of these drivers have given us such an attitude, I almost got into a fist fight with this guy. Thanks to god the following days I ran into drivers who were nice enough to neutralize my view for the drivers of this city.
In our second day We have been to a club which turned out to be a place where many sex workers were looking for customers.
As the men to women ratio in Dubai is 70 to 30, many females mainly from China, old Soviet countries and Africa come to the city to make some money from the oldest profession of the manhood. But one pleasent suprise while clubbing was I ran into one of the best live music I have listened in Hotel Moscow's club. A russian band was playing hard rock in English and Russian. Not something you expect in a half club, half brothel in the middle of an Arabic desert.
If one is found of shopping, Dubai is a great place. Electronic stuff is quiet cheap and malls are open till late hours. We have been to Emirates mall where they built a ski center in the middle of the mall with artificial snow. Again Dubai suprised me with a ski center is in the middle of a desert. While mentioning about desert actually Dubai is a green city with many parks and trees. And keeping a tree green costs like 10 thousand US $ a year. All water needed for daily usuage including drinking is distilled from sea water.
My last day I had some spare time till my
flight. So I decided to have a walk in Jumeria beach where the famous 7 star Burj el-Arab hotel is located. I started walking like 8 a.m. in the morning. Weather was very nice like 20 C and water was crystal clear. I regretted not to have brought a towel with me. There were people even kids who were swimming. Burj el-Arab was visible in the horizon and I walked there sometimes getting in the sea till my knees, sometimes sitting on the rocks, watching people who are running, fishing and walking with their dogs. Behind the beach luxurious neighbourhoods were located with villas jeeps parked in front of them. After about 2 hours I reached Burj al-Arab. Seeing inside of this hotel was possible if you pay 100 US $ in the entrance. I neither had the time nor the curiosity.
So 6 days were gone with the wind. When the plane landed off I was thinking can ten rich Dubais make my one humble Istanbul. Definetely not, so I went sleeping.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0514s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Brian Atkin
non-member comment
Nice blog
Hi Gorkem, Sounds like a good trip! Talk to you later. Cheers, Brian, Zeke and Meredith.