Dubai:

If I heard it once today then I heard it probably at least 20 times…”this is the world’s tallest, largest, most expensive__________”.  Nothing in Dubai is small, modest, or inexpensive.  I think this has been such an important stop in our journey to study Faith and Money because it really sets the stage for seeing all the need in the world when you have been surrounded by luxury.  Dubai is clean and beautiful…but HOT.  It isn’t the South’s sticky hot, but as if you have walked in front of a giant fan blowing hot air onto you all the time.  It is oppressive.  It is so hot that the Arabian Sea was like really warm bath water…not quenching at all.  I took some really great pictures today of the world’s tallest building, the world’s tallest hotel, The Palm which is Atlantis resort in Dubai, the world’s largest indo ski slope, camels, Bedouin, belly dancers, and dune bashing cars.  But my SD card got erased…BOO!

Anyway dune bashing is crazy.  Seriously I thought we would flip over. We were in Land Cruisers with roll bars and we were flying over dunes in the dessert, doing wheelies, and throwing sand everywhere.  It is similar to going mudding on a dirt road, but dunes are STEEP.  I keep screaming…my parents never even let me go mudding on our dirt road!!!!  It was like a roller coaster in the sand.  After the ride we ended up in the dessert in the middle of nowhere for a BBQ dinner with a belly dancing show.  It is crazy to me that traditional women here must cover EVERYTHING…at times even their eyes…covered in complete BLACK head to toe…and yet for fun we will sit around in the cultural norm and watch a scantily clad woman irate and dance for us.  But I will say she was pretty amazing at it J

By the time I land in Calcutta we will have all been awake for over 24 hours…and we arrive in India at 8:30 am.  No rest for the weary!

I will say that Dubai is certainly a place to come for those looking to indulge and satisfy their whims and needs.  Tourism has now surpassed oil here for their revenue.  And surprisingly this country is about 40-50 years old.  The massive building campaign began about 5 years ago.  All we have heard is that 5 or 6 years ago none of these huge building were here.  Oil cost less here than water.  And we have learned that their supply of oil will run out in around 4 -5 more years…so they are counting on tourism staying the primary economic stimulus. 

Makes me wonder though.  We have talked so much at church about wealth not being bad, but it does matter what you do with it.  When asked where the poor are in Dubai our guide told us…there is no poor in Dubai.  I wish that some of the lavish wealth they have here could be used to alleviate the utter poverty of their neighbor countries.

Write ya in India next!