Dubai...this city is amazing....the number of buildings...the culture....the nightlife....the beauty of it all!! Where to begin....I arrived here last Thursday...and when flying into the city it is like flying into Las Vegas...only 10 times bigger in light/building/show etc...etc...etc (as the King of Siam said in "The King and I"...right?).
Well let me back up for one second...to Hong Kong..with just a couple shots of the airport...an immense structure built out into the water...bringing in soil/concrete and all the materials to make this one of the worlds largest airport. I just selected a few from the terminal to give you a flavor.... many 747's, 777's and 767s
Okay....let's go to Dubai.....which is the largest populated city in the United Arab Emirates...the second in population and first in size is Abu Dhabi which I will cover separately on my visit there on Saturday. The significance to the days of the week are different in the Arab world....Sunday is a normal work day...with Friday being comparable to "our" Sunday. Saturday is the end of the "week-end" then the work week goes from Sunday to Thursday.
The heat here is felt...when you step out in the morning the sun is very intense. In the evening...at least at this time of year...it is quite pleasant. That of course changes in the summer...when the heat is intense 24/7!
The other thing you feel is the architecture. The number of buildings...tall buildings...very tall buildings...and all unique is so eye-catching and a lot of "wow"...look at that. Maybe I will just save some of those for a separate blog page...I think that would be fun.
One great law here in Dubai that maybe the US should consider. Driving under the influence (even a glass of wine...) is punishable by a prison sentence....not 3 weeks...or 3 months...but 3 years!! That is for a first offense. Needless to say the Taxi business - which is very reasonable- is quite brisk.
Dubai is ruled by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. who followed in that capacity from his father Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The father is on the right and son on the left in this photo from one of the building in Dubai..
Okay...I am staying in Dubai with a former OCC colleague of mine...Bryan Stirewalt. Bryan and I started an OCC career in Peoria....Bryan left the OCC a few years after his commission and joined up with a consulting firm...and now after a number of years is living and working in Dubai as the Managing Director for Supervision of the Dubai Financial Services Authority....here is Bryan in front of the building housing his offices here in Dubai....Bryan's office is over his left shoulder about the 2nd "X" from the left.
Here are some views of those great buildings here in Dubai taken along the Marina area of the city from Bryan's balcony at his residence.....a city skyline unto itself.
We had cocktails one evening in the Burj Khalifa....tallest building in the world....2700 feet or 828 meters. Well, not only the tallest building but the tallest structure and tallest free-standing structure!! The Armani Hotel is part of the building along with the Armani residences. The Atmosphere lounge on the 123 floor is reached by the world's elevator ride....and what a view...looking down between the car of the elevator and the wall you can look down the elevator shaft to see the 122 floors below...YIKES!! First a couple photos of this gorgeous structure..
From the windows of the Atmosphere lounge in the Armani you can see the nightly water/light show at the Dubai Mall. It is quite similar to the nightly water show at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas...only 3 times larger..Of course you are unable to hear the music, but the perspective of seeing it from that height is quite a treat.
An interesting side note of that evening...sighting of one of the royal family cars....a yellow Lambroghini....now the Italian car was probably in the $300,000 range...but nothing compared to the license plate. It was number "8". The vanity plate was purchased for....$1 million dollars!!! Yep....so a $300,000 car with a 12 x 4 inch license place worth $1 million bucks....go figure. BUT...even bigger was the bidding war for the number "5" vanity license plate.....the price....$14 million dollars...yes, $14 MILLION!! I sure it was not on a Chevy Malibu either.
Here are just a few more pictures of the buildings in Dubai....
Now...by this time you are probably thinking...so Bob...where are the faces of Dubai...the people? I must confess I found it rather imposing to take photos of the women since most are wearing the veil and black cloak...the veils often only exposing their eyes. The men are typical in wearing a white cloak with a headdress of different variation. So I decided that against taking any photos directly.
One last event for Dubai - Part 1. The "Dragon Boat Race".....my host Bryan's staff participated in a "Dragon Boat Race" against other teams from Dubai. I would say there were more than 20 teams participating. Here are some pics of the race....
....and the winner of the heat.....the DFSA (Dubai Financial Services Authority)....beating out 3 other boats to move to the next round....here is the finish of that race with DFSA being boat number 1 and also some of the members of the team...
Great job!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment