Preparation for Dubai

We had a port lecturer yesterday for Dubai (which we visit tomorrow).

Dubai got its wealth from oil, but they had the vision to see beyond when their oil runs out. (The lecturer claims this is only ten years out for them…I’m not sure I buy that.)

Anyway, they started to invest and build against the objective to become a major (read that to mean “the major”) factor in the area in commerce and tourism. Everything they build is thus done against the objective of being the “largest on the planet.”

Originally they had only 50 miles of coast line. They fixed this by building islands and peninsulas with highly reticulated (undulating) edges. By doing this, they have increased their coast line from 50 miles to 600 miles.

They have succeeded in the transition (so far). They now claim they only get 10% of their income from oil, compared to 20% for trade and 70% from commerce.

They say that the total inhabitants of Dubai today is 75% male and 25% female. This is due to the huge number of construction workers who are “temporaries” that are men without their wives along.

Some of the “largest on the planet” items that the lecturer claimed for Dubai:

1) The tallest building. It is 210 stories tall, and due to open 9/9/09. It is now “topped off,” but still needs to be finished out. When they were building upward, they would add one story every 3 days. They had 8,000 workers during the day, and 3,000 during the nights through this period. (There are no unions or environmental clearances…they just do, for better or worse, what the officials have agreed to.)
2) Indoor show ski slope. Year-round snow skiing in the desert on slopes for 4 different skill levels.
3) Largest shopping mall. They have a total of 24 malls. The largest is now open, but a bigger one is already under construction.
4) Largest airport (under construction). The busiest airport today handles 80,000,000 passengers per year. The one being built in Dubai is designed for and expected to handle 120,000,000 per year.
5) Largest sea port…both cargo and passenger.
6) Largest underwater walkway aquarium.
7) There was something about the new opera house that would make this list, but I’m doing this from memory without notes.

Dubai opens one new 5-star hotel every week!

We have a private tour set up for us. It looks like we will visit most all of these places. We did an “add on” to the tour that has us doing tea and finger sandwiches at the top of the Burj Al Arab hotel. (This doubled the tour cost!) This is the hotel that looks like a giant sail boat, has a tennis court on the top floor next to the helipad (they filmed a commercial with two top pro tennis players up there…with balls going over the edges!), the “tallest on the planet” lobby (18-stories high).

This hotel was built on a manmade pad in the water. It is a 7-star (whatever that means) hotel. Room can go for $5,000 a night. You cannot even walk into the hotel without paying something. They spend over $1,000,000 per year on flowers for the rooms.

As an engineer, I’m looking forward to this visit…the Burj, the palms island, the world islands, and all of the over-the-top structures.