November 16th, 2009
Two days in Dubai
I met a friend of a friend of mine in Los Angeles, who lived in Washington D.C., but her husband worked in Dubai. At the time, I never thought I’d have a chance to see the place, but last summer I actually found an opportunity to stay for a couple of days in one of the 4 star hotel Dubai offers, and now I have to join in on the conversation with others who have had a love-it, hate-it feeling. I’ll let you know right away that I’m on the love-it side of things. It’s an astonishing place…
First, even as you fly in, you can see this wild city out in the desert, in the middle of nothing. You see the desert, then wham, there’s the city.
Beautiful, shiny new, gleaming. When I was there, the temperature was around a hundred and five or so. I’ve lived through summers in Phoenix, Arizona, where it can be much hotter, but, as everyone says, it’s a dry heat. There’s really very little humidity, just be sure to drink lots of water and carry sunscreen with you.
Once you get accustomed to the heat, you can discover how beautiful this city really is — the Arabian Gulf is wonderful. Mamzar Beach has got to be one of the prettiest spots I’ve ever seen. Absolutely lovely. Clear green-blue water and white, soft sand.
Buildings in Dubai are an attraction all by themselves. I really wanted to see the world’s wealthiest city, Abu Dhabi, as well as the Emirates Palace Hotel, which is the costliest hotel in the world. At a price tag of three billion U.S. dollars, I was expecting the hotel to be over-the-top, but surprisingly the place was clean and quiet. Very interesting. Abu Dhabi, in fact, is building itself up as the center of culture in the UAE, arranging to bring the first branch of the Louvre. That costs 520 million in U.S. dollars!
On the last day, I grabbed a drink at one of Dubai’s most famous buildings, The Burj, the one resembling a sail boat in the ocean. It was great, but you might be surprised at the price. For two drinks and some canapes, my business partner and I paid $75 each.
I absolutely loved the wild exchange of cultures in Dubai, there were so many different people from so many different places. With only a couple of days, I’m not going to say how well I might know Dubai, but if ever I have the chance to come back again, I’ll be back.