Today Dubai tomorrow goodbye

The old fort
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So I landed in Dubai without a room.  After a very slow passport line I found my luggage and stumbled out of the very beautifully outfitted airport and into a lot of traffic.  I haven't seen this many lights for quite a while.  I went up to the convenient hotel reservations desk and said " What do you have under $100.00 USD?  He got me a 4 star downtown for $100.  It is too much.  I really feel odd at having such a room.

But it sure was nice to use the tub.  And they did have a shaving kit which I was in desperate need.  And they are doing a bit of laundry for me since I reeked through all my clothing on safari and have only the ill fitting underwear I bought in Arusha to wear.  Does that sound like I am running around the streets of Dubai in just my underwear?  Now that would be a Middle Eastern nightmare.

part of the pearl diving display in the Dubai museum
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From the great vast Serengeti to the densely busy bustling boom of Dubai.  Makes my little head spin.  Taxis have meters, internet works fast and doesn't drop you right when you finally make that connection.  Everything seems to be very efficient and warm in that cold business way.  I constantly come up against cliches and here I am about to state another one.  Efficiency is really nice and all but is there a here here?  For whatever Tanzania lacks it has heart and soul.  I am sure if I rub the concrete surface here hard enough I will find a lot of sand and not much else.

goods sitting on the quayside awaiting loading onto dhows
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Maybe that feeling comes from the fact that the vast majority of people are not citizens of Dubai.  They are all on temporary status.  You cannot get a passport and become a citizen no matter how long you live here.   So there must be a psychological lack of investment in the place by the many many workers from all over the world who have converged here and continue to come at the pace of over 300 a day.

Still there is definitely a buzz.  It is an all night town.  There is booze and gambling and prostitiutes.  All the things a small nation state can offer to its big repressed neighbors.

Our tourist boat reflected in the Bank of Dubai building
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After battling the hotel to get the same rate a second night as the International Youth Hostel was completely an International Youth Hostile and had no room for me.  I got out of the hotel and into the searing heat of 40+ c  and made a connection for the big bus which is a city touring bus that loops through a lot of shopping centers and some lame historical sites and one or two interesting spots.  There is an old fort made into the Dubai Museum which has very nice displays on pearl diving, boat building, spice trade, fishing, the beduoins and other aspects of this world including falconry and camel racing.

a commuter boat on the creek called an abra
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One fun fact from the bus.  The children jockeys have been replaced in camel racing with robots that continually whip that camel.  Something I wish I had time to see.

There is a creek that runs into the sea that gave Dubai it's port status and still serves the many dhow who ply the waters to load and head out across the Indian ocean to Iran, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc... delivering everything from cars to refrigerators to toasters and much more.  The stuff sits on the quayside in big piles to be loaded.

One of the hundreds of mosques in the city
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The list of future developments boggles the mind.  Giant domed cities, rotating buildings, vast medical complexes, an amalgamum of world sites in small scale like Vegas did but I am sure these guys will (as I like to say) outvegas Vegas.  It has to be the biggest, tallest, largest.  This town is all about being the est of the world.

And for some tiny spot on the map I sure have a lot to say.