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Hi.

Welcome to my blog/photo thing. I am documenting our 2019 Motorbike Adventures. Some USA, a smidgen of the Middle East, a dash of Europe, but mostly Africa…

48 Hours in Dubai

48 Hours in Dubai

Ok, what can I say about Dubai? Not much, we were only there two nights on a stop over and that is not enough time to gauge anywhere, especially what is today considered one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. Next year Dubai holds the World Fair Expo 2020, which they say will attract 25 million visitors. By comparison Paris attracts approximately 20 million visitors per year. But to me it was exactly as I was expecting, a glitzy shopping mall in the desert. Like Vegas in Arabia. Not my thing really, I don’t like shopping and I don’t like glitz...One thing I do like though is good architecture. New skyscrapers continue to spring up all over the place. Brand spanking new towers of glass and steel. Some of them are woeful but there are some which are amazing. Of course Dubai has the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa at 830 metres that sits atop one of the largest shopping malls in the world. But it won’t the highest for much longer as they are building the Dubai Creek Tower, which will be a whopping 1300 metres!! Incredible! And it certainly is a beautiful design. Dubai I suppose is a city of the future and that alone is impressive considering where it came from. The population of Dubai in 1950 was 20,000. In 1970 it was 300,000. Today it is almost 3 million. That is a phenomenal growth rate in such a short period. The entire population of the UAE is 9.2 million but 7.8 of that are expatriates. It can therefore be said to be a country of foreigners. But this diversity and amazing design futurism is starkly juxtaposed with the traditional Muslim faith. We visited during Ramadan, which meant no drinking water, eating, smoking, and chewing gum in public during sun up. In the shopping malls they have all the usual restaurants we have in the west but you had to get seated behind a specially built curtain so as not to be seen and therefore offend any faithful. Iva and I did one of those tour bus things, which we thought was best seemed as we had such a short time. Half of the tour involved driving past other hotels that were much more expensive than our own and told which dignitaries or celebrities stayed there. There is something seriously wrong when a tour of a city involves being picked up at your hotel and sent to peek at other hotels. One of these was the Burj al Arab, which has an average room price at $24k per night. It is the world’s only 7 star hotel.. But who awards these stars? Methinks it a case of the Spinal Tap amp hitting 11.... Sorry, I’m too cynical for Dubai and it’s not really my type of holiday destination. I know many Irish love it there. I’m glad to have seen it though….

Artist’s rendition of Dubai Creek Tower. Coming 2021.

Artist’s rendition of Dubai Creek Tower. Coming 2021.

American Quickie

American Quickie

South Africa - Without Bikes

South Africa - Without Bikes