Dubai the cosmopolitan

What a change after 5 weeks in Africa! Just the airport arrival is defining how the city will be: warm, modern, big with endless corridors, hundreds of stores... + free-wifi, a good point ;)

Ok, so Dubai is a place I had to check as a potential city to move in for a new job. Well, to be clear, not sure it would be an ideal location for me... but the international and cross-cultural aspects of this city are interesting.

JBR beach with the Palm Jameira in view

The first contact with Dubai is with its marina and the JBR beach. Definitely not the scenery I was expecting. Everybody there is very relax... Friday being their "Saturday", locals look to come to enjoy the warm water and correct beach. It is only May and the weather is still bearable, around 35°C, so you can lay down on the beach and not be burned... Also, bikinis are clearly not an issue despite the muslim / conservative background (I am not complaining ;-).

The JBR beach with part of the Marina buildings

The marina in itself, though clearly artificial, is pleasant, organized around a sea-lake with a walking waterfront, bars & restaurant. The weird thing: you cannot get alcohol at all... only hotels will serve some inside.

The "twisted" tower, very nice!

View of the marina

Sunset on the marina

I end the 1st day with some shopping at those huge malls... Indeed impressive... it is crazy how many stores there are, and how many people do shop, in the 2 biggest malls of the world (Dubai mall & Mall of the Emirates).

View of Burj Al Arab from the Souk Al Bahar

 In the evening, random party across few bars / clubs with random people... Not bad, but actually I was a bit disappointed after what I had heard. After 2-3am most of the places closed, and the atmosphere in general was not amazing. May be just the wrong night & people, will have to do it again with friends!

Party around the pool at XL beach club

Day 2, I move to see Burj Khalifa... and clearly, that is crazy. 830m high, this is an amazing monument.

So tall that despite the wide-angle camera, it is quite challenging to make it fit in 1 pic as soon as you get close! The structure itself is nice, showing well an upward trend to the sky.

The access to the tower is representative. On the map, the metro station looks close... but once out of the wagon, you still need 10mn to get out of the station, then 15mn to reach the Dubai Mall, then 15mn to reach the base. All this of course in air conditioned corridors across the city.

From the top, the view is impressive, though you can only see the "city" and historical part of Dubai -the Marina area, being 20km South-West, could not be seen.

The panoramic view from the "top" is actually "only" from the 124th floor... with a super-fast elevator, riding up there in 1mn! Views on Dubai downtown and the desert or sea around are impressive.

The "world" of islands, still in construction

Picture of of picture of the tower and around

After this panoramic views, I look at the classic fountains show down the tower. Nice, but nothing exceptional.

The last day in Dubai was booked with a meeting, and unfortunately I was also sick (food poisoned...), so I could not see the other parts of the city. I will have to come back, now let's see if this will be as a tourist or as a resident... ;-))

So why "the cosmopolitan"??

Well, because 1 thing I found crazy in Dubai, is the international population mix. In 5mn walking through a mall, you are probably crossing 10 or even 20 nationalities, with all different colors, "races", religions and cultural background... Everyone dresses differently and behave differently... That is making it an interesting patchwork of the world. 

And while there is no (may be I haven't seen / felt it) real soul to Dubai, or deep local culture... I would bet that all these people living together in this special newly-created place will create their own culture at some point. Somehow, Burj Khalifa is already an example: they are showing the world than yes, they can do such amazing & crazy monument. Let's see in 50 years ;)