Thoughts on Dubai: Part One

Quiet day here in Kabul. Another day of hotel to office migration. I will say that with work having my entire focus, I have been able to get up to speed on various issues quicker than I normally would and have immersed myself in working with the local staff. I had a feeling this would happen as the same thing transpired during my last two visits to Beijing. Back to Dubai...

Unlike Kabul, Dubai looks like the entire city was built within the last twenty years. From everything I read, I thought I would be entering Las Vegas in the Middle East. I was correct.

Despite being a fully modernized and developed society, there is no metro system to speak of, nor is there any way to really walk around the city to get a sense of it as other cities in the world. The only options are to rent a car or take expensive cabs from giant mall to giant hotel resort to giant mall. Metal construction cranes dominated Dubai's skyline as it appears that Dubai developers intend to have propoerty available for every person on earth. These developments in process include projects that will make Dubai home to the tallest building in the world and a series of privately owned man-made islands in the shape of a global map. Oil money can buy a lot.

During my lone free day there, I decided to particpate in the excess by going indoor snowboarding at the Mall of the Emirates. It was quite a trip. The consistency of the snow as actually pretty good, but because it was indoors the runs were short and I got bored pretty quickly. The feeling of snowboarding with a roof overhead was disorienting (but not as much as watching a baseball game under a dome...dizzying). I paid for a 2 hour pass, which was more than enough time to take the experience in.

Here are three pics I took while on the slopes.

I'm starting to fade out. More tomorrow...