dubai: the destination

Dubai is a fast growing city in the United Arab Emirates. One person mentioned to me UAE is expected to run out of oil within the decade; UAE’s website suggests this will happen within the next 20 years. As a result, UAE is transforming Dubai to be an international playground. Going to and from the hotel to the office last week, I noticed signs for a planned Six Flags, Legoland, and some sort of Marvel characters theme park. The signs for this are down the street from the world’s tallest building (Burj Dubai) and the mall where you can snow ski.

I didn’t even try to count the number of buildings I saw under construction, and the bit of Dubai I saw was only a fraction of what’s there. It seems like the entire city one giant construction project. If you’re a crane operator or experienced in architecting or building hi-rises, this is definitely the place to be. Because everything is seemingly starting from scratch, it’s conceivable this is the best possible place in the world for unlimited opportunity.

The whole world says Dubai is and will be world’s international playground. But while in town, I heard stories of low hi-rise occupancy and the challenges of filling existing locations when new ones become available every day, properties using money laundered foreign investment money, and forced relocations of ultra-low income blue collar workers illegally residing en masse in what are supposed to be single family villas. Something no one mentioned but I noticed on my own was the smog. I can't imagine what the air quality must be like on summer days. I snapped a picture from the roof of my hotel (that's where they placed the pool) at sunset and snapped another picture from ground level inside the taxi going to work. In both, it's easy to see the air quality is terrible. But this is Dubai after all, if they put their mind to fixing it, I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a way to resolve this.

It seems Dubai may not be as rosy as everyone claims but one thing is for certain: UAE is betting everything they have on building this playground. Time will tell how it turns out.

filed under: travel, dubai