Dubai the city of the future

G’day all,
How would I wrap Dubai up in two words? Bloody Amazing. Well I’ve just spent a few sensational days in Dubai, the super city of the future. What more can I say than mind blowing, super-modern, space aged, fast, perfect, and perhaps even fake. My first impressions of Dubai were a little different to this as I was caught in traffic jams, surrounded by poor Indian and Pakistani slaved and underpaid laborers, and stuck in a backpacker hostel that nobody had heard of miles out of the city centre. After introducing myself to the first westerners I saw at the hostel I found myself within an hour drinking pints at an Irish Pub for the 4th straight night. The next day me and my new mates Andre and Simon headed to “Wild Wadi Waterpark” right next to the famous sail shaped 7 star hotel the Burj al-Arab. It cost an arm and a leg to get in but once you walk through the gates and see this massive artificial wave with a huge pipeline screaming out ‘surf me’ you can understand why. Growing up in the surf, I couldn’t wait to give it a go and I got so excited that I didn’t jump on the wave properly and got sucked backwards off the back of the wave (as in the video) and it was highly embarrassing. What made it even more embarrassing was the fact the Jamaican surf instructor heard my Aussie accent and built me up as a professional surfer. After my embarrassing moment there we then tried out the many slides we had to choose from. Thinking we were going to be climbing steps all day I was amazed to find out we were jet propelled in uphill slides in rubber tubes and didn’t have to do a thing to get to the top of the hill. One of the slides goes down in complete darkness and another one shoots you down the hill at 80km an hour from a terrifying height which makes you feel very close to getting airborne and hitting the car park with a splat. We had an awesome day at the water park and got there first thing in the morning and were the last to leave when the park closed. We got very sun burnt too but had a ball. On my final day in Dubai I decided I better actually do some site seeing so I did a jump on jump off double-decker bus tour which was really the only way to see Dubai. This is when I really gained my respect for what has become of Dubai and what it will become in 10 years time. Dubai was nothing but a sand desert 60 years ago before it became a tiny fishing and boat making village until 30 years ago when they discovered oil and now it’s the fastest growing city in the world. The old part of the town is nothing but a dingy, old, dirty, traffic jammed, cluttered mess but the new part of town feels like you’re in the 2100. The architecture seems alien-like, the malls look like a set from a movie, the cars are worth more than houses, all the bus stops have air-con, the beaches are perfect, and everything seems to have a different theme. They are building the fastest, tallest, and grandest, of everything in the hope to make this the number 1 tourist destination in the world in years to come. Only 20% of the people in Dubai are actual Arabians and they don’t seem to do any of the dirty work except for driving down to the ATM to pull out wads of cash to go shopping for their 4 wives in their brand new Ferraris. As you drive down the roads all you see are sweaty, hot, predominately Indian foreigners building these skyscrapers everywhere you look. Meanwhile the government gives local Arabian couples a huge beach front mansion for free as a wedding gift with a nice wide driveway for their collection of Lamborghinis. The city is starting to look like Manhattan and it’s only just begun. Only a few of the building have actually been complete whilst if you look around you will see a horizon of cranes and construction sights as far as the eye can see. Even more impressive than the buildings I found were the malls. Each mall has a different theme and these things would give Paris Hilton cardiac arrest they offer so much choice and quality. One mall in particular really impressed me as I’ve never seen something so perfect in my life it was pure stunning. All the buildings were made of sandstone and were styled like something from Santa Fe. They were surrounded by canals with crystal green water and bridges with gondolas like Venice but right in the near distance was the Burj al-Arab poking out over the clear blue sky. On the waters edge were a sting of cafes and restaurants and all the customers looked like movie stars. As you can probably tell I was pretty impressed. One other thing I’ve noticed about Dubai is there is no homeless people and no unemployment and if anything there is a lack of people to be employed. Anyway that’s a wrap up of my time in Dubai. Next update is from Doha in Qatar. Enjoy the pics and videos and leave us a comment.

Woodsy