Dubai, 22 Sept 2019

The Dubai leg is over and we are sitting in the airport waiting for the flight to Venice. Dubai was going to be a 'stopover rest' but we gave it a good whack and were on the go most of the time. The city is impressive it sits like a city of the future in a post apocalyptic landscape: a narrow but longish strip hard up against the Arabian sea, and the other side a desert. The desert is more brown than white and a fine grey dust blows continually over the city. The city generates its electricity by oil fired generators and its water is desalinated from the gulf waters. They throw that water over everything including gulf courses, palm tree avenues and green parks, but with a bit of elevation you see where the water finishes and the desert waste begins. Any romantic notions you might have of the desert are dispelled by the searing heat wafting over the town and the flat dirty dustiness commencing at the cities edge. Dubai citizens comprise 20% of the population and the rest are on working or visitor visas. The citizens share in the wealth of the nation with first pick of professions, financial support into the chosen field of work, free housing, free medical care, free electricity, education and a raft of mega privileges. The men dress in pristine white gowns and arabic headgear, the women in shimmering black dress and burka. Their eyes are heavily made up and they lash through the narrow slit in their facial garb. The locals come across as insular, complacent, indifferent and did not interact with us versus the friendly 80% non citizens from every corner of the earth, there for the the high incomes and many with family back home. The proceeds of being an oil producing nation are lavishly and extravagantly thrown into infrastructure and buildings on the most grandiose scale they are capable of. Huge construction sites dot the city and all the talk is 'bigger and better'. A very sobering insight into the human race when you think it is mostly the product of being an accidental oil producer, perched mostly no more than a few metres above sea level but indifferent to potential sea level rise - they will sort it if it happens. We visited some of the grand sights such as 'largest mall in the world', tallest building in the world', wettest fountain in the world etc etc. and found it all very spectacular. Outside the heat, in the mid forties, was heavy going but the indoors are air-conditioned throughout so the outdoors were just a scamper zone between air conditoned spaces. At night there was more foot traffic as the city was lit up in fantastic high rise light and water shows, although the heat remained brutal. Taxis abounded, all sitting with motors idling all day, to run the aircon. Petrol is NZ$1 per litre. The malls were thrilling places to watch the procession of people, most exotic including much african especially arabic and moslem related. The same themes in the food which we loved; a high degree of vegetarian cooking and lots of exotic and spiced foods, often prepared in ways that you couldn't discern the original ingredients. Very fresh and healthy. Dubai appears to make nothing itself and buys everything in, and that means everything. Vegetables for example come shrink wrapped and labelling features their country of origin. As a result commodity prices are very high but locals probably don't give stuff as it is all irrelevant to their salaries. The car fleet reflects that with Mercs and Beamers being their toyotas, and bentleys, rolls, maseratis etc otherwise abound. We heard some of the sports versions in the wee hours of the morning, as the V12 maseratis etc were given a workout in the otherwise empty streets. Having said the there were zero police in evidence, my theory being that it is a very punitive culture and they harshly treat their miscreants, plus there are enormous financial incentives for the cooperating citizen, so that conformity is the norm and the risks af stepping outside the law are way too high. Thats my theory anyway, that conformity, peer pressure and self policing is standard. Funnily enough its not all bad, as they give a way some individualism but don't get some of the problems associated with wanton, destructive individualism. Wouldn't suit us though. One of our highlights was afternoon tea, an Arabic tradition, in the sky restaurant of the Burg al Arab hotel, a stunning futuristic building standing alone on the waters edge and Dubais only 7 star hotel. Two couples went each paying NZ$650 for the afternoon tea, which comprised of a glass of champagne, a cup of fine tea, and 7 courses of small bites such as the opener- caviar on a small bliny with a cauliflower cream and a sliver of gold leaf. We got a private car to drive us the 20km or so there (another $100 down the tube) but at least we got to briefly experience a life of gratuitous excess financed by the commodity (oil) that will probably bring the globe to its knees, in due course. The evening hour courtyard bars were interesting as people gathered to smoke hooka pipes, supplied at each table, although the substance being smoked smelt like the sort of stuff used in electronic cigarettes. Alcohol is not available in most places the exception seeming to be tourist locations, where our predilection for the stuff is tolerated usually with dam aweful wine list and a few spirits. So Dubai was a hyperactive yet placidly peopled city, a bubble in an unrelenting environment, insulated from that environment to the extent that the outdoors hardly mattered. The city could be on Mars and that's exactly what it looked like viewed from the top of the tallest building; aqua gulf waters on one side, then a soaring inner city of glassed towers, then the city outskirts a tangle of building sites and slowly waving cranes, then the desert with the far horizon not visible in the dusty haze.