Remember those dioramas of the future from places like the GM Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair or the Carousel of Progress at Disneyland? Lots of tall skyscrapers, broad avenues, and elevated railways zipping people to and fro.
All it takes is a little oil money and a lot of drive and you can make the future come true. Driving around Dubai has that feel.
From the top of the world’s tallest building (the 2716-foot Burj Khalifa from whose observation deck the dozens of nearby mere 80-story buildings look puny) to the impressive aquarium wall in the world’s largest mall (the Mall of Dubai) to the enormous indoor ski dome attached to the Mall of the Emirates to the plethora of high-rise residential towers at the world’s largest manmade harbor (Dubai Marina) to the impressive subway and elevated tramway system . . . well, you get the picture. This is a town that proves the future can be anything we want it to be—as long as you add some air conditioning and desalinated water.
We arrived at this future by traveling slowly up the Persian Gulf. In Muscat, Oman, all the prosperous new development was firmly anchored in the forts and mountains of a site that felt historic. In Abu Dhabi, the little village from the 1960s was now overwhelmed by one that was completely modern and high-rise, but it still felt familiar as a city. But a trip to its Culture Island, where we saw plans for a new outpost of the Louvre (designed by Jean Nouvel) and the Guggenheim (designed by Frank Gehry), provided hints of aspirations to be something more. The quest to define the future only came to full bloom in the sprawling towers of Dubai.
Dubai was a little bit like Las Vegas on steroids, minus the neon and gambling. The main show here is architecture on a massive scale. But as one of our fellow guests said, “Where is the soul?” It’s true. There seems to be little street life or sense of community. One largely moves from one air-conditioned pod to another . . . although the beaches do look lovely and the water appears inviting.
And the city does feel prosperous. I suspect we will be in for a quite a shock in three days when we reach our next port: Mangalore, India.
(One last note prompted by the Iowa caucuses. On these trips, I often wonder how some of my fellow American travelers maintain their sense of American exceptionalism [the biggest, the best, wouldn’t have anything else] after on-going conversations with Europeans and Canadians happy with their ways of life; experiences with the exceptional modern infrastructure of places like Dubai, Singapore or Hong Kong; or the pleasures of up-to-date airports of almost every developed city outside the U.S. Do they sometimes think we might learn something from the rest of the world? But since it’s best to avoid politics with people that you will keep seeing for another 60 days, I don’t ask.)
Robert adds: I have previously reported on the cool temperatures we’ve experienced so far on this cruise, thus putting a lie to part of our packing list of shorts and t-shirts. [Never fear, though: we will soon enough be in 90-degree-90-humidity territory.] Our day in Abu Dhabi reached a high of 63 degrees F. Our guide said, “This is our coldest day so far this winter.” Wait. What? Then again, their summer days routinely get up near 125, so I guess “coldest day” is all relative.
A couple of interesting tidbits learned in Abu Dhabi: It is the largest of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (the official name of the country since 1971). It’s also where most of the oil comes from, but that is also a recent development. Before the discovery of their oil deposits, the primary economy really blew my mind—pearl diving. I know. Who would’ve guessed? But further—what destroyed the Arabian pearl economy? The introduction in the 1930s of “cultured pearls” in Japan.
We have noticed in most of our recent desert ports a faint fog/haze in the distance. It turns out not to be fog, or haze, or even smog. It is ultra-fine dust particles from the sand dunes. Not noticeable to breathe, but cumulatively makes a haze. While I’m mentioning the landscape, we have just finished sailing back through the Strait of Hormuz (you may have heard about it in the news), accompanied by many oil tankers and cargo ships. But what I thought was sort of interesting was that the land we could see way off in the distance on one side was Iran. We can’t tick it off our list of places we’ve been, but we sure can say that we’ve seen it.
Camels are still a big part of the life here, including camel racing. Just as with jockeys on horses, the camel riders over the years got smaller and smaller, until nowadays where the camels are raced with robot jockeys. Yes, you read that right. Small lightweight robots sit atop the camels, with robotic riding crops, all controlled by joysticks. Talk about a hybrid between physical activity and video games! And speaking of camels, there is also a yearly camel beauty contest. Our guide described it as “almost” as important as Miss Universe to the locals, and said that one of the things judged most highly was the loveliness of the camel’s eyelashes. I swear you can’t make this stuff up.
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