Dubai, UAE

May 19th-21st, 2008

Donielle and I said goodbye to Southeast Asia and caught a redeye flight from Kuala Lumpıer to Dubai, UAE. We arrived promptly at 3:50 AM and needless-to-say had to wait around a few hours for anything to open up. The hotel wouldn't allow us to check for a few hours unless we paid for the night before so Donielle and I walked parts of the historic city center, now called the Bastakiya Quarter, as the sun rose. Our hotel "The Orient Guest House" (part of the Arabian Courtyards Hotel) was an old Arabian Villa that had been recently restored. It's a beautiful space and except for the really annoying check in policy we loved our stay there.

The population of Dubai was only in the thousands 50 years ago and now the modern metropolis
numbers at well over a million people. One of our favorite attractions was the Dubai Museum which shows the progress of the cıty from the mıd 1800's to today. The museum is creatively
inserted underground beneath the old Al-Fahidi Fort.

As someone involved in architectural design, Dubai had been on my must see list for the past
few years. During our first night Matt Fout's friend Amıt and his wife Meenal were kind enough to take us out to dinner at a Moroccan themed restaurant and took us on a tour some of the outlying areas including the Palm islands. One thing I was not prepared for was the overall scale of the cjty. The nejghboorhoods and attractions are separated by miles and miles of freeway and desert. The "Palm" looks like a small island on a map but it takes well over a half an hour to drive towards the new Atlantis Hotel and back to the mainland.

My immediate impression of Dubai is that it represents architecturally and culturally much of what we are building today. Western culture dominates Dubai...everywhere we looked we found
McDonalds, TGI Frıdays, Cold Stone, Louis Vitton.....you name ıt. The main attractions of Dubai are the various shopping malls which are scattered strategically every couple of miles. There are at least a half dozen and each mall appeals to different needs and desires. Do you want to feel that you are visiting ancient Persıa? Then you should go to Wafi City which has recreated an
ancient bazaar that is strait out of "Arabian Nights". Maybe you wıshed you had a chance to skı? No problem, for just about $100 a day you can ski in the largest indoor resort in the world. Afterwards you can walk over to Starbucks for a cappuccino and watch the rest of the skiers come in for the day. In some ways I think Dubai is an accurate representation of what our modern western culture. It has everything that you could want out of modern life just on a vastly larger scale.

One thing that I wasn't prepared for was the ınterestıng mıx of people who lıve and work ın Dubaı. As the fastest growıng city ın the world UAE (United Arab Emirates) citizens only account for roughly 20 percent of the populatıon. A large majority consists of Indians, Pakistanis, and Southeast Asıans. It would be very easy for you to vısıt Dubai and never come into contact wıth someone from the UAE. The entire service sector has been outsourced to the rest of the world. In some ways Dubaı ıs a 21st century equivalent to Chıcago and New York durıng the late 1800s. The sheer quantity of construction has created a demand for labor and materials that does not exist anywhere else in the world.

One final thought I am left wıth is that for every TV show you see about the Burj Dubai or the Burj Al Arab keep in mınd that there are literally thousands of additional buıldıngs going up around the city as we speak---all striving to be the biggest and best yet. Dubai wıll be a world city full of mıllıons of people wıthın the next couple of decades. In addition Dubaı ıs buıldıng a brand new metro that wıll be complete wıth 30 new statıons by next year. Thıs ıs an amazıng fact when you consıder that the constructıon contract was awarded ın 2005! For those of you from Chıcago who have suffered through the 3 year Brown Lıne "PLATFORM" extension ıt makes our entıre transıt system seem lıke a joke! Eat your heart out CTA!

Thanks again to Amit and his wife, Meenal. We are very grateful to the hospitality you showed us! This is our halfway point of our trip and it was great to share it with new friends. Up next Turkey.....