Sim City: Dubai

At this point I feel that something has to be bit extreme to be worth doing, so it only seemed prudent that the comfort pendulum should swing from the utmost isolation and deprivation of Amazon living to the opulent and swank life of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Flush full of oil money, the city of Dubai seems to be trying to invent ways to try and spend it. Artificial islands, skyscrapers, and an unchecked lust for bigger and grander has made this desert oasis synonymous with excess. Everything seems to be described with superlatives; the biggest hotel, the tallest building, etc. The street beggars even wear three piece suits (rumor has it as I have not seen one yet). And I think I actually saw a money growing tree yesterday.

How can the Planetary Vagabond afford to even step foot on such an extravagant locale? He can't. But lucky for him, his cousin Jennifer Berner and her husband Rich have recently relocated here due to his position as a VP with Cerner. In need of a babysitter for 10 days for their girls Emma, Lily, & Ava (ages 8, 4, and 16 months) they offered to fly me over do the job. Habitually putting myself in situations way over my head, I was lucky that my mother signed on to come too.

Viewing the cityscape is a surreal experience with buildings jutting upward into the perpetual haze of dust and sand clouding the skies. Continual construction is a way of life around this burgeoning metropolis and the city is reputed to contain 25% of the worlds cranes. An architect and engineer's playground, all hellbent on making in name in manufactured elegance. A must see for even the most uneasily awestruck. Dubai's central location between Asia and the West has made it a commerical capital of the Middle East and a center for trade. Inundating this growing commerce is a flood of foriegners, mostly from Great Britain, the U.S., and Europe. Indians and Asians make up the much of the laboring class and with all these together, I don't think I could pick a true Emirati out of a line-up. English is widely spoken along with everyone else's native tongue. Probably the only place in the world where the pizza deliveryman is tri-lingual.

Fortunately, we had a few days to spend with Rich and Jennifer and they were able to show us the ins and outs of their daily life in Dubai. Rich is busy inking deals to secure Cerner's growth in the region and Jen is busy tackling the chore of trying to adjust to raising the girls in a new environment and culture. After a few days, they were off to Italy to meet up with the rest of the Carey family, and Janey and I along with the housekeeper/nanny Gemma, were holding down the fort. With a pool and beach outside of the complex, life should be easy, breezy.

Trying to find a morsel of old culture in this rapidly growing city, Janey and I spent a morning touring the various Souks, or markets specializing in jewellery, spices, and Persian rugs. A maze of backalleys and canopied stands, all the stores were basically selling exactly the same wares as their neighbor, making it hard to conceive just how anybody made any money. We perfected a pretty good haggling routine and came away with a few souvenirs.

More to add later.

Until then,

The Manny

Here is a video taken from the balcony of Rich and Jen's penthouse on the artifial island, Palm Jumierah. The sailboat looking building in the backgrond is the Burj Al Arab, the supposed biggest and nicest hotel in the world.