May 3rd-5th United Arab Emirates....Dubai!

   There are seven provinces in the UAE. We visited three....first two don't count...a lot of sand and camels (no kidding) and  a perilous dune buggy experience that brought back memories of years of amusement park rides....as a matter of fact, the whole UAE experience was a bit surreal. First of all, from afar, Dubai looks incredibly similar to The Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz.

 It has a population of 1.8 million, but amazingly, only 17% of this population are native property-owning residents, others are work-visa renting residents from surrounding countries. Realizing that Dubai did not have the amount of oil reserves needed to propel its economy into the 21st century, its sultan began a massive push towards attracting tourism. The plan was to build the biggest, the tallest, the most modern and forward thinking structures around, including "reclaiming" land from the seas and creating island resorts. (And we thought the rising seas were due to global warming!!!)

The Burj Al Arab...reputed world's only 7 star hotel

View from atop world's tallest building..The Burj Khalifa

 From the early 1970's until the recent recession, projects flourished...many projects absolutely were stopped dead in their tracks when bank funding became an issue. It's part of what made the city uncomfortably surreal.

Geo & I saw our first movie with Arabic subtitles!! and G was more than happy with the super-size movie popcorn that was actually given to us in its own shopping bag.

The Dubai Mall was not to be believed with three story waterfalls and full aquarium....Bottom line: People everywhere enjoy a lot of the same things....another great place to visit!