mmmmmDubai

Okay, okay, so a large part of the reason I wanted to go to Dubai was to officially go to the Middle East. We didn't make it to Istanbul—a disappointment as we'd really looked forward to our visit and our friend Erel has made it sound like a wonderful place we had to see. But in the end it cost too much for us to make the hop so we reluctantly set it aside on this trip. Perhaps that's for the best … I think Adam and I will enjoy it more should we get to visit it with our friends Erel and Jeff.

But we found cheap flights to Dubai—indeed, it was the easiest way for us to get to India, traveling through Dubai. Perfect! I'd heard a lot about Dubai, most of it mixed, frankly, but my good friend Kat wrote about Dubai on her blog a few years ago and left me hungry to see it with my own eyes.

Frankly? It spoiled us horribly. We were there for about 30 hours, a single-night's stay, and in such a short time we were so wonderfully, disgustingly, pampered. Marble bathrooms. Hot water on demand! REAL mattresses, not just foam bricks! Air conditioning! International CNN on cable, and WiFi in the lobby—and all that is just the hotel we barely spent time in! Delicious after our camp outs in hovels in Africa.

Dubai is so unlike the other places we're recently been. I've written about the sadness of places like Cairo, cities of unfulfilled promise, cities of forgotten infrastructure projects, public housing works started and never finished, an entire country filled with a certain shrugging indifference as it inches closer towards the stone age. So sad to see that indifference, that progress withered on the vine, and the way it affects a population.

But Dubai! Whizzbang! Even in the midst of a global recession they are BUILDING. Adam quoted a statistic that there were more building cranes in active use in Dubai right now than anywhere else in the world! Oh sure, all you have to do is read the Times to know that they are in a mess right now, financing has dried up, people are skipping out of town to avoid debtor's prison, but despite all that—they are *busy*. I've never seen so much construction in all my life, all going on simultaneously, as if the ground itself were sprouting skyscrapers like seedlings after the rains.

And the buildings! Bizarre and wonderful! Always colorful glass, often in surprising shapes—tall and thin and willowy skyscrapers, delicate like reeds growing beside the bank of a river, nary a straight line. Or shapes like sails, billowing in the wind, over a hundred stories tall, one right next to another, jutting out on a man-made peninsula to capture the views … they are building a vast light rail system to connect the city via above-ground train, and each individual station looks like a giant cockroach carapace married to a stage rocket jettisoned from a post-modern spacecraft—bizarre, but fantastically so. It's a strange, futuristic city sprung up out of the desert like an oasis. Awesome in the true sense of the word. And there is so much of it.

And oh, how we reveled in the obvious westernization of it all . Our first Starbucks in over a month, and we found it in Dubai!

Starbucks Dubai.  Loving the Arabic logo.

Venti Iced Coffee in Dubai.  Mmm.

After our 9^th or 10^th identified brand name out of the taxi window we stopped poking at each other. You expect to see McDonald's and Burger King everywhere … but after Krispy Kreme, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Roundtable Pizza, Subway, Hardee's, Charlie O's, Foot Locker, Adidas, Nike, Tiffany, and on and on and on we stopped and simply stared.

We did the two most grossly tacky (and wonderful) things we could—we went to the Atlantis on Palm Island (that infamous man-made island jutting into the Persian Gulf in the shape of a giant palm frond) and SPLURGED on a 3-hour pass to the water park, riding the lazy river, the water slides, laughing and relaxing in the hot sun and washing the last vestiges of Egypt off of us. It was wonderful and we're sorry we have no pics of the experience but water parks and digital electronics do not mix.

A memory that will stay with me from the water park were the strict Muslim women, attired in head-to-toe black burka, a single slit to allow sight across the bridge of the nose, riding water slides. I was taken aback. But then, in the cab on the way out, we saw the following ad:

Note the swim goggles atop our model's covered head. It's a colorful, complicated, and interesting world, even in über-modern Dubai.

And of course we had to do Ski Dubai. I got into skiing via Ski Bums a few years ago, and the idea of skiing in the desert was just too tempting. Since so much of the population spends its time in the mall (to escape the 100+ desert temperatures and to spend that oil money) we had to head to the Mall of the Emirates, suit up in warm clothing, and ski for two hours. Wonderful, and once again, brilliantly executed. There is a certain bizarre indoor/outdoor feel to the ski slopes, and at the top of one hill there is a mini lodge where they'll make you hot chocolate, with whipped cream, and then covered in M&Ms …

Spoiled, I tell you. Truly spoiled!

They've thought of everything here. There is a strong “Yes, we can,” vibe about this city and they are not afraid to dream big. I covered the big, splashy attractions in Dubai, we even posted the video of our skiing in the desert, but it's the small details they've paid attention to that impacted me as well.

In Dubai, even the bus stops are air conditioned:

Oh, there are downsides to all this “civilization,” of course. One might suggest that it's a soulless place, made up of brand names and obvious come ons. Perhaps there is little culture outside of Nike logos and franchised Carl Jr.'s. So be it. This is essentially a fictional place created out of thin air by raw wealth. There was, in the desert, little to see before the glossy spectacle of modern-day Dubai. We loved it for exactly what it was.

But oh, the prices hurt. Even in a global recession with other countries slashing prices, Dubai remains expensive. You need to take a cab everywhere—there is no walking in Dubai and the light rail is not yet complete. Our hotel, the cheapest we could find, as lovely as it was, was still close to $40 for our one night—the priciest place we've been in yet. The water park, another splurge, and then skiing … we left Dubai grateful for the fun and luxury but with wallets hurting from the cost of all that jazz.

But we rationalized: It's our last stop of this sort. Forget modernity, marble baths, hot water on demand, International CNN, air conditioning … we are in for an adventure. Our 30 hours in Dubai, as extravagant as it was, was a perfect send off for the next leg of our trip: India!

Comments

[R]

Keep this stuff coming!

[Carol Renuart]

Well, it's been a month now. How do you like it so far?? Take care, both of you! Love, Aunt Carol

[Bill]

All this travel suits us! I was worried about getting homesick or missing some of the "basic necessities", from My Own Bed (TM) to a bathroom door with a lock. Hah! But it's been okay! There's been no time to get homesick, there's always so much to be seeing and doing. We'll see how the next couple of months goes--but so far, so great!

B.