Dubai is one of the seven emirates and the most populous state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was only a 3 hour plane flight on Fly Dubai from Djibouti. We flew across the Gulf of Aden,over the vast expanse of mountains and sand which is Yemen and the southern tip of Saudie Arabia. I met John there for a 3-day weekend, when he was returning from a short business trip to the US to set up some salt test protocols at a lab in New Iberia, LA.
It is an amazing place. Dubai has been ruled by the Al Maktoum dynasty since 1833. Dubai's current ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is also the Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE.
It was the current ruler's father who truly had the vision that is now Dubai. Even though the city of Dubai is over 150 years old, the modern city itself has been built since 1968 when oil was discovered there. The vision of the late ruler was to take this original oil money and invest in education, health and infrastructure. Today the emirate's main revenues are from tourism, real estate and financial services. Less than 7% of their revenue is derived from natural gas or petroleum products.
The city is very modern, clean, civil and organized. Although there is an immense number of vehicles on the road, they all look new. The taxis are owned by 5 different companies. The cab drivers all wear uniforms, are polite, punctual and the cars they drive smell like new. They do not own their own cabs. They are paid commission for their work. We took the BIG BUS (hop-on hop-off)double decker bus in order to get a tour of the more modern parts of the city and to get a chance to visit all of the many shopping malls there. We took taxis everywhere else.
The malls are incredible. The largest mall is The Dubai Mall with over 1200 stores. One of the malls even has a ski resort right in the middle. We peered through large glass windows, watching ski lifts carry skiers, bundled up in their ski jackets up the snow-covered hill. We watched them ski down and watched little kids with innertubes on a little bunny hill. There was even a small tobogan run inside the resort. Amazing! All of this happening, when the outside temperature is 90 degrees.
Because of the remaining uncertain economic environment, there are many skyscrapers with cranes atop whose construction has been temporarily halted. Other building projects are going ahead as planned. There are still many guest workers in Dubai from all over, especially the Phillipines, Malasia, India and Egypt. All of the taxi drivers, waiters, maids and construction workers are guest workers. The human trafficing, sex trade and money laundering we hear takes place in Dubai is well hidden. I am told that this activity is due to recent Mafia influences, not the ruling family.
Dubai has absolutely beautiful beach resorts, tall, unusually shaped hotel buildings, even airconditioned bus stops. In the last picture above, I am standing in front of one of them. They are planning to build a theme park Xtimes larger and more elaborate than Disney World in the near future.
Dubai is a very international city. There is every imaginable restaurant type available. John and I stayed at the JW Marriott and enjoyed both their American Style Steak House and their lovely Italian restaurant. Both were delicious with excellent service.
I will do two more blogs about Dubai. 1. THE OLD DUBAI with its Spice Souk and Dhows.
2. Fashion
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