Dubai

Alright, so internet in hotel is real funky, only works with safari and wants all arabic characters. So I am trying my best to post this. Arrived from London this morning at 730 local time. Breezed through customs and walked from the cool airport and was struck by the Dubai HEAT! I could immediately feel my body getting sticky waiting for my bus to my hotel. Room is very nice and will try to post some pics. After getting settled I made the poor decision of walking to the Burj from my hotel during lunch time. The sun was at its peak and over 110. I was sweating like a pig but understood the buildings and planning of the city much better. Everyone talks about how great the architecture is here, and the noteworthy buildings are impressive and spectacular but for the most part they are poorly designed and do little for the environment or the occupants. The planning is even worse. The city has no sidewalks, forcing me to run across lanes of traffic. There is a funny story that goes along with that. Planning... right, absolutely terrible, there is nothing linking these buildings together and the roads separate them. There is no cohesiveness and I find that people only move from the interiors of these conditioned spaces to their cars and back into more conditioned spaces. Dubai is for the visitor who wants to enjoy one solitary resort and not leave that space. I do complement their strides, however, with trying to create more mass public transit and construction of metro lines. Hopefully this will mitigate some of these problems. This can only be applied to my walk today, which covers a small portion of dubai so far.

So my story... I filled up my quarter gallon water bottle with ice cold water before leaving and within 10 minutes of walking I was sweating like a pig and my water bottle was way too warm. Before even getting half way I was out of water and bought a gallon of lemonade for $1 which was soo refreshing. The buildings improved along the walk but the sidewalks became nonexistent, and pedestrian circulation was limited in order to control entry. When I neared the Burj (across the street from it), it became impossible to cross the road because of the 10 lanes of highway traffic and I was walking on the edge of road. I soon noticed two men following me also dripping with sweat. They asked me how they could cross and see the Burj, so we teamed up in our efforts. After much running and darting among cars we gave in to a taxi who was probably one of the worst ever. A 2 minute ride turned into a 30 minute ordeal where he thought we wanted to go up the Burj (tallest building in world and still growing) in his cab! He takes us through a series of construction checkpoints until we are within spitting distance of the building. Very amazing building and experience to say the least. I spent quite some time recovering in the dubai mall checking out the aquarium and shops. Being stubborn, I decided to walk back as well but found myself dehydrated on several occasions and had to buy multiple bottles of water, which instantly became warm when leaving the supermarkets. I have never experienced such heat in my life. I spent some time after recovering in my room and in the pool.

In the evening I met up with Kaylee and we walked to the creek and saw some of the historic buildings as well as ate dinner. I ate an Araise, which was thin grilled slices of beef wrapped with a tortilla like break with yogurt and greek salad. It was a delicious Lebanese dish.

I hope to post some pics but I am sorry if not. Pics of Burj al Arab tomorrow and meetings with architectural firm!