Dubai: City on Steroids

It has become something of a cliché, but Dubai really is a city on steroids. Growth is occurring at a phenomenal, artificially induced rate. The central skyline is dotted with skyscrapers in various stages of completion. New business, commercial and housing precincts are proliferating. New roads are being built. Somewhere between twenty and thirty percent of all large cranes in the world are now to be found in Dubai. Off-shore, fleets of dredges are busy creating an enormous series of artificial islands, the most ambitious of which is a replica of the world, each island a miniature reproduction of a specific global land mass. Work on most building projects proceeds non-stop, 24/7.
Little more than a fishing village forty years ago, Dubai now boasts, and I use the word advisedly as visitors are constantly reminded of these facts when in Dubai:

• the world's tallest stand-alone 5 star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, sometimes called the world's only 7 star hotel, although such a rating does not officially exist
• the world's largest indoor snow field, at the Mall of the Emirates
• the largest aircraft hangar in the world, capable of holding six A303s
• the world's largest area of shopping space per head of population
• the tallest and fastest free fall water ride outside the US
• the three largest man-made islands, the famous palm islands
• the richest horse-race in the world, the Dubai Cup
• the largest man-made harbour in the world, Jebel Ali.

Currently planned or under construction are

• the world's tallest stand alone 5 star hotel, the Abbco Rotana, set to overtake the Burj Al Arab by 11 metres
• the world's largest shopping mall, the Dubai Mall
• the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai
• the world's first underwater hotel
• the biggest theme park in the world, Dubailand
• the world's largest artificial marina
• the largest airport in the world
• the world's longest and tallest arch bridge
• the world's first rotating skyscraper - not just a restaurant at the top, but every floor of the building will rotate.

Perhaps the clearest manifestation of Dubai's steroid-fuelled growth is the main street, Sheik Al Zayed Road (pictured), whose central stretch is an avenue of skyscrapers designed to rival those of other developed cities. But whereas in other cities high rise development is a response to lack of space, the avenue of skyscrapers in Dubai is currently just that - a single avenue. It is bordered on each side by a few streets of three or four storey buildings and beyond that is nothing - the lone and level sands stretch far away.

Almost a T-shirt.

On a visit to San Malo in Brittany, I bought a Breton fishermen’s shirt with blue and white horizontal stripes. I have worn it once. Lesson: Breton fishermen’s shirts look good on Breton fishermen and no-one else.

Best Countries to Visit

What are the best countries to visit? According to readers of British Wanderlust magazine, they are in order:

1. New Zealand (pictured)
2. Madagascar
3. Namibia
4. Nepal
5. Laos
6. Bhutan
7. Ukraine
8. Tibet
9. Peru
10. Ecuador

Visitors were asked to give a score to countries they had visited, so the votes represent how much visitors enjoyed their time in the country. The votes were published in the March 2008 print edition. My theory as to why New Zealand did so well with the Brits is that in New Zealand chips are served with almost every meal. Oh, and the scenery is stunning and the people wonderful.

Woman Scorned: Crazed Woman Rams Car into Brothel

On a recent visit to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, I undertook a tour of the Red House brothel (pictured), purely in the interests of research into a new and innovative form of tourism you must understand. During the tour we were told about an incident about twelve months earlier when the Questa Casa brothel next door, otherwise known as the Pink House, had been ram raided.

A woman turned up at the brothel requesting a tour. The madame told her that she would not conduct a tour for just one person. The woman left and then drove her car into the brothel as this news report shows.

Now the interesting parts which follow are in the realm of hearsay. According to the story we were told by our guide, the woman's husband had been a client of the Questa Casa brothel, hence her curiosity-driven visit. The car she was driving belonged to a government department. The government department was one in which her husband was employed and the car had been booked out in his name.

Battle at Kruger

Like to go on safari? The photo above is one I took in Chobe National Park, Bostswana. Unfortunately the quality is not very good, because it was taken with a cheap camera I had to buy after luggage handlers at Victoria Falls airport in Zimbabwe stole my digital camera. Yes, I know. I no longer pack my camera in my check-in luggage.

The lion pictured was stalking a kudu, a form of antelope. For something more dramatic watch this 2007 video of a buffalo surviving an attack by lions and crocodiles at Kruger National Park in South Africa. Not surprisingly it was winner of YouTube's best eyewitness video

Another T-Shirt

The t-shirt illustrating this blog was purchased on a visit to Seattle. The artwork is not particularly offensive and there is no attempt at wit. I have a fascination for wolves but clearly I need to dissociate that from my choice of clothing. Somehow I have never found occasion to wear this t-shirt in public.

PostLeninist Wit

As I have got older, but not much wiser, I seem to have developed a weakness for buying t-shirts on my travels. Visiting Prague a couple of years ago I bought what I thought at the time a terribly clever t-shirt which juxtaposed the Czech Republic's communist past with its capitalist present by combining an image of Lenin with the McDonald’s logo. I still find it quite witty, but have I worn it? Never. It sits on the top shelf of my wardrobe, released to see the light of day only once, to illustrate this article.

