Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A Day in Dubai


Mid-winter greetings from the warm and sunny Middle East! I'm currently in Abu Dhabi for a training course with Schlumberger. This past weekend a bunch of us had an opportunity to venture into Dubai for a day of sightseeing and exploring facilitated by a Big Bus tour of the city. I was blown away by the sight of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which recently finished construction. I also witnessed a a tremendous waterworks show at dusk choreographed to music. Dubai is strikingly extravagent and opulent with showy displays of buildings, shopping malls and fancy, shiny cars. Abu Dhabi, on the other hand, where I have been living, feels much more like an authentic city, with a more realistic taste of Arab culture. It's very wealthy (in fact Abu Dhabi recently extended credit to Dubai in their hour of need), but the city population is much more definitively native, with less evidence of expatriates and tourists. I have dallied in Arabian food, but am still catching up with the spices. Instead, a mate from Australia and I went to a place tonight called Jones (likely British purveyors and clientele) and each ordered a burger (a variant on Kobe beef-)--rather expensive but quite tasty. I'm having a good time, even though I miss everyone and the winter of the Northeast! But I may go skiing this weekend (within one of the world's largest indoor ski resorts). Only in Dubai...