A few thoughts on what’s going on here in Dubai.

--Yesterday evening we went to a new mall here--there are A LOT of malls in Dubai--that stands out because the façade is constructed to look like an Italian village. There are pillars and houses and all sorts of crap like that all over the outside. We walked in and it was hard to not feel like we were in Vegas, walking into a casino. Sadly, no poker room. Instead, we were greeted by the site of several Emirati men in white dish dash (the robes you see on Gulf Arabs) and women in black, faces covered, looking at what seemed to be a display of an American Indian teepee. I could have investigated , I suppose, but frankly, the explanation would only have diminished the thing. We celebrated by eating dinner at Chili’s.

--It’s still hot.

--There are a lot of American ripoff stores and restaurants here--the two most notable are “Safestway” grocery store, and “DFC”--that is, “Damascus Fried Chicken”. I’ll get pictures and post them at some point.

--The neighborhood we live in is odd. The houses, all behind walls, are generally huge, new and shiny. Everywhere outside the walls, however, is sand. It’s evocative of a less-wealthy neighborhood with vacant lots covered in scrub and dirt. Except that it’s sand. It reminds me that this place--and by “this place” I mean “Dubai”--didn’t exist in anything comparable to its present manifestation even as recently as fifteen or twenty years ago. This is the desert, baby.

--Yesterday evening we drove past the Burj-Al-Arab hotel.

It’s a big mother. The tallest hotel in the world, only a couple of hundred feet shorter than the Empire State Building, the Burj is on an artificial island 200 meters off of the coast into the Arabian Sea. I was stunned at its size--most tall building are surrounded by other tall buildings, but since this one is in the water all by itself, it just looks massive. Massively massive. Evidently, the World Trade Center in Dubai--no small building--could fit entirely in the atrium of the Burj. I’ve been reading a bit about the hotel, because it’s one of the fanciest of the fancy-pants in the world. Check this out:

*You arrive at the hotel in one of two ways--helicopter onto the heli-pad, or be chauffeured in a Rolls Royce.

*There are only suites.

*There’s a seafood restaurants that you get to by taking a submarine.

*The “Club Suite” for two adults, complete with bar and snooker table, is almost two grand a night during the high season. The “Royal Suite” is six grand.

We’ll go for a pricey meal at some point. Look for some personal takes on that.

--Confused, because the weekend is Thursday and Friday here. Melissa starts work tomorrow.

More later.