The Disneyland that is Dubai

A bird's eye view of Dubai

I looked down from the airplane to a sea of lights stretching to infinity. One look at the airport and it served as an initial introduction to Dubai - in plain and simple terms a land of superlatives. When people from the outside world discuss Dubai its difficult not to use terms like biggest, most expensive, one of a kind or best. Simply put - a land of no compromises!Drive around the night and the skyline is one huge construction site with monstrous crane after crane sitting atop skycrapers in different stages of completion, alongside massive public works projects including a metro rail system and a maze of flyovers. And when we talk buildings here we are not referring to Soviet style matchbox buildings - they are stunning visual structures in steel, glass and concrete, each one competing with the other for bragging rights! On top of that the city plans to grow at least 10% each year for the next decade. When we talk about developments - they are nothing short of well - obscene, ranging from the trio of 'Palm islands' to the 'World and Universe islands' and to the 'greater than Hong Kong' 80km stretch of property development from Dubai towards Abu Dhabi. From discussions with residents I have learnt that it is not uncommon for each apartment to change hands multiple times before completion with rates ranging from USD 500 - 800 per sq.ft; we are talking serious money here! If you drive on the main road from Dubai to Abu Dhabi one thing that you notice is that 98% of the billboard signs are from real-estate firms - Emaar, Tamweel, Rimraan, Nakheel .... all promising your dream house from lovely villa's costing over a million dollars to high-rise apartment complexes with panoramic views. The remaining 2% are distributed between banks who provided the loans .... and well - everything else on sale. The payment systems are flexible - so what you see is that properties are being flipped multiple times even before being ready for occupancy. So the market seems to be flooded with speculators - some reason seems strikingly similar to the situation back home in the USA. Additionally if you drive around at night, many of the buildings seem like ghost towns - devoid of occupants with the sole lights coming from the strobes that illuminate the glass and concrete structure. Is this about to collapse - only time will tell; but I suspect as long as petrodollars continue to flood this market there will be some gains to be made. Walking around the malls in Dubai you realize how diverse Dubai actually is. From what I was given to understand only 15% of Dubai's population is local - the rest are comprised of expatriates; this is not very hard to see. It would seem that half of the South Asian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh etc.) is here. A huge number would most certainly be engaged in the burgeoning construction industry, but there are a significant number in the services sector too. In here I see the dichotomy in society - the way the costs are escalating here what you end up having are two classes of society - the haves, and the have-not's who serve the former. First you have the locals - the Emiratis who seem to live life of sheer luxury. Interesting hobby was to spot them at the mall, with multiple wives and kids in tow along with the ubiquitous Philippino maid handling the bags and taking care of the kids. Following them down the food-chain are the expatriates who function as advisors and executives in the firms around here. I guess here they can live a lifestyle which cannot be accomodated in their native country - flitting between work and social events. Below that come in middle class drawn from several countries - with a huge presence from India, Pakistan, Lebanon and surrounding nations; drawn by no income tax and an aim to repatriate most of their earnings back home. They live in relatively modest accomodations, sometimes with multiple families living together - the rents being sky high to afford some privacy for themselves. But the worst of the lot is the one that comes right at the bottom - the labor class. They are here sweltering in the heat in the hope of being able to save up for their family back home. The ignorance and illeteracy makes them targets of exploitation from time to time. In this place your position and role in the pecking order is well defined - and you dare not risk trying to do so. I will have to admit that this was one of the few things I found quite difficult to digest, since I have been raised to treat each and every person with dignity irrespective of their race, creed or status - and this very discrimination seemed to be institutionalized and justified by many.One thing that does unite all the people irrespective of race, language, religon is the love for shopping.... well, I would be led to believe if you don't like shopping - then maybe, just maybe Dubai isn't quite the place for you. Go on any day, morning, evening or night and you will see all the malls packed with people. The situation becomes absolutely chaotic over