A 2-hour Tour of Dubai

Dubai is an interesting city. 40 years ago the area was little more than desert, and now it is a large city that boasts a lot of the world’s tallest buildings, the world’s longest unmanned metro, crazy expensive hotels, the fascinating Palm Island, and just about every North American store you can name.

Let me elaborate:

The world’s tallest building is Burj Khalifa. I saw it today, but I did not go inside. Maybe on the layover on the way back.

The world’s longest unmanned metro is the blue tram in this picture. Think of the unmanned metros in airports or in Las Vegas as an example, and the multiply it by the length of an entire city.

Burj Al Arab is not very tall, but its rooms start at $2500 a night and go up to $28,000 per night. It is on Jumeirah Beach, a beautiful beach and posh residential area where only those native to UAE are allowed to buy land/homes.

I don’t have my own aeriel view of Palm Island, but here are some condos on the “trunk” of the palm. Google the island to know what I am talking about. These condos can be owned by foreigners, and they go for half a million dollars at least. Just so you know, UAE is 80% foreigners.

Villas on the Palm Island fronds go for $6 million at least.

The Atlantis Hotel at the crest of the Palm has rooms as high as $35,000 per night.

That building with a dome is the tallest domed building in the world. There is a twisted building to the right of it that is hard to see, but it is the tallest twisted building in the world. Keep in mind this is all according to my tour guide, and not backed up with researched facts.

I touched the Arabian Sea!

Here is me at a random mosque.

There are two Tim Horton’s in Dubai but none in Texas. WHY?!?!

I will be putting up an album with more photos on Facebook for those of you who have access to my profile. In closing, the tour I went on was really focused on the buildings of Dubai and not the culture or much of anything else. I guess it is hard to have a unique culture when you are only 40 years old and 80% foreigners. One final thing that I thought was interesting: most of the billboard advertisements featured Caucasian people, not Middle Eastern people like I would have expected.

More tomorrow after I arrive in Zambia!!!