Dubai, U.A.E. III

At night, we were brought to this fancy hotel area. This is the famous seven-star hotel, The Burj Al-Arab. As far as I know, it costs about 1000 dollars to stay for the cheapest room. Depending on the room, you could stay at this hotel for 25,000 dollars. The top round platform is a tennis court.

The hotel we stopped by is called, The Palace, and this is also a rich hotel. When I went in, I saw a group of Japanese tourists. It seemed they were staying here. Those hotels are targeting those rich tourists, but not me! This hotel also costs about 1000 dollars for the cheapest hotel room.

This was a little decoration pool with pink rose petals. It was very beautiful with the candle lights!

For the first time, I smoked water tobacco. Because I had never smoked before, I couldn’t tell how much I was supposed to inhale. I didn’t cough which I would have expected to do, so probably I didn’t do it right. It tasted more mint than the fruity taste I was supposed to taste.

	Menu in Arabic. You read from the right to the left.
	No worries. There is an English menu, too.

Because Dubai is a very international city, everything is in Arabic and English even street signs. In restaurants, because workers are all foreigners, you don’t order in Arabic, but rather in English. This culture is really convenient for tourists.
The building that is going to be the tallest building in the world is still under construction. It looks like a residential building.

In Dubai, it seems everything has to be the first in the world, like the tallest, the richest, the biggest etc. Also, there is no such a thing as budget for building something new here. If they need more money during the construction, then they add more money.

Lots of more buildings are under construction. Can you see all the cranes?

The city center of Dubai at 5 in the morning from a taxi on the way to the airport. This trip was only for five days, but I really enjoyed it. I feel like I was there for longer time somehow. I guess there are going to be more buildings if I visit here next time. I wonder if there is such a thing as a completion date of Dubai.

Dubai, U.A.E. II

Driving in Internet City. Many IT companies are here. This city was made about five years ago, and not that many people knew about this area back then. Well, ten years ago, the word “internet” was not spread out in public that much, so from the naming of this city still carries the “new” atmosphere in that sense.

Lunch. There are three different kinds (chicken, lamb and beef) Kababs and Quesadilla-looking pizza with rice. Oh boy. This was good!

	Constructions are everywhere. From what I see, there are more and more residential buildings, but also office buildings and hotels. About fifty percent of world-wide cranes are collected here. They try to bring in as many as cranes as possible to accelerate the constructions of the whole city.
I saw some Japanese cranes also. Japanese names in Japanese were still on the cranes. I am not sure if Japanese companies are here to build buildings or local companies here purchased those “left-over” cranes from Japan. If it is the latter, for sure they didn’t bother taking the Japanese name off the crane.
	Most of the construction workers are from Philippines and India. I think there are more Indians than Pilipino though. This is their commuting bus.

It seems workers are given a place (shelter?) to sleep, and busses like this or even bigger ones like Greyhound buses bring them back and forth between their construction site and the shelter.
I can’t imagine how it is like to work from early morning to evening in 100 degree Fahrenheit.

Because of the extreme changes in Dubai, it seems their rent now costs three times more compared to three years ago. However, their wage did not increase that much, so most of the foreign people were forced to leave the country. Local Arabian residents are only ten percent of the population, and most of them have their own business and very rich. The rest of population is immigrants.

Another view. I can’t tell where I was, but somewhere in Dubai.

Rich people have their driver, but a lot of people seem to use this public transportation. This is like a water bus.

This crazy city has something crazy like this. In the middle, you can see the ski slope. When outside is 100F (40c), you can enjoy ski. Can you imagine the cost of cooling system for this place?

From the inside. Can you see the real ski lift?

This ski slope is attached to a huge shopping mall, so you can have dinner by watching the skiers. As a matter of fact, I also had dinner in a restaurant where I could see the ski slope. It was strange to enjoy sushi in the desert right next to ski slope.

Dubai, U.A.E.

From the 9th of June until the 14th, I went to Dubai. The first day, I arrived very early on Sunday, so I had a chance to take a Safari Tour out to the desert. This view continues for miles and miles away.

The sun is very close! HOT HOT HOT! like 100F (40C)!

6 jeeps go one after another, just to make sure that every jeep is running fine. If one of the jeeps get stuck in the sand, then others are there to help.

This is a really bumpy ride. I felt like we were going down on 60 degree angle hills all the time. When the jeep goes down sideways like this, it is almost like snowboarding. It is half sliding down the slope side ways. The scary part is that I felt like the jeep would almost roll over. You can see that the sands from the wheels are coming up pretty high. You can also see the jeep tracks on the hills.

This is when the jeep is going straight down the hill. You can see the ground right up on the fron window. That is how steep some hills are. One time, our driver went really fast, and the jeep hit the ground really hard at the front. I couldn't breath for a second. After that, the driver was more careful driving hills.

Wild Camels! We passed by them. They were hand-cuffed on their front feet not to go too far or run fast. Are they really wild then?
After the bumpy choking ride, we came to this camping area where we enjoyed the local culture like...

	Camel Riding.
	Bird on your warm or/and dress Arabic local clothes.
	and of course, Kabab BBQ!!

... and Belly Dancing! I didn't know this, but a real belly dancer is supposed to have a little bit of belly, not super-slim. This dancer was really great!

I got some henna on my arm and my leg! This lady did my leg in a couple of minutes! Really fast! I had to wait for 30mins for it to dry, and wash it off.

This is how it looks like after 5 days. This is supposed to last for 20days or so.

This was a great trip! The desert is just one side of Dubai. The known part is, of course, the rich part. Stay tuned!