Audacious

Dubai is audacious. It assaults your senses. It changes your perception of "normal". It is confusing, exciting, preposterous, over the top, incredible, obscene...... but I loved my time there.

I read that Dubai is borrowing $10bn to continue it's massive construction plan. It doesn't have enough oil to finance where it wants to go. And I glean from the conversations that I had that Abu Dhabi (the next emirate) is just watching what is happening and learning from Dubai's mistakes. Abu Dhabi is building but at an extremely slower rate and, it won't have to borrow money because it has more than enough oil of it's own to finance whatever it decides to do.

I think that the Middle East is happy to let Dubai get on with it. Dubai is the Middle East's playground. In places, the emirate is a bit like Disneyland and Las Vegas. The tourist areas are false, but the finance areas that are being built are so different. They are built to impress, show off wealth, money and investment. After all, that's what Dubai is about.

I admire the modern architecture that you find there. The new hotels, office blocks, residential areas are pushing the boundaries with architecture. They are building the world's largest tower , which will over take the Taipei 101 building. It is already over 100 stories tall and it's final height is still a secret although locals reckon on it being around 190 stories high. You don't appreciate the height of the building because there aren't any other towers close by with which to compare.

Want to see how it currently compares to existing tall buildings? Click here.

Today, it is one of the hottest places to holiday...... and if you go between May and October it is literally one of the hottest places to go - 40 degrees with 90% humidity. It is better to stay indoors in summer. But is Dubai cheapening itself? The reason why I ask the question is because holidays to Dubai are now being given away as prizes to TV quiz shows etc. What a shame.