Dubai is the largest city of the
United Arab Emirates (“UAE”). You probably know it as the posh setting of the
gals’ vacation in the second incarnation of the Sex and the City movies. While
Sex and the City 2 was an utter disaster, its setting most certainly is not.
Dubai is amazing and a city to which I would love to return, if I can reconcile
doing so with my angst for much of the country’s ideology.
I don’t know how many in our
traveling group hold this view, but to me, the Global Scavenger Hunt isn’t
really as much a competition as it is an introductory course to the great
vacation sites of the world. It reminds me of an old high school survey course
on great languages of the world. You spent six weeks on each of four languages.
That didn’t involve enough time to learn any language with even a modicum of
proficiency. But it was designed to allow you to decide which language
interested you enough to pursue. It was a class for people who didn’t know
which language to study. I view this trip as much the same. Granted, at 52, I
hardly have time to sample every venue before traveling there, and I have neither
the time nor money to visit all the great ones we experience briefly. But these
two years have given me an idea of where I would like to visit again and even
where to have a first visit.
India
was magnificent because it has maintained its old world cultural idiosyncrasies
notwithstanding a certain succumbing to Western influence. Dubai is incredible
for precisely the opposite reason: it has not only fully embraced the standards
of the West but ratcheted them up a notch. I am, of course, referring to the
superficialities of the Western world -- the economic niceties – the flashiness
and pomp and circumstance – the largesse of life. I am not referring to the
substantive and more meaningful Western values of individual freedom and equal
respect for men and women. It is more than ironic that a country like the UAE, that
has captured modern convenience and surpassed the U.S. and Europe in many areas
in this regard, has somehow managed to escape respect for basic human rights
that lie at the heart of what makes the West great. As is typically the case,
religion is the culprit, but I’ll stop now before I offend someone. (And make
no mistake: I am not attacking Islam. When it comes to religion, I fully
support equality. I hate them all.)
Dubai has taken our luxuries and
expanded them to such a degree that Guinness World Records has opened an office
there to make it easier for those breaking records to make applications. This
past New Year’s Day, the city had, by far, the largest fireworks display in
history, surpassing 500,000 exploding objects. Dubai features the tallest
building in the world and the tallest residential building in the world.
Can you find
Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, in this postcard photograph?
In Dubai, you
can engage in virtually any recreational activity you practice in the West –
assuming, of course, it doesn’t involve “sinful” conduct (drinking alcohol, for
instance, is principally allowed only in hotels and spots known only to
insiders). The fact that the city is in a desert is no restraint. Need cold
weather for your fun? Then why not simply shift the activity to a controlled
indoor area?
Casey apparently
concluded all his prior falls were due to
ski slopes being
outdoors.
Familiar
with the Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas? Well, they have rebuilt
the Atlantis here. It looks essentially the same and features extensive
tropical activity. Dubai has ensured that its geography can enhance but will
not inhibit its offerings.
Shopping is so posh that it borders
on the obscene. Contrast the Dubai Mall with, say, the Galleria in Houston or
Dallas. You would have to triple the size and the number of high end stores in
the latter to make them comparable. Just to illustrate, there is an entire
section of the mall called the “Denim District” devoted exclusively to, well,
denim – that is, jeans. Yes, a whole wing of the mall consists of designer
jeans stores. So, for instance, there is a store called simply “Versace Jeans.”
The mall features store after store selling every luxury fashion or home décor
item you could want, at many times the price it is worth.
How often do you
find a giant aquarium with multiple varieties of shark
in a shopping
mall?
Most
astonishing, though, is the Burj al Arab, one of the handful of “seven-star”
hotels in the world. OK, there is really no such thing as a “seven-star hotel.”
The maximum number of stars awarded by any guide is five (and this hotel
receives fives across the board). But the hotel is so astonishing that some
reviewers have said it is worth seven stars. Apparently, the hotel provides a
different servant for every room. You cannot even enter the property unless you
have a legitimate reason for being there. (And curiosity and photography desire
are not considered legitimate needs.)
The exterior of
the Burj al Arab, one of the world’s
few seven-star hotels, creates the illusion of
a giant sailboat.
Casey
and I couldn’t resist visiting so we made dinner reservations. The only
restaurant that had seats available at the last minute was the buffet
restaurant – the hotel’s “lowest level” restaurant. It may have been bourgeois
to the hotel but it wasn’t to us. It was beautiful, the views were amazing and
the food was delicious. The food cut across cultures and nationalities and was
all high-end. Just to give you an idea, you know how buffets often feature all
you can eat crab claws and you salivate? Well, this restaurant had all you can
eat lobster claws – unlimited claws with huge amounts of lobster meat sticking
out the ends. The hotel décor was utterly breathtaking.
A view of the
upper floors from the lobby
of the Burj al
Arab Hotel
In the end, though, demand for
the UAE’s superficial achievements will wane if the country doesn’t reach real
achievements in human rights. Interest in the country will soon stagnate if the
country’s leaders do not reign in the subjugation of women and harsh penalties
meted out to those who don’t satisfy religious stereotypes. When Russia
recently hosted the Olympics, the nation was harshly criticized because of its
anti-gay policies. Respect for women’s rights has been an emerging global norm
for far longer than respect for gays and lesbians. It is difficult to imagine
the UAE taking the next step toward greatness if it continues to treat its
women as second class citizens.