the weekends with 'extended' hours to mid-night. Many people prefer to spend their weekend 'outings' well - going out on shopping trips. Don't get me wrong, if you like this activity - then you need not consider any place beyond Dubai to indulge yourself. You have every conceivable brand from all over the world converged to the multiple malls that dot the landscape. The malls themselves can be considered to be mini-cities with multiple themes (try Egypt, India, Iran, Turkish, Florence for starters) and possibly all that you would want ..... did anyone say ski... yup, that's also there.... along with opera singers and circuses all under the same roof. Mercifully for me there were a few other activities which like minded folks who shy away from the malls can undertake, two of which deserve special mention... cause I tried them out. One is quad-biking over the dunes... sans protective gear! Bloody dangerous you would think.... bloody fun I would say. Only recommendation is go during the cooler part of the day (decide what that is depending upon the time of the year) otherwise the sand well - wouldn't be too much fun. And the other is - scuba diving. Part of Dubai's attraction is that well, if it ain't there we will build it. So they may not have coral reefs at present, but they have sunk one tanker and are in the process of sinking an Airbus A330 with some added limestone for good measure to 'attract' the coral. Should be interesting hunting grounds for sure.... And if you are serious about this - consider the PADI dive center at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel for dives and for certification, if you are lucky you will get Elena to teach you. What you end up getting is a terrific lassie with a Russian humor, and a brilliant instructor. I stand as testiment to this - for now I have a diving license and have had a few thoroughly enjoyable experiences in the ocean..... and yet am a mediocre swimmer at best! oooh, that was so much fun!!!!Coming back to cultural aspects inspite of being an Islamic state I would have to agree with the majority that Dubai is the most liberal that exists. However there still are a few 'broad guidelines' which need to be lived by. For example - alcohol here is only available at the major hotels which makes it pretty darn expensive. On the flip side they allow 4 liters of alcohol per individual at the airport and pretty much everyone makes a trip to the Duty Free before heading out. That brings me to an interesting aspect of this state - that of state exerted 'moral authority' which I am not sure what to make out. For example if you are a Muslim you are not permitted to buy alcohol. Gambling is forbidden in the country. Rumors abound that when the Burg Al Arab hotel was built, initial plans called it to be positioned off the coast so that it could technically qualify as being outside an Islamic state and hence be permitted to conduct casino style operations. When there was a disinclination to consider as such, it the builders pointed out to the astronomical cost incurred during construction - rumored to be close to $1 billion. From heresay I was given to understand that at this argument a check was handed over which effectively silenced the issue. On the same breadth it must be said that several websites (and I don't mean only porn) are unavailable since they conflit with the 'moral and religous' ideals of the U.A.E. What puzzles me is that if this is the case how come you have so many women working in the 'service' industry here which doesn't seem to be terribly hidden away under the carpet? In someways I sensed a bit of hypocrisy.... but well, I could say the same for many other states - both in the western and eastern world.I arrived here at a time when most people who can afford it prefer to flee the country for cooler climes. Most days by 08:00 the temperature is well above 40C and on most occasions it is terribly humid. What interested me was the fact that from dawn to dusk the air seemed to be blanketed by smog, possibly caused due to the construction, mixed with sand and water. This was so bad that you could not discern even prominent landmarks such as the Burj Al Arab in the horizon. I wonder a bit what is the use to construct such high buildings when if you looked outside you couldn't see a thing; maybe this a something that changes during the cooler period of the year... maybe we will get an opportunity to experience the same.Now that I am leaving Dubai, I am left with conflicting thoughts about whether I would like to come back. Of course the fast paced lifestyle, and the availability of everything (for a price of course), along with the proximity to home is an attraction. On the otherhand the artificial nature of life that I experienced, the lack of the trees and mountains which I absolutely adore and the cooler climes that I enjoy have made me stop and think about it. If you ever decide to come and live in the Middle-east there this is the price that must be paid.... and I guess it all depends which of those you can live with, and those which you cannot do without.