planet dubai

welcome to planet dubai

tallest building in the world

cranes and fake lakes galore

gold atm: can withdraw from 1 gram to 1 ounce

emil says:
dubai is a tough one to write about. i walk away from our visit neither positive nor negative, just luke warm. vegas of the middle east it is not.  without casinos and without an accessible party scene dubai is probably a fantastic spot for the emirates who drive custom colored lamborghinis and cars i have never seen before, but it's not super fun for mere mortals. vegas seems tiny in comparison. dubai is a sprawl. new casinos in vegas usually physically replace old ones, in dubai they just keep on building malls and office space one after another after another. the cranes are all busy swinging around building new stuff right beside entire office buildings that read 'for lease' across the entire facade. it's a pretty cool story though. 50 years ago dubai found some oil, not a lot of it, and according to wikipedia the wells will run dry within 20 years. a quote by sheikh rashid bin saeed al maktoum describes the situation as "...my grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, i drive a mercedes, my son drives a land rover, his son will drive a land rover, but his son will ride a camel".  so a few clever dubian emiratis said 'ok let's try something crazy and build a western style economy based on real estate, tourism, and financial services.' if we build it, they will come is the route they chose. and so far it's working. if they can get beyond the '08 financial crisis they just might have pulled off something rather remarkable. modern dubai is a purposeful, planned creation. it's an insane concept. they put an x in the middle of the desert and transformed an oil based economy into a major european vacation destination and real estate empire. they created tax free zones, no regulation, no personal or corporate taxes.  they paid top dollar to bring world class sporting events to the middle of the arabian desert.  dubai is a unique spot. it's worth checking out a mall with a ski slope within its interior. it's worth checking out a series of manmade islands in the shape of an enourmous palm tree. it's worth seeing thousands of construction cranes swinging around building something even more ridiculous than before.  i would come back again but only after 10 or 20 years to see if this experiment has actually worked. 

fake bridge, fake lake, true love

brand new subway station to nowhere

ski resort within a mall

spice market in old town

old town meets new

m.c. hammer gettin ready for some off-roading

dune bashing

i drive a benz, but the tourist wants a camel ride

closest thing to a polish eagle

i didn't inhale

laurel says:
take every stereotype and pre-concieved notion you have about dubai and multiply it times 10.  yes, it is as fake, gaudy and as ott as you imagined.  dubai for me is a combination of las vegas and singapore set in the arabian desert.  it mirrors vegas in its quest to have the newest, best, biggest, most ridiculous thing.  tallest building in the world, check.  indoor ski resort, check.  islands in the shape of a palm tree, check.  but unlike vegas the party scene here is less than stellar.  islamic law forbids alcohol so the only establishments that can serve booze are hotels.  and the markup is ridiculous, squashing any chance at debauchery.  the singapore influence is reflected in all the laws and policies that are in place.  you can't go here, can't go there.  there are rules galore and exclusivity is the name of the game.  but beyond the quirks, dubai is definitely a fun place to check out.  for my first taste of the middle east i was shocked at how westernized dubai was.  case in point: as we were sitting in dubai mall (fyi the biggest mall in the world) all of a sudden i heard clapping ringing out.  as i turned around, i realized it was a group of arabs country line dancing to 'watermelon crawl' in the texas roadhouse restaurant.  it was one of those moments where you just wonder where in the world are you?  if you want a slice of the more authentic dubai, you have to head to the old part of town that existed long before the emeratis gave it a billion dollar makeover.  here the gold markets, spice bazars and old mosques provide a glimpse at the real dubai.  all in all dubai is worthy of a 2 day stopover in route to your final destination.  but there is not enough authenticity here to warrant an exclusive visit.

old town dubai

palm jumeriah islands as (barely) seen from our plane