Dubai Today
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
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2
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Trip End
Oct 29, 2007
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Dubai,
United Arab Emirates
Monday, October 1, 2007
Rows of houses, two or three stories, apartment blocks ten to thirty.
The 'Sail' hotel, Burj Al Arab, 80 stories, and then the tallest:PHOTO_ID_R=dsc_0016.jpg
Burj Dubai, already 150 stories, with unknown final height.
Hardly slowed by Ramadan, armies of workers push the skyline ever higher
Toughened to work at extreme 120 degree temps, they are
bussed in from enclaves, or camp among the construction debris,
Sending home a pittance, counted as a Fortune in India, Pakistan or Philippines.
A dilemma - only one day to tour in Dubai, after a quick view of buildings.
Do we hit the Mall and Indoor Ski Slope? Or do we seek out the remains of Old Dubai?
We chose museums and walking along Dubai Creek (dredged out - not a creek now!)
We are from Buffalo, we sneer at a seventy five foot vertical drop ski hill!
There still is an Old Dubai, if you look:
Handmade wooden Dhows among the huge container ships,
Museums with Bedouin palm frond houses and burlap wind towers.
Short bits of beach, still with bathtub hot water.PHOTO_ID_R=dubai_2007_018.jpg
Ramadan, a time of fasting and reflection, but now, like our Christmas:
Buy gold jewelry for your wife! Buy a bigger SUV for the family!
Is it sundown? Dates and juice for a quick break the fast, then
on to the hotel, banquet hall now a 'tent' for sumptuous meal till midnight.
Everyone, doctors included, are drawn to the Gulf by huge opportunities.
It has also brought them closer to the Third World.
Al Arab Burj - $2000/night!
With Dave's encouraging,We think Yahia and Gertrude have seen the worth of serving the Nepalese.
They will come and serve in Ilam, In Sha' Allah (If God be willing)
Rows of houses, two or three stories, apartment blocks ten to thirty.
The 'Sail' hotel, Burj Al Arab, 80 stories, and then the tallest:
Burj Dubai, already 150 stories, with unknown final height.
Hardly slowed by Ramadan, armies of workers push the skyline ever higher
Toughened to work at extreme 120 degree temps, they are
bussed in from enclaves, or camp among the construction debris,
Sending home a pittance, counted as a Fortune in India, Pakistan or Philippines.
A dilemma - only one day to tour in Dubai, after a quick view of buildings.
Do we hit the Mall and Indoor Ski Slope? Or do we seek out the remains of Old Dubai?
We chose museums and walking along Dubai Creek (dredged out - not a creek now!)
We are from Buffalo, we sneer at a seventy five foot vertical drop ski hill!
There still is an Old Dubai, if you look:
Handmade wooden Dhows among the huge container ships,
Museums with Bedouin palm frond houses and burlap wind towers.
Short bits of beach, still with bathtub hot water.
Ramadan, a time of fasting and reflection, but now, like our Christmas:
Buy gold jewelry for your wife! Buy a bigger SUV for the family!
Is it sundown? Dates and juice for a quick break the fast, then
on to the hotel, banquet hall now a 'tent' for sumptuous meal till midnight.
Everyone, doctors included, are drawn to the Gulf by huge opportunities.
It has also brought them closer to the Third World.
Dunes still around this house
With Dave's encouraging,We think Yahia and Gertrude have seen the worth of serving the Nepalese.
They will come and serve in Ilam, In Sha' Allah (If God be willing)
Comments
god' s speed
hi hank and dave, be safe and have a great time. denny and ann
very nice poem and pictures
Hank, looks like everything is going well so far, that was a very nice poem you wrote. Here is one from Walter De La Mere, an Englishman and contemporary of Rudyard Kipling.
In keeping with the spirit of the trip,
Arabia
FAR are the shades of Arabia,
Where the Princes ride at noon,
'Mid the verdurous vales and thickets,
Under the ghost of the moon;
And so dark is that vaulted purple
Flowers in the forest rise
And toss into blossom 'gainst the phantom stars
Pale in the noonday skies.
Sweet is the music of Arabia
In my heart, when out of dreams
I still in the thin clear mirk of dawn
Descry her gliding streams;
Hear her strange lutes on the green banks
Ring loud with the grief and delight
Of the dim-silked, dark-haired Musicians
In the brooding silence of night.
They haunt me -- her lutes and her forests;
No beauty on earth I see
But shadowed with that dream recalls
Her loveliness to me:
Still eyes look coldly upon me,
Cold voices whisper and say --
'He is crazed with the spell of far Arabia,
They have stolen his wits away.'
Walter De La Mare
almost forgot
Cleo says 'Meow Meow', translation 'hello and travel safe'
John