First stop - Dubai: Part I

My original destination on this trip was Damascus to visit long time friend Tessa. The flight I got was with Emirates Air so I had to transfer in Dubai. I'd heard a lot about Dubai from Tessa and also Kubba, so I decided to stop off there for a few days to check it out. Imagine my delight when I found out Kubba would also be in Dubai at the same time, staying with his aunt and uncle, where I was graciously permitted to stay as well.

The flight from Seoul to Dubai was long - over ten hours. Since the flight left Seoul at 12:30am, I basically slept the entire way which was fine except for the tremendous kink in my neck when I awoke. Our plane landed a little late at Dubai Airport (apparently due to excessive air traffic) at about 6:20am. After walking what seemed like five kilometers to Passport Control, was undewhelmed to see HUGE lineups. Incrediblely, at this wee hour, at least ten flights had landed within a few minutes of each other, from all reaches of the world - Europe, Africa, India, elsewhere in the Middle East. What a busy place. After finally making it through and picking up my bags, I left the airport to find Kubba who had so sweetly agreed to come get me at such a painfully early hour. It took a while to find him as the exit from the terminal was a little chaotic, and I didn't notice him at first because of his big beard!!!

We dropped of my stuff at his uncle's house, and then went for a drive about town. First stop was the Emirates Mall, the fanciest mall in town. It also has the recently built Skidome. Yes you too can go skiing in a desert country! Amazing.














Next, we spent some time driving around, checking out some of the stuff that had been recently constructed or was still under construction - a good chunk of Dubai is completely under construction. Development is rapid and intense, often with workers building around the clock. This is facilitated by the cheap labour imported from Pakistan and Northern India. The workers are all noticably not local and there are lots of them.

A lot of 'villages' have been built recently, such as 'Media Village' and 'Internet Village'. These are concentrated locales, with Media Village hosting offices for companies such as Reuters, CNN etc. Here's a sign we saw that was clearly part of the group, but didn't quite work out what was to be found in this particular village.