Desert Storm – Dubai

Well, its stranded in the middle of the desert, literally.


I read comments about Dubai being called a “ mirage” apparently it kinda is one.

My Dubai consisted of  business, a Hummer through the sand and a snapsot of the highlights, oh and a mini desert storm.

Dubai in a whirlwind of 48 hours:

1. Burj el Arab and the Jumeirah region:

This is the area where the Emirates-locals and the Royal family lives. Regarding the Burj, conspiracy theory says that the architecture is shaped like a sail if you approach it from the front, and like a cross if you approach it from the sea.

2. Burj Khalifa:

Ok, this building tops any of the skyscrapers I have ever seen. Its menkind at its limits. 824 metres and an observatory at 124th floor... But just one question, who cleans the windows?

3. Hotels and Dining:

One and only Royal Mirage hotel could be interesting for an evening dinner. Its just off the beach and serene setting. But you’re spoilt for choices for hotels in this city anyhow (Sheraton, Radisson, Westin, The Palm, Atlantis etc etc...). Ours was the Media One Hotel- just in the heart of the Media City quarter.Reasonable for a business trip.

The Meat Co at the Dubai Mall is a great for dining as well. They even to personalized knives for the regulars !

4. Shopping:

a. The Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates: With over 470+shops in Mall of the Emirates and a huge diversity including Dean&Deluca to Chanel, choices for shopping are endless.

b. Then there is the Global Village, the JBR and the Dubai Marina as well.



Here’s a quotation from the Guardian, thanks to a recommendation by my friend Geoff,enjoy!

“When I first read about all this stuff, I felt a bit uneasy. None of it sounded real or even vaguely sustainable. I'd been to Las Vegas a few times and seen crazy developments come and go. The first time I visited, the hot new attractions were the Luxor, an immense onyx pyramid, and Treasure Island, a pirate fantasy world replete with lifesize galleons bobbing outside it. Roughly halfway between the pair of them, a replica New York was under construction. By my next visit, the novelty value of both the Luxor and Treasure Island had long since palled, and they now seemed less exotic than Chessington World of Adventures. Meanwhile, unreal New York had been joined by unreal Paris and unreal Venice.

But even at their most huge and demented, none of these insane monuments looked as huge and demented as the projects being announced in Dubai. Yet the novelties, while larger, were wearing thin even more quickly. Dubai's The World archipelago hadn't even opened when the same developers announced The Universe, thereby making The World sound like a rather diminished prototype before anyone had moved in.

In the cold light of 2009, Dubai resembles a mystical Oz that was somehow accidentally wished into existence during an insane decade-long drugs bender. Those psychedelic structures, pictured in a fever by the mad and privileged, physically constructed by the poor and exploited, now look downright embarrassing, like a Facebook photo of a drunken mistake, as though someone somewhere is going to wake up and groan, "Oh my head . . . what did I do last night? Huh? I bankrolled a $200bn hotel in the shape of a croissant? I shipped the workers in from India and paid them how little? Oh man! The shame. What was I thinking?"

For more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/30/charlie-brooker-dubai-dream-crashes