Wes@Play - A One-Day Architectural Tour of Dubai

I was sent to work in Pune, India from July 6 to August 14. I asked our travel agent, Vineta (who is AMAZING), to book me on Emirates Airlines since they had a good fare, one of the shortest flight durations, and there was a stop in Dubai going and coming back. She said "I don't think that's right" but I had already decided.

The flight from SFO was pretty standard, except that I upgraded myself to business class. While I was waiting for my flight to Mumbai, I saw dozens of men walking around in these amazing white robes, which I would later learn were called "kanduras". I decided then that I had to have one.

Coming Back

Six weeks later, my return trip started at Mumbai Airport or more accurately Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Mumbai's international terminal works exactly opposite of most major airports. The best time to pass through it is during the morning or afternoon. The Emirates check-in counter doesn't even open until 12:30 p.m. Evenings and early mornings (midnight - 3 a.m.) are a madhouse.

There were several men on my flight wearing kanduras. Short men and thin men don't look as good, as tall and fat men. The Indian woman seated next to me has lived in Dubai for 7 years. She recommended the desert safari, although I wouldn't have time. People from Bombay are like New Yorkes—no nonsense, direct, and helpful.

In Dubai

The Dubai airport is gigantic. It's shaped like a cigar with the highest point in the center.

The luggage area is enormous with a 40' high ceiling supported by massive white pillars.

The small Jurmeirah office is outside of customs, and for some reason my flight details didn't make it to them, so I had to wait for a car. They arranged a driver with a sparkling gray 7-series BMW.

The skyline is dramatic. The Burj Dubai looks like a special effect. In the haze, it just looks too tall and oddly shaped to be real. Even when you're close to it. the feeling is that it's engineering that has blurred with magic.

The Emirates Tower Hotel

The Emirates Towers are smaller than they appear to be in photos. You can walk across one face of the building in about 7 seconds. It looks like the hotel packages are working; the lobby is full of young European and American tourists. Dress is casual, although it is the weekend. When I arrived, they had me wait in the lounge on the 42nd floor because my room wasn't clened. The lounge has a view of the sea so I watched the sunset over the row of skyscrapers along Sheik Zayad Road. The lounge has two-story windows and is chummy if not grand. The check-in person actually walked me up and put me at a table so I could hae some snacks.

I'm having a smoke now in in the smokng section. My eyes are starting to close because I got maybe four hours of sleep last night, plus an hour on the plane. There are a couple of men discussing Australian investments in Duba. Most are groups or single businessmen.

The heat outside isn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be. It's definitely like Sacramento: dry, but not oven-like. Everytihng is new, sihiny, and ultramodern. The metro that opens Sept 9 is actually above ground near the airport,. The stations appear to swallow the tracks like giant carp.

It's 9 p.m. now, and sun has completely gone down. Still gradually falling asleep. I asked for an update on my room, and they said that except for some "amenities" everything was ready, so she gave me my key to 2401. That's wrong, I thought. They had switched me to an Apex suite instead of the Summit suite. She asked if I'd like to go to the room while she straighted out my reservation, so I did.

The elevators are amazing. They're very fast, but there's no "rollercoaster" dropping sensation when accelerating or slowing. The fact that the wall and the elevators are glass is a little disconcerting if you have a fear of heights, but the ride is great fun. The counterweights go whizzing by and since the entire thing is glass, it's really a spectacle.

The Apex suite is pretty spectacular. The photos on the hotel website make it look like the entire suite is triangular, but only the bedroom is. There are two plate glass windows that meet to form a corner. The drapes open and close (hoisily) at the flick of a switch. In the corner is a console with an old-fashioned television on a powered riser (TV go up, TV go down).

For some unknown reason, they've chosen the dowdiest possible pillows for the living room couch, which looks very dated. The rest of the furniture looks to be from the 90s, but still looks handsome in a corporate way. The living room is a complex shape since the dining area is rounded, but the sitting area and desk are square. There's a large cart with a pod espresso machine, an elecric kettle, an assortment of teas, hot chocolate, etc.. The desk has a combo printer/fax ombo device, and the wired boardband connection.

Wireless works very well, and magically doesn't require a log-in. Nice.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Slept fantastically. Up at 8:30, called Scott and showed him the room, then up to breakfast. They have a selection of breads, eggs to order, and cereal, all of which I skipped. The traditional fare is hummus, pita, yummy calamata olives, as well as dried and fresh fruits.

