You say dubai, and i say hello

hello hello, i dont know why you say dubai, i say hello!

 

I’ve been in dubai since friday evening. We flew in on Cathay Pacific airlines - “We suck more than the bastard child of southwest and greyhoud bus” is their motto.

the hotel on the other hand is great, its a 5 star joint part of a chain called Rotana.:

 

Its swanky, expensive but most importantly the beds are comfy. real comfy. i’ve slept through the night here more in the last 3 days then the last 3 years… maybe the exhaustion and excessive jetlag helps as well…

 

things have gotten off to a rolling start with work, but we’ve also had more opportunity to actually see some things (from the window of the car as we are driven prison bus style to see customers) like the burj dubai, the worlds tallest building (and its not even done yet):

Holding down the tower at night:

or the worlds first indoor ski slope:

 

the State bird is construction cranes (they have more than anywhere else in the world…)

we’ve gotten to see a poo load of cool buildings and architecture as well. Last night we went to see the Al Arab hotel (the worlds first 7 star hotel, freakin cool):

 

they even have an outdoor tennis court:

 

Some other anonymous cool buildings and stuff we saw:

Ace Hardware (really, look on  the bottom right):

Preparing to Visit Customers:

 

We also drove out on palm jumeirah (jew mare uh). one of the two palm islands, the largest construction project in the world:

here they are viewed from space: (we went to the one on the right)

 

its hard for me to describe the enormity of these. so let me put it into simpler terms: we drove up the "trunk” of the tree to the tip, under the water to the outer ring where there is an Atlantis resort and parked dead and the end. This drive was 20 minutes. TWENTY…. at highway speeds.

 

its big.

 

We even went for a traditionally arabic dinner of grilled meats, hummus etc. oh so tasty. after dinner we enjoyed a traditional tobacco smoking thing called a shisha. Its essentially a water hookah, with coals on top and strongly flavored tobacco (like cherry, grape etc, real tough guy stuff). they even hook you up with a sexy little jacket, this is my impression of the caterpillar from alice in wonderland: (i tried it but i didnt inhale)

action shot:

The Shisha:

And lastly Camel Racing (for clayton):

 

 

So far i’ve really enjoyed the trip to Dubai, its a neat place, and the people are friendly, outgoing, they like Americans, they are very proud of their culture. All in all its really an amazing place to visit. Plus with only 6% of their income coming from Oil you don't feel so dirty coming for a visit and enjoying these amazing spectacles.

We are going on a boat trip around the palm islands this evening, so be sure to check back for lots of pictures from that!

 

word.