Sylvia's Journal

We had some idea of mussels by the ocean, after climbing the tallest man-made structure in the world, but we ended up in the Dubai (do buy) mall the entire day. We tried out the metro which turned out, at the end of the day, not a good deal because it is not synchronized with the mall closing. Taxis are cheaper, maybe because they are driven by people who don’t earn that much.

The Bourj Khalife had just opened when we travelled through here in January this year. At that time it seemed more of a symbol of Dubai extravagance than anything else. But today we had the full experience: from vision to reality, the architectural ideas, drawn from a flower that looks like a trillium, sketched then drawn, then competed, redesigned, tested and finally built. There were pictures of the mason and the master architect, the art designer and the carpenter, the project manager and the package manager – all smiling into the camera, life size, presumably after the project was completed. I am sure they weren’t smiling all throughout the design and construction phase.

At the top of the structure, or at least the highest point where tourists are allowed, we watched the dusty skies. Computer screens showed the view for day and for night, as well as the life view, which wasn’t all that clear, so we opted for the programmed view from another day, clearer than today.

All the time we were so high up there I thought of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the people jumping to escape the inferno for another form of death. I was glad to be back on the ground.

We found a fast food fish place (Nordsee) that actually had baguettes with herring – not exactly like Dutch herring but close enough. After that we malled and malled for hours, testing macchiato here, ice cream there, marvelling at the variety of choices, the freedom of walking around uncovered, the absence of guns, blast walls, razor wire and sand bags and the cleanliness. With the amount of money generated from war, poppies and international aid, Afghanistan could surely create something like this?

When we had tired of malling we watched a local movie about arab men with too much money, colliding with a poor Indian cab driver dreaming of a Bollywood career and an eastern European flight attendant in trouble. It ended OK for most of them except the spoiled rotten Arab men, one died and the other was wrecked by guilt and drank himself silly on forbidden whiskey which made his dad very mad; but then he found religion which, I presume, made his dad very glad.

After dinner we found a cold beer-serving Thai restaurant that looked out over the Bourj fountains. For the price of putting up with the moist 36 degree air, we had a front row seat to a most spectacular musical water ballet, with a new show every 20 minutes. We watched it from one side with our Thai food, and then later from the other side of the lake with coffee and dessert. So that was Dubai, Holland is next.