Tag Archives: Burj Kalifa

Dubai 2015

Dubai is a really quirky place. After spending a few days there, I think the Burj Kalifa, the world’s tallest building, is more of a middle finger to the desert and Dubai as a whole is a proclamation to human ingenuity / hubris more than anything else. Hear me out; Dubai:

  • Has almost no natural resources other than some oil and some natural gas, both which are mostly exhausted. So Dubai focused on becoming a re-export and finance hub like Singapore.
  • Has somewhere around 20% of the world’s construction cranes being used to transform the desert into huge buildings. They are building everything everywhere. It’s impossible to get away from the construction.
  • Has an indoor snow skiing resort. Dubai has no mountains and has average high temps in the upper 90s, lower 100s for a lot of the year while only getting 6in of rain per year. Really though, screw the desert, right?
  • Has huge fountains in the desert. Because, why not?
  • There are aquariums and even ice skating rinks in their malls. Because, why not?
  • Built their own luxury islands. Because, why not? Regular land is for regular people.
  • Is a place where anything, no matter how outrageous, is possible. Like taking your pet lion out for a ride in your Rolls Royce. Because, lions want to see the skyline too and don’t want to be couped up all day, right?

Dubai is a weird blend of the pragmatic economic approaches of Singapore with the completely outlandish sites and behavior of Las Vegas, sans the alcohol. We spent our time walking around taking in the sites and people watching and a lot of the time we just thought, “this place actually exists”. The food is very good and is a blend of the various 170 different nationalities residing in Dubai. It’s easy to find delicious Mediterranean like food with strong Arab influence.

Overall, we’re happy we had a short stop-over on our way to Prague and we’re looking forward to some slightly cooler weather :).

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.