Vegas + Miami = Dubai
Let’s add some additional components to this formula. You need to add a bit of Islam, stir in some oil, and a sprinkle of ambition. A brief and unresearched history of how it has became an international city:
Oil is found in 1966.
In the 70’s & 80’s large portions of these petroleum and gas revenues were reinvested in physical infrastructure; a sizable port and air hub. Taking advantage of its location between Europe and Asia.
In the 80’s industrial and manufacturing firms had arrived.
By the 90’s they continued to diversify with finance and business. Focusing on being a regional and eventual global financial hub.
And in the 00’s it expanded heavily into tourism, specifically luxury tourism.
I wasn’t thoroughly taken with the city. My first impression was that it is huge. Significantly larger than Doha. It’s not even close. I saw somewhere Dubai is 4x larger than Doha. Designed as a car city, it just isn’t very accessible. It takes 30-60 minutes via a taxi to basically get anywhere. Though it didn’t help that we stayed on the isolated Palm Jumeirah. A manmade island chain designed to look like a palm tree. It was much quieter, but I wouldn’t recommend it due to the inconvenience. We specifically stayed at the Sofitel Palm, it seemed nice because we could rent an apartment which seemed like an advantage at the time. However, the hotel is dated and musty. I would not recommend. The apartment was also insanely designed. It had four bathrooms for a 2 bedroom, and a walk in closet, that was obviously useless. Strange.
Dubai seems to do capitalism on a level that is too far. Their top attractions are generally malls, and everything seems to just cost a lot. It’s odd that a culture that seems to promote conservative values is so focused on glitz and glamor.
We visited the Global Village and Dubai Mall. Neither of which are worth coming out here to visit, but while we were here, they ended up being quite fascinating. In just an experiential sense, it was intriguing to see how they designed things. Global Village is this huge Epcot adjacent global food hall / grocer? I was expecting more food, but then it turned out to have performances and a lot of shopping. A bazaar / souq energy. It seemed if you were an expat and were looking for an ingredient or product from home (if it was one of the better represented countries), you could find it there. Plenty of people had shopping carts, at a place the size of an amusement park. The locations, size, and interpretations of cultures was all chaotic, but it added to the fun of not knowing what to expect. For example, Fiesta Way contained no Latin food whatsoever. Turkey was the size of the Americas, and Africa and Russia are adjacent. Odd, but great for people watching.
Going to the top of Burj Khalifa didn’t see worth the cost. Neither was going to the Mall Aquarium without the guarantee of petting an otter or penguin. My favorite spot was a new chain (three locations) called Tribes - Carnivore. African cuisine, heavily meat based as the name implies. The food was top notch and service was pretty darn good. It had a fantastic view of the fountains and Burj Khalifa, no reservations were necessary. I enjoyed a lengthy meal there with a view. Oh and the Dubai Mall had a great taxi pickup center. Was very impressed with the coordination.
Happy to be moving on. The (fake) beaches were quiet and nice. But I spent a majority of time in Dubai just sleeping or working. I certainly won’t be back anytime soon, not at those prices. Not meant for someone like me.