Travel Writing: Dubai

Yes, no. White, black. Ying, Yang.

Most places often provide a middle ground; a maybe, a grey, a Yong perhaps? Cities, countries and the world as a whole has places that it can call ‘not so bad’. Dubai is unique, in so many ways.

On one hand Dubai is the most wonderful area, one combining natural beauty with genius man-made creations. These structures would make God regret not hiring the architects himself. The sand dunes are like the ocean. When looking out over these white powdered waves there is a sense of nothingness, until you turn around and find that the size of the mall in front of you equals that of entire cities. The detail 100 feet up the side of the building is the same detail that is just above the beautiful doorframe you enter. At night each bit of detail is lit up and amazingly seems even more inviting. Inside, you have a maze of attractions and if you’re tired of shopping you can step out of Dolce & Gabana, turn left and walk through an aquarium, or once you’ve stopped for a coffee, rent some blades and head out onto the ice rink. The big, bold and exciting can all be offered in one massive, completely air-conditioned set of walls.

You were waiting for it, so here’s the other hand. Anyone with a sense of culture will have read about Dubai being the modern country. But what is so unwritten about is its sense of half a job done. The buildings that are complete are the only thing that is complete. Throughout an entire day the building sites will have at most 3 or 4 visitors that appear to be builders. The people that aren’t Sheikhs are sitting outside with their dogs on the street or scraping by, running local shops.

A lot of this may be due to the world’s recession. There seems to be a constant source of trucks running through towns and cities, heading somewhere with a lot of building materials but where they end up, it’s not known. The evidence of development is thin.

It will be interesting to see what the country looks like in 5 years time, in 50 I have a feeling it will look like a modern America, but for the moment it’s either good or bad, and slowly but surely it’s working on the ugly, trying to find that middle ground.