Feb 16, 2008 - home from Dubai
We are back in London - and it is super cold!! We left and it was in the 40's, now down around 20..brrrr...It always feels worse when you have come from a sunny place.
We had a terrific trip to Dubai..we stayed at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel, which overlooks the gorgeous Burg Al Arab Hotel (the one shaped like a sailboat).
Let me tell you about the United Arab Emirates. It's a collection of seven tiny Persian Gulf sheikhdoms welded together in 1972, (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujaira, Ajman, Umm al Qaiwan, and Ras al-Kaimah) with their respective leaders being upgraded from sheikhs to emirs.
They were fishing villages until oil was found in Abu Dhabi and pumped out in quantity in the 1960s. With one exception, the other emirates were happy to kick back and live off Abu Dhabi's largesse. The exception was Dubai. The Maktoum clan of the Babi Yas tribe that runs Dubai have always been traders. So they made a decision in the 1970s to prosper on their own.
They did it by transforming their fishing village into the Hong Kong of the Middle East. Their success in doing so has been beyond spectacular.
If you associate "Arabs" with "camel-herding" and "poverty," if you visit Dubai you're in for the shock of your life. For openers, there's the world's only seven star hotel, the Burj al-Arab (above photo)
(Jumeriah Beach Hotel - shaped like a wave)
The amount of business being done in Dubai is staggering, The Dubai International Finance Center, with millions of square feet of state-of-the-art hi-tech office space, is rapidly becoming the Wall Street of the Middle East. The architecture is lovely - with amazing new sky scrapers that look fantastic.
With a $5 billion dollar project called Dubailand, it plans on being the Disneyland of the Middle East, with 15 million additional tourists as year. There is also a hotel being built underwater. I am sure you have seen the photo of the man made island development shaped like a palm tree - you can see it from space they say - now they are making a man made set of islands shaped like the world...cool...
There are millions of tourists and businessmen coming every year to Dubai already. The lubricant of tourism, of course, is booze, rivers of which flow through Dubai's hotels, bars, and discos. Remember this is a Muslim country.
You would think that this debauch of money, booze, and sex would outrage the Islamists. Yet Dubai has never been hit with a terrorist attack. That's because Dubai, besides being the Middle East's Hong Kong, Wall Street, Disneyland, and Las Vegas, is also the Middle East's Switzerland, where everyone's money is handled with equal discretion.
We spent most of our days by the pool or the Water Park, and went to see the Worlds Largest Mall - the Mall of the Emirates, were Rolls Royce cars dropped off weathy people from around the globe. There is an indoor ski slope - too cool to see...its a 400 foot run, you can rent everything you need, down to the snow suit and boots!!
For those still reading this..some great videos from the waterpark...lots of wedgies!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeuDBfTwi8A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-d5ASozADk&feature=related
Ski Dubia - inside the mall!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tjkkj8VrVfE
It was wonderful to see muslim people so up close. I rode down a water slide behind 4 20-something middle eastern men, as they whooped and hollered through the entire ride - like any 20 somethings I am used to seeing. The moms at the water park were covered from head to toe in black, with only their eyes (sparkling with happiness) watching their children play, then getting their coverings soaked by the waves and wet children...we saw a young woman at the airport flight check in, getting irritated with something with her airline...without even knowing it I'm sure, she unraveled her hair cover to reveal lovely straight black hair, pulled back in a banana clip...then as her irritation grew, she opened her aryam, (burka) and she was wearing a lovely light blue Juicy track suit and cute sneakers..she was no different than what Lauren looked like traveling..underneath we are all the same...it was a pleasure to see that.
Love you all
Amy
We had a terrific trip to Dubai..we stayed at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel, which overlooks the gorgeous Burg Al Arab Hotel (the one shaped like a sailboat).
Let me tell you about the United Arab Emirates. It's a collection of seven tiny Persian Gulf sheikhdoms welded together in 1972, (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujaira, Ajman, Umm al Qaiwan, and Ras al-Kaimah) with their respective leaders being upgraded from sheikhs to emirs.
