First Impressions of Dubai
Right after I got off the plane at the Dubai International Airport, I exchanged some currency for United Arab Emirates Dirhams. Since the United States uses the “Arabic numeral” system, I was expecting the numerals to look the same, but they looked different. When I took the bus to the accommodation, I noticed that the buildings were medium-density, mixed-use developments, but I was expecting suburban sprawl similar to Phoenix. While riding the bus, I also saw the Burj Khalifa for the first time, and I was awestruck. It was much taller than I imagined it to be.
It looked futuristic and reminded me of the tall skyscraper in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, in the movie, “Looper.” There were long stretches of perfect looking grass along the roads and highways that probably require a lot of water. After I got off the bus, I noticed there were some empty sandy lots and I saw some cars use them as shortcuts. I realized the whole city was probably built on sand because the whole city was sand before development occurred there. Most of the businesses along the road running parallel with the beach were being run out of villas, which was something I had never seen before. When I got to the accommodation, I was happy to see that we had a great view of the Burj al Arab (the building was about ¼ mile from where we were staying).
On the second day in Dubai, we went on a little tour of the city. The first place we went to was the Palm Jumeira. One of the interesting things I noticed while driving up the stem of the palm, was buildings dedicated to district cooling, utilities, a modern mosque, and the construction of a Metro line and station. Another thing I noticed while on the palm was that there wasn’t really a good view of the palm while driving on the roads. I also didn’t see any beaches that people could swim on. After we left the palm we drove towards downtown Dubai. While driving on Sheikh Zayed Road, the main road connecting Dubai, which runs parallel to the main Metro line, we passed a whole bunch of car dealerships, which were strategically placed right under the Metro between the Dubai Mall (the world’s biggest mall, located right next to the Burj Khalifa) and the Mall of the Emirates (the mall that contains Ski Dubai and is directly one mile off the shoreline from the Burj al Arab). I soon realized that there are not any old cars in Dubai and the police all drive luxury sedans like Mercedes Benz and BMW. Driving through the new downtown area was really fun because I enjoyed appreciating the post-modern architecture with David, one of the ASU professors on the trip. The culture museum that we visited was really cool and contained short and sweet information about the history of the area. After the culture museum, we took a motorboat across Dubai Creek to a souk. The souk was fun because it was full of passages and it’s easy to get lost inside. Finally, we walked to the gold souk and saw a gold ring that holds the Guinness Book of World’s Record for the largest ring in the world.