The Curse of the Thai Mask

On my first trip to Thailand I bought a wooden face mask. My wife refused to have ‘that hideous object’ on display in our home. So I used it to decorate a wall in my English classroom hoping it might provide some added visual stimulus to my lessons. My students asked me to take it down after just one week.
It was then moved to a holiday house I own and rent out to paying guests, my only justification being that there was a spare hook on a bedroom wall begging for something to hang on it.
But a strange thing happened. On my first house inspection after hanging the mask, I found it at the bottom of the bedroom wardrobe. Despite returning it to its place on the wall, I found that every time I inspected the house it was back at the bottom of the wardrobe. There was no black magic happening here. Clearly, every single person who rented the house, as well as my house cleaner, was totally repelled by my holiday purchase and put it out of sight as soon as they could.
The mask now graces the wall of the private domain of my toolshed.

What Was I Thinking?

What is it about travelling that causes us to take leave of our financial and aesthetic senses and purchase objects that we would never dream of buying in our home town? Are we rendered senseless by the alien environment, the bargain price or the simple desire for a memento of our trip?
Whatever the cause, when we return reality bites. If we are lucky we take one look at our purchase when unpacking, cringe with embarrassment and consign it to the top shelf where it will never again see the light of day. If we are unlucky we put our purchase on display for family and friends, only to be the object of quizzical looks at best or derisory laughter at worst.
My first hideous travel purchase was made on only my second trip out of my home state of Western Australia. During an intervarsity tour I went to Sydney and chanced upon an alternative clothing shop where I bought of all things, a djellaba, a full length Morroccan robe with a pointed hood. Mine was in fetching brown and white stripes.
Why I thought a Moroccan robe would be a useful reminder of a trip to Sydney I have no idea. Why I thought a djellaba would be an item of apparel much admired in the Perth of the early seventies I also have no idea. My only excuse is that this was a time when all things faintly oriental were the sign of ultimate cool, or so I thought.
Looking more like a temporally misplaced monk or a confused cross-dresser than a representative of early seventies ultimate cool, I wore the djellaba to university. Once. The astonished looks, raised eyebrows, cat calls and wolf whistles put paid to my naïve illusions. I never wore it again except once – to a fancy dress party.

Abu Dhabi Mosque Open to Non-Muslims

This month a second mosque in the United Arab Emirates opens its doors to non-Muslims. The recently constructed Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi will offer guided tours commencing at 10 am, Saturday to Thursday. Tours last 60 to 90 minutes and visitors are asked to arrive 15 minutes before the tour. The tour is free but visitors need to pre-book by emailing zayedmosquetour@adta.ae. Photography is permitted on the tour.
Until now, the only mosque in the UAE open to non-Muslims was the Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai. The new Sheikh Zayed Mosque has supplanted the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Oman in having the largest chandelier and the largest carpet in the world.

Bize Minervois, France

Speaking of life in France, Deb Westerberg, a West Australian, has renovated a property in the village of Bize Minervois in the Languedoc, Aude region, which is available for holiday rentals. This is her website.

Which Country Has the Best Quality of Life?

According to the January 2008 edition of International Living magazine the answer is France. The magazine gave 192 countries scores out of 100 for the following factors: cost of living, culture & leisure, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety and climate. It then combined the rankings to produce a final score out of 100. The top 10 places to live according to International Living are:

1. France
2. Switzerland
3. The United States
4. Luxembourg
5. Germany
6. Australia
7. Italy
8. New Zealand
9. Spain
10. The Netherlands

No prizes for guessing the bottom 3 countries: Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq.
Other highlights:

• The United Kingdom scored 34th overall, brought down by its high cost of living.
• Of the top 10, the United States was the only country to score less than 100 on freedom and was in fact behind 51 other countries on this measure. Presumably this is the influence of George Bush’s PATRIOT Act.
• The other poor showing for the US was health, for which it scored 61st overall, beaten on this ranking by, among others: Bulgaria, Cuba, Mexico, Jamaica, Libya, Egypt, North Korea, Costa Rica, Jordan, Brazil, Albania and Russia.
• The only country to score 100 for health was France.
• The only country to score 100 for culture & leisure was Italy.
• The top 10 countries for climate were Ecuador, Malta, South Africa, Swaziland, Croatia, Guatemala, Uruguay, Argentina, Portugal and Australia.
• The only country to score 0 for climate was Yemen.
• Australia’s overall score was brought down by its relatively poor performances on cost of living, economy, and culture & leisure.
• Australia ranked 34th overall for culture & leisure, behind New Zealand, Namibia, Cuba and Kuwait.

Complete rankings can be found here and an explanation of the scoring can be found here.