They were fishing villages until oil was found in Abu Dhabi and pumped out in quantity in the 1960s. With one exception, the other emirates were happy to kick back and live off Abu Dhabi's largesse. The exception was Dubai. The Maktoum clan of the Babi Yas tribe that runs Dubai have always been traders. So they made a decision in the 1970s to prosper on their own.
They did it by transforming their fishing village into the Hong Kong of the Middle East. Their success in doing so has been beyond spectacular.
If you associate "Arabs" with "camel-herding" and "poverty," if you visit Dubai you're in for the shock of your life. For openers, there's the world's only seven star hotel, the Burj al-Arab (above photo)
(Jumeriah Beach Hotel - shaped like a wave)The amount of business being done in Dubai is staggering, The Dubai International Finance Center, with millions of square feet of state-of-the-art hi-tech office space, is rapidly becoming the Wall Street of the Middle East. The architecture is lovely - with amazing new sky scrapers that look fantastic.
With a $5 billion dollar project called Dubailand, it plans on being the Disneyland of the Middle East, with 15 million additional tourists as year. There is also a hotel being built underwater. I am sure you have seen the photo of the man made island development shaped like a palm tree - you can see it from space they say - now they are making a man made set of islands shaped like the world...cool...
There are millions of tourists and businessmen coming every year to Dubai already. The lubricant of tourism, of course, is booze, rivers of which flow through Dubai's hotels, bars, and discos. Remember this is a Muslim country.
You would think that this debauch of money, booze, and sex would outrage the Islamists. Yet Dubai has never been hit with a terrorist attack. That's because Dubai, besides being the Middle East's Hong Kong, Wall Street, Disneyland, and Las Vegas, is also the Middle East's Switzerland, where everyone's money is handled with equal discretion.
We spent most of our days by the pool or the Water Park, and went to see the Worlds Largest Mall - the Mall of the Emirates, were Rolls Royce cars dropped off weathy people from around the globe. There is an indoor ski slope - too cool to see...its a 400 foot run, you can rent everything you need, down to the snow suit and boots!!
For those still reading this..some great videos from the waterpark...lots of wedgies!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeuDBfTwi8A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-d5ASozADk&feature=related
Ski Dubia - inside the mall!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tjkkj8VrVfE
It was wonderful to see muslim people so up close. I rode down a water slide behind 4 20-something middle eastern men, as they whooped and hollered through the entire ride - like any 20 somethings I am used to seeing. The moms at the water park were covered from head to toe in black, with only their eyes (sparkling with happiness) watching their children play, then getting their coverings soaked by the waves and wet children...we saw a young woman at the airport flight check in, getting irritated with something with her airline...without even knowing it I'm sure, she unraveled her hair cover to reveal lovely straight black hair, pulled back in a banana clip...then as her irritation grew, she opened her aryam, (burka) and she was wearing a lovely light blue Juicy track suit and cute sneakers..she was no different than what Lauren looked like traveling..underneath we are all the same...it was a pleasure to see that.
I saw some of the most beautifully adorned sets of eyes...
Our religions all started in the same place, in the desert with Sarah and Abraham, with one son going on to found Islam and one Judism..we all believe in one God, who asks us to pray to him alone, and treat others properly. We go a little astray with the interpretations our religious leaders impose, with our man-made rules. And of course, we all have zealots at each extreme which give Christians or Muslims a "fanatical side."
Anyway, great experience, most eye opening of all. God has blessed us with this wonderful view of our wide word, and I hope it will have a lasting effect on all of us. To be more open and tolerant of that which we know nothing about.
Anyway, great experience, most eye opening of all. God has blessed us with this wonderful view of our wide word, and I hope it will have a lasting effect on all of us. To be more open and tolerant of that which we know nothing about.
Bob and I are going out to dinner tonight - hope we can stay awake past 8pm - last night we all were asleep by 8:30....long day.
Love you all
Amy
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