It's a bit other-worldly being in a buffet line with women completely covered except for their eyes. It's funnier when they swear.

The elevator security system has most guests stumped and frustrated. People are missing their floors, and the card reader is fairly high up, so short people have to stretch, and the "card accepted" light isn't very obvious so people miss the blue light.

Went shopping for a kandura in the Satwa district where the Pakistani tailors are according to the concierge, who also said that a made-to-measure kandura would take 3-5 hours. The tailor I went to said 20 days. Uh. The other tailor I tried just sent me away until after lunch, and didn't really speak English, so it's moot.. I ended up buying only one at Al Madani Group of Tailors because they have a limited selection. They showed me how to wear the gutra and egal. It has a long kerkusha, the small ropey tassel in the front that hangs from the collar. I also bought two sets of headwear, an egal with a fancy dangling decoration, a kafiyeh, and a white gutra.

The heat is not that bad, certainly better than Sacramento or Phoenix in August or Hyderabad in July.. There's a warm breeze, so if you can find a space between buildings it's certainly bearable. As in India, male body odor seems to be ignored, but of course I kept thinking "is that me?" Staying in the shade does not help.

Aigner men's products are awesome. There's every unguent you can think of in the room, including the weirdest body scrub that seems to contain pieces of sandy grit. I've never smelled better, and the huge bags under my eyes are unpacking.

Dubai Mall

I don't think anything could be a better exemplar of consumer culture. When I walked in from the taxi drop, I thought that Dubai had made a mistake. The narrow tent-covered gallery was spectacular, but the air was thick and hot, the lighting was bad, and there was a strange rushing of exhaust vents. And then I realized I was looking at the space between the parking garage and the mall. When you enter as I did, you're overwhelmed by the music and the glass and the gigantic ice rink and the 100' ceilings and the waves of people.

I immediately went to an information stand and asked where I could buy a kandura. Through the gold souk (more later), past the aquarium, downstairs. I missed the aquarium somehow, but found the Arabic Court, which is where I bought a kandura for Scott with a kurkusha, two faneelas (basically white coltton t-shirts you wear underneath (I'm assuming to stop sweat marks), white stretch-waist pants you also wear underneath, and another kandura for me with a collar. For readymade kanduras, I highly recommend the shop I went to. While I'm sure they thought my interest was strange, I'm sure they've seen enough tourists to tolerate it.

Anyway, the Dubai mall is just one overwhelming, over-the-top moment after another. Each gallery or atrium is slightly different, and the stores compete fiercely for your attention. Turn the corner, full runway kid's s fashion show. Another corner, 70' waterfall. Another corner the famous aquarium. And on and on and one. It made a hardcore non-shopper like me want to roam and explore.

After two hours of walking and gawking, I couldn't take anymore and fled.

A special note about the gold souk: a) it's not cheap, but they will drop their prices by a good 30%. Still, a $2,000 ring is too dear for me. Most spectacular piece: a sparkling, life-size bejeweled falcon sitting on what looked like a carved black marble gloved hand.

A good 20% of the people there that day were in the national dress, so I tried to remember the different styles men wear their gutras.

I also picked up camel's milk chocolate at the hotel gift shop. I'm kind of scared of it.

On the half-hour, there's a fountain show in the big lake in front of the Burj Dubai. The show I watched wasn't as spectacular as the Bellagio fountains, but I think it may have been because of the wind. You can see a huge cloud of mist heading right into the hotel that sits on the lake.

I really can't explain the scale of everything. If there's a dome, it's 80' across. If there's a skylight, it's four stories tall. I ended up walking about like a blissed out hippie. It's just so amazing. And it resets the standards for everything else I've ever seen.

The Burj Dubai is fabulously vertical. How many skyscrapers have great sightlines? This one was planned to be breathtaking, and has the right views to make it happen. Its setbacks give it interest, and the sheer height keeps you looking. It seems taller because unlike the Sears Tower or World Trade Center towers, you can clearly see all of it from only a few hundred yards away.

I really can't imagine what the new biggest mall in the world will be like.

Small notes

- No one has small bills or coins, but you'll need them for most taxi rides. The ride to the Satwa district was about 13 dirhams, and the Dubai Mall was 14.

- ATMs worked with no problems wherever I used them. 1,000 dirhams comes out as one 500 AED note and five 100 AED notes.