First Musings on Dubai

I’m interested in being, at some point, a specialized tour guide for mid-end to high-end visitors here in Dubai. So I want to learn a lot about the emirate. Come up not just with facts, but also stories. What is it that locals here know about that’s not well publicized? What is the color, the texture and ambiance beyond the dust and sand, gridlock and the construction jungle? 

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I see the Dubai skyline in front of me, as I head to work in the morning, anchored by the twin towers of Emirate Towers. The skyline rises out of a cloud of dust and sand – the basic particles of a desert land and the sprawling construction of a city in development. Imagine Claude Monet in Dubai. That’s it. The look of that skyline is impressionistic. The colors and lines are not well defined. It reminds me of Monet’s painting of the London parliament. 

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A quarter of the world’s cranes are in Dubai. There is hammering of metal outside my apartment, as there’s a development under construction directly facing my windows. Occasionally I can hear the groan and the strain of machinery, but on the whole the noise is muted. I would guess that because Dubai is very much a city on the rise, developers are ensuring good sound insulation for the buildings they’re constructing.

Before it was the Burj Khalifa, it was the Burj Dubai (image credit)

This is very much a walk-about, cross-the-street-anywhere, mall-flocking culture. People are crossing high-speed highways or walking along the shoulder or median of said highways – mostly the migrant workers, I believe. In the horribly congested neighborhoods of Deira, they’ll just walk out in front of you, without apparent fear of getting run over. And the malls are awful on a Friday evening, a Sunday evening etc.

It reminds of my own family. New to the US, many moons ago when we’d go on vacation or a short trip with my cousins et al., first thing it seemed we’d do is go the malls, go shopping for souvenirs etc. Personally I’m not into shopping. I don’t need to travel anywhere to go shopping, as I can go shopping near home.

There must be something comforting about walking ‘round the malls. Perhaps being in the anonymous company of people? Having the freedom to walk about widely, that is, outside the confines of home? Seeking random stimulation from things, signs, lights and sounds?