Du-bye

We spent the day touring Dubai yesterday.  

 

Dubai to me is like Los Angeles sprawl had a one night stand with Las Vegas glitz that resulted in a baby left to raise itself.  

OK - I may be taking the metaphor a bit too far - but really - this place is out of control.  

I will say that the over abundance of wealth and the competition for biggest, best and shiniest  - has made for some pretty interesting structures - not to mention that new metro system - which is quite fantastic.

The system opened on September 9th.  It is very clean with air-conditioned stations that are a great relief from the dead heat of the desert (and might be nice on a New York summer day too).

The most amusing part of the ride is that there is a soundtrack - a bouncing tune that plays between station stops and keeps everything lite and moving along.  I can only guess this was written specifically for the rail.  (I have a recording of it for those interested - thanks Lisa).

We saw many of the over the top sites of the city:  we rode in a taxi onto Palm Island, saw Burj Al Arab (the sail hotel - and incidentally, the tallest hotel in the world), we checked out the indoor ski slope at one of the many malls in Dubai.  

It is all quite fantastical and over the top but like Las Vegas - for me 24 hours is enough.